Who holds the ground, and how little of it there is
Of 1,391,067 federal acres in Louisiana, the Forest Service holds 608,478, the Fish and Wildlife Service 593,219, the Department of Defense 162,842, the National Park Service 21,145 and the Bureau of Land Management 5,383. That last figure matters for a driver arriving from the west: there is no BLM ground to speak of and no BLM route mileage recorded in the national transportation layer, so none of the habits built on open public land transfer across the state line.
What replaces them is a three-way split. The Forest Service piece is one forest, Kisatchie, and it is the only place in Louisiana where a driver may pull off a road and camp without booking anything. The Fish and Wildlife acreage is a long chain of refuges, most of them marsh and bottomland where the water is the road and a vehicle stays on a levee or a highway shoulder. The Corps of Engineers holds the reservoirs, the locks and the spillways, and it leases most of that land to the state wildlife agency to manage.
The state supplies the rest, and it supplies most of it. The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries keeps more than 1.6 million acres as wildlife management areas, refuges and conservation areas, which is more ground than every federal agency in Louisiana holds put together. On that land the rules are the state’s rules, and they are written in inches and pounds rather than in general permissions.
Source 1
Kisatchie is the entire national forest, and it is five separate trips
The forest describes itself plainly: over 604,000 acres in seven parishes, five ranger districts, and the supervisor’s office on Shreveport Highway in Pineville. The districts are far enough apart that each is its own drive. Calcasieu is the biggest at over 183,000 acres and comes in two pieces, the 97,000-acre Evangeline Unit near Alexandria and the 85,000-acre Vernon Unit near Leesville. Catahoula is 121,500 acres in the piney woods and hardwood bottoms north of Pineville. Kisatchie Ranger District, the one the forest is named for, is a little over 102,000 acres in Natchitoches Parish. Winn covers over 164,000 acres around Winnfield and the Saline Bayou. Caney is the smallest at 32,000 acres, up against the Arkansas line near Homer and Minden.
The Kisatchie district holds the terrain that surprises people. Longleaf Vista sits on a ridge above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness, and the forest lists sandstone bluffs, mesas and buttes along the 17-mile Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, where the road runs between 120 and 400 feet above sea level. That wilderness was designated by Congress in 1980, is one of only two federally designated wilderness areas in the state, and is closed to anything with an engine.
The forest also keeps the only real numbers on trail mileage in Louisiana: over 320 miles of hiking trail, over 230 miles of equestrian trail, and over 175 miles on four designated multiple-use trails that take off-highway vehicles. Two of the four sit on the Calcasieu district, one on Catahoula and one on Kisatchie. Winn and Caney have no off-highway vehicle trails at all.
Source 7
The wildlife management areas are the other map, and they are stricter
More than 1.6 million acres of Louisiana land and water are wildlife management areas, refuges and conservation areas run by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. They cover upland pine-hardwood, cypress tupelo, pine savanna, bottomland hardwood and brackish marsh, and the agency lists off-highway vehicle riding alongside hunting, fishing, canoeing and birding as things people come to do on them.
They are not open ground. Every one of them runs on a permit system that begins before you park. A free self-clearing permit is required for all activities, in two halves: the check-in half goes in a box before the day starts, the check-out half is carried on your person and goes in a box as you leave. On top of that, anyone eighteen or older needs a WMA Access Permit, which costs the same for residents and visitors. Camping in a state-operated campground on a WMA needs a third permit, priced per night per party.
Several of the biggest areas sit on federal ground the state manages by agreement. Bodcau WMA is Corps of Engineers land. Fort Polk-Vernon is Army and Forest Service land. Attakapas and Richard K. Yancey each hold Corps acreage inside them. That layering is why a single trip in Louisiana can need a federal map, a state permit and a parish ordinance in the same afternoon.
Source 29
Corps water, and the camping it carries
Twelve Corps of Engineers projects sit in Louisiana, and they are not the deep reservoirs of the plains states. Four are river pools on the Ouachita and Black, one is a lock at Old River, one is a flood spillway above New Orleans, and one is a navigation waterway on the Red River carrying five locks and dams and two visitor centers. Only three drive-in federal campgrounds in the state are Corps campgrounds in our build of the recreation database.
Bayou Bodcau is the one worth driving for. The project runs from the Lake Erling Dam in Arkansas down to the Bodcau Dam at Bellevue, and the Corps states 33,500 acres of land open to the public, with 33,640 land acres and 820 water acres on its own fast-facts table. A cooperative agreement lets the state wildlife agency use and occupy 32,471.85 acres of it for fish and wildlife management, which is why the same ground is Bodcau WMA on a state map. The Corps counts eight recreation areas, 40 camping sites, three boat ramps and seven trail miles in one place and over 50 miles of marked trails in another. The Durden Hills trail alone is seven miles of hiking and biking with loops and switchbacks, and the project holds one designated primitive horse camp and several primitive camping areas reached by gravel.
The day use fee is the pleasant surprise. The Corps charges up to $4 a day at its recreation areas nationally, then states that the fee does not apply to Bayou Bodcau, Wallace Lake, the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway or Caddo Lake. Those four are the Louisiana projects, so in practice Corps day use here costs nothing.
Source 23
Seasons: the calendar that matters is rain, heat and storms
Louisiana has no closing season in the sense a mountain state does. It has 0.5 freezing days a year on average, where a freezing day means a maximum of 32 degrees or colder, and 28 days a year at 95 degrees or hotter. Snow is rare near the Gulf and occasional in the north during polar outbreaks. The thing that shuts roads is water.
Rainfall averages 57.2 inches a year statewide and the intensity is rising: the number of days with four inches or more of rain has generally been above average since 1980 and was at a record high in the 2015 to 2020 period. The national forest warns dispersed campers that showers can produce five to ten inches in a few hours and that those same streams are usually dry by late summer and early fall. In August 2016 a single event put 20 to more than 30 inches on the state in several days.
Then there is the storm calendar. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, peaks on September 10, and most activity falls between mid-August and mid-October. Hurricanes strike Louisiana on average once every three years, and their effects outlast them: a Kisatchie off-highway vehicle system on the Vernon Unit has been closed since hurricane damage and the forest says it will need to be completely reconstructed.
The coast is moving as well as flooding. Subsidence and wetland loss have taken almost 2,000 square miles of land since the 1930s, and the southeastern part of the state averages only three feet above sea level. A road on the map in that country is not a promise.
Source 5
What Louisiana asks of a vehicle, in inches and pounds
This is the state’s distinguishing feature for anyone arriving with a truck. On wildlife management areas the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries does not describe vehicle classes loosely. An all-terrain vehicle is defined as not exceeding 750 pounds, 85 inches long and 48 inches wide, with tires no larger than 26 by 12, a maximum one-inch lug height and a maximum 12 psi. A utility type vehicle may not exceed 1,900 pounds, 128 inches or 68 inches wide, with tires no larger than 27 by 12 on the same lug and pressure limits.
The rule that stops most full-size builds is shorter than either definition. Vehicles having wheels with a wheel-tire combination radius of 17 inches or more, measured from the centre of the hub horizontal to the ground, are prohibited on wildlife management areas outright. Tractor and implement tires with R1, R2 and R4 farm treads are prohibited too. Above those limits, a licensed highway vehicle may still use the designated roads shown on the WMA map, and nothing else.
The forest draws its own line at 50 inches. On Kisatchie, off-highway vehicles may not exceed an overall width of 50 inches, tires may not exceed a one-inch lug depth, a Forest Service approved spark arrester is required year round on all forest lands, and sound must be muffled to 99 decibels or less. All cross-country travel by any motorised vehicle is prohibited year round, and all paved roads, gravel roads and Forest Service system roads are closed to non street legal machines. Motorized travel off designated roads and trails and outside designated areas is prohibited on the entire forest.
State parks are the strictest of the three. Off-highway vehicles are prohibited on Office of State Parks sites including back country trails, with a single exception at South Toledo Bend State Park, where riders need a state-issued permit, a helmet, a working spark arrester and a muffler under 90 decibels. Everywhere else in the park system the speed limit is 15 miles per hour and every wheeled vehicle stays on roads designated for vehicular traffic.
Source 31
They are parishes, and the word changes the rules
Louisiana is the only state in the country whose political subdivisions are called parishes rather than counties, and the Forest Service says so on its own page for the state. The word is not decoration here. It is the unit that decides where certain vehicles may legally drive.
A utility terrain vehicle may not be operated on the public roads or streets of Louisiana at all, except on a parish road a parish has designated for it or a municipal street a municipality has designated for it, with signage posted to say so. Parish and municipal governments may also prohibit the use outright on any road under their jurisdiction. That means the answer to whether your side by side can legally link two trailheads changes at a parish line, and the only way to know is the parish itself.
Burn bans work the same way. The Department of Agriculture and Forestry publishes a statewide fire danger map and a burn ban map, but state and local authorities both set bans, and the department states plainly that local parish or city rules may be stricter than the state’s. There is no numbered stage ladder to read from home.
Source 8
Scenic roads, and the ferries that finish them
Four nationally designated byways run in Louisiana: the Creole Nature Trail, an All-American Road through the southwest marshes; the Bayou Teche Scenic Byway through the south-central sugar country; the Boom or Bust Byway across the north; and the Louisiana leg of the Great River Road, which carries All-American Road status in this state. All four are paved, and three of them are longer than most national forest districts here are wide.
The Creole Nature Trail is the one that feels least like a highway. It loops 180 miles through Calcasieu and Cameron parishes across marsh, prairie and Gulf shoreline, and the Federal Highway Administration tells drivers to allow four or five hours to drive it or two days to visit it. Part of the loop only works because of a ferry.
The state runs three ferry crossings: the Calcasieu River at Cameron, the Mississippi at Plaquemine and Sunshine, and the Ouachita at Duty and Enterprise. Westbound costs a dollar per car and eastbound is free. The Cameron boat is a 50-car end-loading vessel with no length restriction for standard legal vehicles and runs from 1 a.m. to midnight; the Plaquemine boats take 35 cars and cap vehicle length at 51 feet. A long rig with a trailer should check that number before committing to the river.
Source 37
The federal units a vehicle can reach, and the ones it cannot
The Park Service counts five national parks in Louisiana, along with two national heritage areas, one administered national trail and the state’s single World Heritage Site at Poverty Point. They are small, scattered and mostly cultural: Cane River Creole near Natchitoches, Jean Lafitte and New Orleans Jazz in the south, Poverty Point in the northeast, and the Louisiana portion of Vicksburg National Military Park on the Mississippi line. El Camino Real de los Tejas is administered across Texas and Louisiana as a historic trail rather than as a road.
Jean Lafitte is six separate sites strung across south Louisiana, and its Barataria Preserve outside Marrero is the one with ground under it: 26,000 acres of bayou, swamp, marsh and forest with boardwalks and dirt trails, over 200 species of birds, and alligators on the banks. It is day use. Camping and overnight stays are prohibited, pets are confined to parking areas, and the preserve is walked rather than driven.
The refuges are the same answer in a different landscape. Sabine National Wildlife Refuge begins about 26 miles south of Sulphur on Louisiana Highway 27 and includes several recreational areas reachable by car, open year round from dawn until dusk. Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge covers over 15,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and bald cypress tupelo swamp reached from Highway 190 or Interstate 10 by Highway 975. In both, the vehicle gets you to the edge and the water carries on without it.
Source 42
Passes and routes
-
Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway (Forest Highway 59)Paved
Approximately 17 miles
LA 117 south of Natchitoches across the Kisatchie Ranger District, past Longleaf Vista
The only scenic byway on the national forest and the one drive in Louisiana that looks like somewhere else. The Forest Service calls the terrain exceptionally rugged for Louisiana and puts the road between 120 and 400 feet above sea level, with vistas of mesas, buttes and sandstone outcrops backed by longleaf pine. Longleaf Vista sits on a ridge with the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness wrapped around it on three sides. The road began as a single-lane track built by the Civilian Conservation Corps about 1935 and was rebuilt and modernised from 1972. 13
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle. Non street legal machines are barred from every paved, gravel and Forest Service system road
- Season
- Open year round
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Longleaf Vista Recreation Area
Interstate 49 at the Derry exit, south on LA 119 for 5.5 miles, then west on Forest Highway 59 for 3.2 miles
The one stop on the Longleaf Trail worth building a day around, and the rarest thing on Louisiana public land: a free, always-open site with potable water. The Forest Service lists no fee, potable water, picnic tables, a large parking lot, interpretive exhibits and day hiking, and allows horses and pack animals. The overlook sits on the ridge the byway follows, with the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness below it on three sides. The Kisatchie Ranger District office at Provencal is the place to buy a trail or day-use pass before heading up. 14
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle. A large parking lot, and dogs must be leashed
- Season
- Open 24 hours a day
-
Creole Nature Trail All-American RoadPaved
180 miles
A loop through Calcasieu and Cameron parishes from Lake Charles and Sulphur to the Gulf shoreline and back
One of only a handful of All-American Roads on the Gulf coast, and the one Louisiana route that genuinely reads as remote. The Federal Highway Administration describes a loop through marshes, prairies and Gulf shoreline where alligators and birds are visible from the car, with colourful wildflowers and cheniers shaped by salty wind. Allow four or five hours to drive it or two days to visit it properly. The refuge stops along it are open dawn to dusk, and the ferry at Cameron is part of the loop rather than an optional detour. 38
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle. The Cameron ferry costs $1 per car westbound
- Season
- Open year round. The hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30
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Bayou Teche Scenic BywayPaved
183.8 miles
South-central Louisiana along Bayou Teche, through Lafayette and New Iberia parish country
The longest of the state’s nationally designated byways and a slow one by design. The Federal Highway Administration calls Bayou Teche the most famous and most handsomely endowed bayou in the state, curling for miles through south-central Louisiana, and says a self-guided tour could take a half day to two days. The route is a cultural corridor first and a landscape second: the byway’s stated significance is Native American, Acadian and Spanish heritage along the water. It also warns that the attractions along it are largely private, so carry money for entrance fees. 39
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle
- Season
- Open year round
-
Boom or Bust BywayPaved
137 miles
Northwest Louisiana across the oil, gas and timber parishes
The northern byway, and the useful one for a trip built around public land. The Federal Highway Administration describes a route telling the story of booms and busts in oil and gas, lumber, transportation, farming and entertainment, and notes that the corridor takes in state parks, wildlife management areas, refuges, forests, national recreation areas and local parks. That makes it the connective road between the Caney district, the Bodcau country and the Red River, rather than a scenic detour off them. 40
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle. No fees
- Season
- Open year round
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Great River Road, Louisiana legPaved
2,069 miles for the whole ten-state route
The Mississippi River corridor from the Arkansas line down through Saint Francisville and Baton Rouge to the Gulf
Louisiana carries the Great River Road at All-American Road status, the higher of the two federal designations, which not every state on the river does. The Federal Highway Administration gives the whole route a length of 2,069 miles in its data field and describes it in the same page as following the Mississippi for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf; the two figures are measured differently and both are the agency’s own. Six days to drive the whole thing, ten to enjoy it. The Louisiana section is levee road, river town and ferry crossing rather than open country. 41
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle. No fees
- Season
- Open year round
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Sandstone Multiple-Use Trail
36 miles in three pieces
Lotus Campground off Forest Highway 59 on the Kisatchie Ranger District, with staging at Cane Camp and Corral Camp
Two connected loops and a cut-across on the district that gives the forest its name: North Loop 16 miles, South Loop 15 miles, Cut-across 5 miles, marked in green. Hikers, runners, cyclists and horse riders keep using it through the winter closure; only engines stop. Louisiana requires off-highway vehicle registration and a valid driver’s licence for riders 18 or older. Cross-country travel is prohibited year round, cutting cookies in roads and riding cutbanks and fill slopes is prohibited, and riders may not make their own trails. From Natchitoches the approach is LA 6 west seven miles, LA 117 south about twenty, then Forest Highway 59. 18
- Vehicle
- Nothing over 50 inches wide. One-inch maximum lug depth, spark arrester, 99 decibels
- Season
- Closed to motorised use January through April, reopening early May
-
Claiborne Multiple-Use Trail System
More than 70 miles
Loran Campground and day-use area off Forest Service Road 258, from LA 112 south of Alexandria
The largest of the four systems and the one nearest a city. Three loops through upland pine forest and hardwood bottoms, marked in orange: North Loop 31 miles, Woodworth Loop 20 miles and the single-track Boy Scout Loop 30 miles. The forest home page describes the same network as over 88 miles and the trail status page gives the North Loop as 32; the trail page’s own figures are used here and the others are noted. Camping at Loran is $10 per unit per night and trailhead parking is free. The system hosts a national enduro race, which closes it, and it shuts after excessive rainfall, which closes it more often. 17
- Vehicle
- Nothing over 50 inches wide. $5 per day per operator, or the $50 annual forest trail pass
- Season
- Open year round, but closes for special events and after heavy rain
-
Enduro Multiple-Use Trail, Vernon Unit
39 miles across three loops
Enduro Camp and trailhead off Road 442, reached from LA 399 north of the Cravens junction with LA 10
The Vernon Unit system, and the cautionary tale of the four. South Loop 5 miles, Fullerton Loop 15 miles and Mogul Loop 19 miles, all listed closed on the forest’s trail status page, which states the trail was heavily destroyed by hurricane damage and will need to be completely reconstructed with no estimated reopening. It is included here because Louisiana riders still plan around it and because the approach roads and the Enduro camp remain the reference point for the unit. Check the forest’s off-highway vehicle hotline before driving to it. 19
- Vehicle
- Nothing over 50 inches wide. Daily usage fee $5
- Season
- Closed by hurricane damage, with reconstruction required and no reopening date published
-
Livingston Multiple-Use Trail System (Camp Livingston)
34 miles in two trails
The Catahoula Ranger District north of Pineville, near Bentley and Dry Prong
The Catahoula district system on the ground of a Second World War army camp. The forest lists the Hickman Trail at 12 miles and the Little Creek Trail at 22, and has kept Little Creek closed for safety hazards throughout the complex with no reopening date published, asking riders to stay on Hickman. The Hickman loop is described as moderately difficult across varying trail types, predominantly upland pine hills. The district runs an off-highway vehicle hotline because status here turns on rainfall rather than on a calendar. 16
- Vehicle
- Nothing over 50 inches wide. Night riding prohibited
- Season
- Open where the district has it open. Closes after heavy rain
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Red Dirt and Caney vehicle camping corridors
Designated corridors on the Caney Ranger District and inside the Red Dirt National Wildlife Management Preserve on the Kisatchie district
The closest thing Louisiana has to the western habit of pulling off and camping, and the agency has drawn it as a line on a map. Camping corridors for highway-legal vehicles to drive within 100 feet of the road and camp are designated on the Caney District and in the Red Dirt National Wildlife Management Preserve, and the Motor Vehicle Use Map for each district is where they are drawn. The Catahoula National Wildlife Management Preserve on the Catahoula and Winn districts allows no dispersed camping at all. Elsewhere on the forest the general rule is 100 feet from the centreline of the road on either side unless the map says otherwise. 31
- Vehicle
- Highway-legal vehicles only within the corridors
- Season
- Open year round. Check the current Motor Vehicle Use Map before you go
-
Corral Camp, Cane Camp and the Kisatchie district camps
Primitive camps inside the Red Dirt National Wildlife Management Preserve, off the Longleaf Trail byway and Forest Service Road 395
A cluster of primitive camps that make a multi-day trip on the Kisatchie district work without booking anything. Corral Camp is described as a primitive camp inside the Red Dirt preserve, open to off-highway vehicle riders and to general camping, with no horse camping allowed. Cane Camp next to it is horse staging. Boy Scout Camp on the Calcasieu district is set aside for motorcycle campers and has no water, no trash receptacles and no restrooms. The forest states outright that it rents no cabins, so a vehicle and what is in it is the accommodation. 15
- Vehicle
- Rig-sized camps with no hookups. Corral Camp takes off-highway vehicle riders, Cane Camp is horses only
- Season
- Open year round, though the Sandstone trail beside them closes to engines January through April
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Bayou Bodcau roads, trails and primitive camps
From Shreveport 20 miles east on I-20, north on LA 157 to Bellevue, then two miles north
The one Corps of Engineers project in Louisiana with off-road vehicle trails on its own recreation table, marked at Corner of the Old Field, Cotton Valley Road and Kinsey Martin Road, plus an equestrian horse camp and primitive camping at Crow Lake, Rainey Wells and Della Field. Concrete boat ramps sit at the South Abutment East area, Ivan Lake and three bridges; the rest are rock ramps and slide-in launches reached by gravel. Ivan Lake is 520 acres and the most scenic water on the project. The Durden House environmental education centre is reached by turning off Bodcau Dam Road about three and a half miles in. 24
- Vehicle
- Designated roads and trails only. Off-road vehicle trails are marked at three of the areas
- Season
- Open year round. Reservoir levels swing widely, so low ground floods
-
Bonnet Carre Spillway off-road vehicle area
The Corps of Engineers spillway in St. Charles Parish above New Orleans
Seven thousand six hundred and twenty three acres of Corps flood-control ground inside commuting distance of New Orleans, and the only permitted off-road vehicle area in the southeast of the state. The Corps requires an ATV to be operated under a valid permit from the Spillway Office, brought in by vehicle or trailer, off-loaded in a parking area and ridden only on designated trails; its regulations state that use outside the ATV area without a permit is strictly prohibited with no exceptions. Blocking gates or roads with a vehicle is prohibited, and a separate signed permit is needed before hunting any game. 31
- Vehicle
- All motorised vehicles restricted to designated roads and trails. ATVs need a permit from the Spillway Office
- Season
- Designated trails open 4 a.m. until two hours after sunset
-
Louisiana Highway 27 through Sabine National Wildlife RefugePaved
Sulphur south to Holly Beach on the western leg of the Creole Nature Trail
The refuge begins about 26 miles south of Sulphur on Highway 27 and includes several recreation areas reachable by car, which is unusual for a marsh refuge this size. The Wetland Walkway is the stop that gets people out of the vehicle; the Fish and Wildlife Service describes it as somewhere to photograph an alligator or stretch your legs. Access is by automobile year round from dawn until dusk, and visitors are asked to observe local traffic signs, posted closures and prohibited activities. There is no camping. 44
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle. Stay on the road and the marked parking areas
- Season
- Year round, dawn until dusk, excluding posted closures
-
Louisiana Highway 82 and the Cameron ferryPaved
The Gulf-side leg of the Creole Nature Trail across Calcasieu Pass at Cameron
The coastal road only works as a loop because of this crossing, so it belongs in the route list. The M/V Cameron No. II carries 50 cars, loads from the end and has no length restriction for standard legal vehicles. Westbound costs a dollar per car and fifty cents per foot passenger; eastbound is free. The state runs only three ferry crossings in all, and the other two are on the Mississippi at Plaquemine and on the Ouachita at Duty and Enterprise. The Plaquemine boats cap vehicles at 51 feet, which is the number a long rig with a trailer needs to know. 36
- Vehicle
- A 50-car end-loading vessel with no length restriction for standard legal vehicles
- Season
- The Cameron ferry runs 1 a.m. to midnight, seven days
-
Red River Waterway and the J. Bennett Johnston locks
Five lock and dam recreation areas between Shreveport and the Old River, with visitor centers at Grand Ecore and Shreveport
The Red River Waterway, now the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, carries five locks and dams operated jointly by the Corps of Engineers and the Red River Waterway Commission. Recreation areas sit on both banks at the Joe D. Waggonner Jr., John H. Overton, Lindy C. Boggs, Lock and Dam No. 3 and Russell B. Long structures, with picnic areas at all of them and primitive camping listed at Overton and Boggs. The Corps notes that many recreation areas are still being developed. For a traveller crossing the state on I-49 these are the easiest legal riverside stops between Shreveport and Alexandria. 26
- Vehicle
- Paved and gravel access to day-use areas. Primitive camping is listed at three of the locks
- Season
- Open year round
-
The Louisiana end of Caddo Lake northwest of Shreveport, on the Texas line
The Corps operates the dam and the bank fishing at it, and states that the view from the structure takes in the largest cypress forest in the world. What it does not run is the camping: several Louisiana parishes operate parks on Caddo Lake, as does the state of Texas, and the private marinas and tour operators around it carry most of the visitor traffic. Plan it as a day stop off a Shreveport base rather than as a place to sleep on federal ground. 25
- Vehicle
- Day use at the dam. Parish and Texas state parks hold the camping
- Season
- Open year round
-
Barataria Preserve, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and PreservePaved
Marrero, on the west bank below New Orleans
Twenty six thousand acres of bayou, swamp, marsh and forest with boardwalks and dirt trails, over 200 species of birds and alligators on the banks of the waterways. This is the wetland a visitor to New Orleans can reach in an hour, and it is the clearest example in the state of a place where the vehicle stops at the edge: camping and overnight stays are prohibited, and the preserve is walked. Jean Lafitte is six sites in all, scattered across south Louisiana, and they are visited as separate drives rather than as one park. 43
- Vehicle
- Parking areas only. Pets may not leave the parking areas
- Season
- Day use only
-
Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge
Louisiana Highway 975 north from I-10, or from US 190 in the north
Over 15,000 acres of what the refuge calls once vast lower Mississippi alluvial bottomland hardwood forest and bald cypress tupelo swamp habitats. Highway 975 is the road, entered from US 190 in the north or from I-10 in the south, and it runs on the levee. This is the shape of most of south Louisiana for a driver: a gravel or asphalt line on a raised bank with the country on either side reachable only by boat. River stage governs everything, and the wildlife agency closes deer hunting on the neighbouring management area when the Atchafalaya reaches 15 feet at Butte La Rose. 45
- Vehicle
- Highway access to the edge. The interior is water
- Season
- Open year round, subject to river stage
Rules worth knowing
- Dispersed camping on Kisatchie: 30 days, five road miles, and not again this year
- Louisiana’s national forest runs the most generous dispersed-camping stay limit in the region and the strictest return rule. Camping outside a designated recreation area is welcomed across the forest. A vehicle camper may pull off most any road and camp up to 100 feet from the centreline of the road on either side, unless the district’s Motor Vehicle Use Map says otherwise. You may camp in a dispersed area for up to 30 days, after which you must move at least five road miles to camp in another dispersed area, and campers may not return to the same campsite within the calendar year. Sites must be at least 100 feet from any stream or other water source. The Catahoula National Wildlife Management Preserve allows no dispersed camping; the Red Dirt preserve allows it from a vehicle on specified roads only. A party of more than 75 has to obtain a special use permit from the nearest district office first. 10
- The Motor Vehicle Use Map is the permission, and it is reissued every year
- Motorized travel off designated roads and trails and outside designated areas is prohibited on the entire Kisatchie National Forest. The map that says which roads and trails those are, and which vehicle classes and travel seasons apply to each, is the Motor Vehicle Use Map for the district, available at every Forest Service office and on the forest website. The forest states that the maps are reissued each year and that it is the responsibility of motor vehicle users to acquire the current one. As of April 2026 the Forest Service can no longer add or update digital maps in the Avenza store, and when a paper map is updated the old digital version is removed and not replaced, so a phone map downloaded last season is not a defence. 21
- Kisatchie off-highway vehicles: 50 inches, one-inch lugs, 99 decibels, and no road riding
- Off-highway vehicles on the national forest may not exceed an overall width of 50 inches. Tires may not exceed a one-inch lug depth. A Forest Service approved spark arrester is required year round on all Kisatchie lands and sound must be muffled to 99 decibels or less. Headlights and taillights must work and must be used in limited visibility. All paved roads, gravel roads and Forest Service system roads are closed to non street legal machines, and off-highway vehicle operation is prohibited on public roads and road rights-of-way. Riding is allowed between one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset; night travel is prohibited. Day use hours at the trail systems run 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and quiet time in camping areas is 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. There is no mudding and no riding when soil conditions are wet. 16
- The forest sells its own passes, and the Interagency Annual Pass is not one of them
- This catches people who arrive with an America the Beautiful pass in the windscreen. The forest states that the Interagency Annual Pass, the $80 one, is not accepted at Kisatchie National Forest or at the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas at this time. What works instead is a Kisatchie Annual Day-Use Pass at $30, good for a year from the month of issue at participating picnic areas, swim beaches and boat launches on this forest, in Texas and at nearby Corps of Engineers sites; and a Kisatchie Multiple-Use Trail Use Pass at $50 a year, good on all four multiple-use trails. Day rates are $5 per day for each off-highway vehicle operator, horse rider and cyclist. Interagency Senior and Access pass holders get 50 percent off the day-use pass. Both are bought at a district office or the supervisor’s office, so call before driving a long way for one. 20
- Three permits before you set foot on a wildlife management area
- A free self-clearing permit is required for all activities on wildlife management areas, most refuges and conservation areas. It has two halves: the check-in half is completed and put in a permit box before each day’s activity, on the day, and the check-out half is carried on your person and dropped in a box immediately on leaving. It can also be done in the state’s check-in and check-out app or web portal. Anyone 18 or older also needs a WMA Access Permit, $20 for a year or $5 for five consecutive days, priced the same for residents and non-residents, and included with certain lifetime and senior licences. Camping in a state-operated campground on a WMA needs a WMA Camping Permit at $7 a night for up to five adults camping together, displayed at the campsite. Neither permit is needed by motorists passing straight through by the most direct route with no stops. 30
- Wildlife management area vehicles: a 17-inch wheel-tire radius stops most trucks
- This is the rule to read before loading the trailer. On Louisiana wildlife management areas, vehicles having wheels with a wheel-tire combination radius of 17 inches or more, measured from the centre of the hub horizontal to the ground, are prohibited. So are tractor and implement tires with R1, R2 and R4 farm treads, and the testing, racing, speeding or unusual manoeuvring of any vehicle. An all-terrain vehicle is defined as no more than 750 pounds, 85 inches long and 48 inches wide on tires no larger than 26 by 12 with a one-inch maximum lug and 12 psi maximum; a utility type vehicle as no more than 1,900 pounds, 128 inches long and 68 inches wide on tires no larger than 27 by 12. Licensed highway vehicles must stay on designated roads as shown on the WMA map, and off-highway vehicles on designated, marked trails: peach paint marks an ATV trail, orange an ATV and UTV trail, blue a physically challenged trail, purple a year-round ATV trail, and red the end of any trail. 31
- And a season: no ATV or UTV on a WMA from March 1 to August 31
- Louisiana closes its wildlife management area trails to engines for half the year. Use of ATVs and UTVs is prohibited from March 1 through August 31, with narrow exceptions for spring squirrel hunters on certain areas, for trails opened to reach fishing, and for the trails the agency designates as year-round. Use is also prohibited from two hours after sunset until 4 a.m., except for raccoon hunters during night take seasons. Leaving an ATV or motorcycle overnight on a WMA is prohibited outside designated camping areas. Camping on a WMA is allowed only in designated areas and for no more than 16 consecutive days, except Bodcau WMA where the cap is 14 days in any 30, and at the end of the period camps must come off the area for at least 48 hours. Sites are first come, first served unless stated otherwise. 31
- Corps of Engineers projects: 14 days in any 30, and designated sites only
- Federal regulation governs all twelve Corps projects in Louisiana and it does not vary by lake. Camping is permitted only at sites and areas designated by the district commander, and camping at one or more campsites at any one project for longer than 14 days during any 30 consecutive day period is prohibited without the district commander’s written permission. Putting equipment on a site to hold it for later without daily occupancy is prohibited, as is occupying a site marked reserved without a reservation. The one local mercy is money: the Corps charges a day use fee of up to $4 at its recreation areas generally, then states that this does not apply to Bayou Bodcau, Wallace Lake, the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway or Caddo Lake, which are the Louisiana projects. 27
- On Corps ground a vehicle stays on the authorised roadway
- The federal vehicle rule for Corps projects covers automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, mini-bikes, dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles, trailers and campers alike. Operating or parking a vehicle off authorised roadways is prohibited except at locations and times designated by the district commander, and taking any vehicle through, around or beyond a restrictive sign, recognisable barricade, fence or traffic control barrier is prohibited. Inside a designated recreation area, vehicles may be used only to enter or leave the area or an individual site unless posted otherwise. No vehicle may be run without a proper and effective exhaust muffler as defined by state and local law. That last clause is worth noting in a state where the forest sets 99 decibels and the park system sets 90. 28
- State parks charge per person, ban off-highway vehicles and cap the stay at 15 days
- Louisiana prices park entry by the head rather than by the vehicle: $3 per person per day for ages 4 to 61, free for children three and under and for seniors 62 and over, and $75 per bus. Camping runs $33 for a premium site, $28 improved, $18 unimproved and $9 backcountry, and the code caps campsite rental at $75 a night in any event. Camping is limited to 15 consecutive days, after which the visitor must leave for seven consecutive days, and no one may occupy a campsite more than 23 days in any 30-day period. A campsite takes six people and one camping unit, defined as a trailer with tow vehicle or a motorised camper with an additional vehicle, plus a tent or two. Speed on park roads is 15 miles per hour. Off-highway vehicles are prohibited on state park sites including back country trails, except on established trails at South Toledo Bend State Park with a state-issued permit, a helmet, a spark arrester and a muffler at 90 decibels or less. 34
- A side by side is legal only on the parish roads a parish has designated
- Operating a utility terrain vehicle on the public roads or streets of Louisiana is prohibited, except on a parish road a parish has designated or a municipal street a municipality has designated, with signage posted to say so; and except to cross a road with a posted limit over 35 miles per hour at an intersection. The statute defines a utility terrain vehicle as 50 to 74 inches wide and 700 to 3,500 pounds. Where it is allowed, it must be registered with the Office of Motor Vehicles as an off-road vehicle and display the state decal, carry liability insurance to the same minimum limits as a car, and be equipped with headlamps, turn signals, tail and stop lamps, reflectors, mirrors, a parking brake, a windshield and wiper, a speedometer, an odometer, braking on each wheel and a seat belt at every seating position. The driver must be at least 21 with a valid licence, and passengers may not ride in the open bed. Parishes and municipalities may prohibit the use on any road under their jurisdiction. 33
- Highway shoulders are for farmers, not for shortcuts
- Louisiana does let some off-road vehicles use the shoulders of public roads, but the exception is narrower than it first sounds. Three-wheelers, four-wheelers and other all-terrain vehicles not designated for road use may travel the shoulders of all public roads and highways except interstates solely for farm-related activities within a five-mile radius of a farmer’s farm, and the operator needs a valid Class E driver’s licence plus proof of a farm-registered motor vehicle or a sworn affidavit. Shoulder travel is limited to the hours from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset. Incidental crossing of a public road is authorised. Proof of liability insurance must be produced on demand. None of the section applies to roads and highways in Orleans Parish. 32
- Burn bans are set parish by parish, and the local rule may be stricter
- There is no numbered fire stage ladder in Louisiana. The Department of Agriculture and Forestry publishes a fire danger map and a burn ban map, and states that state and local authorities both determine when risk is high enough to impose a burn ban prohibiting open fires, that local city and parish rules may be stricter than the state’s, and that you should consult your local government before any open burning. Open burning means burning material outside on open ground without a container for the flame. The only legal items to burn are vegetation and ordinary yard waste. The national forest puts it more simply for campers: campfires are allowed unless there is a burn ban in really dry, windy weather, and it is the visitor’s job to find out which applies before lighting one. 35
- Two wilderness areas, and neither takes a vehicle
- Louisiana has only two federally designated wilderness areas, and the Forest Service manages one of them: the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness in Natchitoches Parish, designated by Congress in 1980 and described by the forest as some of the most steep and rugged terrain in the state. Wilderness designation closes it to motorised use, so the Longleaf Trail byway and Longleaf Vista are as close as a vehicle gets and the Backbone Trail is how people enter. Fire history there is worth knowing before camping nearby: a high-intensity wildfire burned 7,500 acres of the wilderness in ten days in 1987 and the Wrangler Fire burned approximately 6,000 acres inside the boundary in 2010. 11
- Plan the trip around hurricane season, not around winter
- The season a Louisiana trip turns on is not snow. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, its peak is September 10, and most activity falls between mid-August and mid-October. Louisiana is struck on average once every three years. The damage outlasts the storm by years rather than weeks: an entire off-highway vehicle system on the Vernon Unit is closed and awaiting complete reconstruction, and the forest publishes no reopening date. If a trip is being planned in that window, build in the possibility that a road, a campground or a whole trail system is gone, keep the forest’s off-highway vehicle hotline number, and treat published trail mileages as the plan rather than the promise. 6
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
