Hiking in the Batavaria Preserve, Louisiana

Leaving Mississippi we headed to Bayou Segnette State Park which we have visited several times in the past. It is by far our favorite park to stay at to visit New Orleans. While we were hoping to explore the city we were still in limbo as we have to wait for our insurance adjuster to meet us to look over our RV for our claim. Since we have some cracking in what appears to me only involving the clear coat we were told they wouldn’t approve a windshield replacement until it was determined that there wasn’t any fiberglass damage near the windshield.

We finally got a call from the adjuster and he would be able to meet us on our last day in New Orleans. Fortunately he wanted to meet us in the morning so that left the afternoon to play. Having the appointment also meant we would be free the day before so we drove over to the Batavaria Preserve after lunch.

The Batavaria Preserve is part of the larger Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve. This section of Jean Lafitte comprises over 23,000 acres of Louisiana's wild and scenic wetlands. The trails we chose to hike would give us a glimpse of its bayous, swamps, marshes, and forests. Trails  in this area are a mix of boardwalks and dirt trails that snake their way through the preserve. Of course these wetlands, like many in Louisiana, were created by deposits from the Mississippi River.

There are some nice boardwalks there that had us floating above the swamps giving us a rare glimpse into the wetlands preserve. While we didn't see many critters we did some some interesting things. Most notable was seeing  North America's largest moth, the Cecropia moth. These giant silk moths have wingspans of up to six inches!

Their larvae mostly feed on Maple trees and are nocturnal so it was a real treat to see our first ever Cecropia moth. An interesting fact about them is that the nocturnal adult cecropia moths lack functional mouthparts or digestive system and like mayflies emerge only to reproduce As a result they only survive a maximum of about two weeks By the way my go to book for identifying butterflies is the Kaufman Field Guide To Insects of North America.

Our last day we will be so happy to finally have the adjuster to come by and look over our rig. After that we will go to the French Quarter to explore the city…

NOTE: We left Bayou Segnette State Park for a 15 night stay at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville LA where we are now…