Bayou Segnette State Park

[kjrjr]

Bayou Segnette is a state park on the west bank of the Mississippi River near New Orleans. My wife and I took the family to camp here in June and I have to say it was a mixed bad of the mostly good and a bit of really bad. First the good, it is obvious that the park has undergone a lot of renovation since katrina. The facilities were new and quite clean, the campground has free washing machines and dryers and the roads and camp sites are well maintained.

The presence of wildlife was neat. Every night around dusk dozens (and I do mean dozens) of rabbits would come out of the woods to forage. This was quite a site and the two year old loved it. The campground does sit in what is essentially an urban swamp so the other form of wildlife was the presence of dozens (and again I do mean dozens) of green frogs covering every vertical surface once the sun went down. One even got into the PUP and paid me a visit as I was trying to go to sleep. The really bad part as far as "wildlife" was concerned was the swarms of termites that met us on our first night. We must have arrived on some kind of spawning event, for lack of a better word. We arrived just before sunset and the darkness caught us still setting up. The swarms began to flutter around our lights and before we knew it, we were surrounded by thousands (and I do... on never mind) of winged termites anxious to do their part in the circle of life. It was unnerving to have them fluttering all over us and down the collar of our shirts. :eek:

The park has a wave pool and we took the kids one of the days we were there. NEVER AGAIN! We may go back to Bayou Segnette but the wave pool was a nightmare. First of all the park feels like you are in the wilderness when you are in it, but it really is an urban park. Consequently kids from the surrounding area could walk into the park and go to the wave pool. The problem with this was that there were hundreds (and I...) of teenagers who were there on their own. They were running, pushing and "making out" all around us. The life guards tried to keep order, but they were ineffectual at best. We later found out that there is a regular swimming pool just for campers that we used afterward and enjoyed much more.

I would recomend the park all in all however, just give the wave pool a wide berth and try not to be squeemish about Kermitt and family.  

[CajunCamper]

I know what you mean about the kids from the surrounding area coming into the park to use the pool. That was enough to keep me away from that park in the future.

CajunCamper

[johnson814]

A few weeks ago we went to Bayou Segnette Park to check out the camping facility and also found out that they were pretty bad. If you want a nicer experience try Fairview Riverside State Park in Mandeville, or Tickfaw State Park in Springfield. If you want to go a little further fro New Orleans try Percy Quin State Park in Mc Comb, Miss or Flint Creek in Wiggins, Miss. We have found all of these to have very clean facilities and are nicely laid out parks