Bogue Chitto State Park, Louisiana - July 5th to 8th, 2023
Bogue Chitto State Park in Louisiana is a lovely state park, with hiking, biking, and horse trails. The Bogue Chitto River runs through it along with ponds for fishing. As the temperatures continued to rise on our trip, we still managed to enjoy ourselves, working around the weather as much as possible.
Wednesday we drove from Natchez Lake State Park in Mississippi to Bogue Chitto State Park in Louisiana. It seemed a little weird that we were heading east to get there, since Louisiana sits generally west of Mississippi, but we keep forgetting about that little piece of the state in the south that juts over below Mississippi.
Before we left Natchez, Keith disconnected the Balmar alternator. He wanted to see if the squeaky noise we heard a couple of days earlier was coming from the alternator. We’ll keep you posted.
On our drive to Florida earlier in the season, we had stopped in Ponchatoula to eat lunch at Paul’s Cafe, but it was closed since it was a Sunday. Ponchatoula wasn’t exactly on our way from Natchez to Bogue Chitto, but we went to Paul’s Cafe anyway. It probably added almost an hour to our drive, but we wanted to try the cafe that people had so strongly recommended to us (Davis Bayou Area, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi - March 19th to 21st, 2023).
Paul’s Cafe is only open for breakfast and lunch, Monday through Saturday. The cafe has been operating since 1976 and seems to be a local favorite. The large menu is full of good, homestyle cooking. We both opted for one of the specials that day, red beans, rice, and sausage. There was an option to get two sides along with dessert. That sounded like a lot of food, but we went for it anyway. We both chose cucumber salad for one of our sides while Ann had the corn and Keith had mashed potatoes for the second side. Our meals also came with cornbread. For dessert, we shared an apple crisp and a peach cobbler. All the food was pretty tasty. Fortunately, the portions were appropriately small so we didn’t feel like we overate.
As we swung by the grocery store on our way out of Ponchatoula, a heavy thunderstorm rolled through. We pulled out our rain jackets so we wouldn’t get drenched. It was hot enough out that being wet probably would have felt good, but we didn’t want to get soaked. We haven’t had a good rain for weeks. It rained or threatened to rain the rest of the day. Unfortunately, it didn’t cool down enough by the time we went to bed to turn off the air conditioner.
We got an early start on Thursday and went for a hike. We were on the trail by 9 am, hoping to complete our hike before it really got hot and the afternoon thunderstorms arrived. There is a nice main loop trail that circles the state park called Gorge Run Trail. There are also mountain bike trails and horse trails which the main trail crosses periodically. A short spur trail leads from the campground to the Gorge Run Trail. The main trail is marked with a red diamond with a white outline, so it was easy to follow.
We started our hike right from the Bottomland RV Area where our camp site was. At the far end of the loop is a board walk over to Fricke’s Cave, which is a gorge containing two-foot tall sandstone spires. Unfortunately, the boardwalk was under construction and we were unable to see the rock formations. It looked like some areas had been damaged by fire and they were in the process of rebuilding the boardwalk.
The trail led us through a variety of terrain. The trail not only passes by the Bogue Chitto River in several places, it also goes by some ponds and streams in addition to going through the woods. All of the ponds are posted to watch out for alligator and no swimming is allowed. One pond had a little dock with a small covered area, so we sat down on the covered bench in the shade and ate a snack. We were hoping an alligator might reveal himself in the pond, but we only got a few glimpses of a turtle.
We brought insect repellent with us on our hike, but we didn’t need to use it. What we did need to watch out for were spider webs across the trail. Keith took a large one in the face. Luckily the spider wasn’t on his face as we saw some pretty large ones. One was just on the ground, but we saw about four or five large webs across the trail with each one having one large spider on it along with a much smaller spider just above the large one. They looked like they were all the same type of spider. Was one a female and the other a male? Our curiosity had us researching the spider when we finished our hike. It is the golden silk orb-weaver. And yes, the large one is the female and the smaller one is the male.
Our hike turned out to be 5.8 miles with an elevation gain of 272 feet which we completed in three hours. We counted it as hike number 33 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023.
After taking showers to refresh ourselves, we spent the rest of the day in our air conditioned Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO), out of the heat. Keith took advantage of the time to replace the fire extinguisher in Red Tail with an Element Fire Extinguisher (paid link). He mounted it in about the same place as the old one, on the cabinet next to the entry door. We have another one in the outdoor kitchen compartment, and a third one in the driver’s door. The predicted thunderstorms passed us by, but a couple of them visited over night.
Ann considered paddling the Bogue Chitto River on Friday, but then she chickened out. There is a canoe put in at one end of the park and a take out at the other end, about 4 miles apart. There is a good current, but there are no rapids, at least in that section of the river. What concerned Ann was the possibility of alligators, venomous snakes, and logs with branches under the water. We didn’t see anyone on the river, so she would be by herself. Her biggest fear was falling and getting stabbed by a branch sticking up in the water, with no one around to help or notice. And even if she was capable of notifying Keith she was in trouble, he would have no way to reach her.
Instead, we opted to get the e-bikes out and explore the rest of the park. We were gone only about an hour or two in the morning, before it got really hot again. Riding bikes was nice because we created our own breeze that helped keep us comfortable. The river at the beach area, and both the canoe put in and canoe take out, looked inviting. However, it was the view of the river at the little beach by the campground that we had seen the day before that looked a little sketchy for a paddle board, with lots of downed trees in the water.
Down near the canoe put in area, there is a nice splash park. Kids were there keeping cool and having fun. Families lined the ponds, fishing together. A couple of families were on the beach by the river. Tubing at the Park rents tubes and kayaks for floating down the river. However, it looks like they only operate on Saturdays and Sundays. You park your vehicle down by the canoe take out and they haul you up to the canoe put in and set you off in your tube or kayak so you can float back to your vehicle. They charge $20 per tube and $30 per kayak. It takes about 2 hours to float down the river in a tube. It’s a one hour trip if you paddle a kayak.
In addition to camping, there are cabins and a lodge. There is also a cute little Kid’s Trail. It’s a short path that winds around to different sculptures of animals along with signs trying to teach them about the animals and to get the kids to think.
Then we retreated back to Red Tail to get out of the heat of the afternoon. We’ve been making a lot of progress on our future travel plans over the past few days.
Saturday, we drove into the nearby town of Franklinton to check out the Watermelon Festival. The state park staff recommended it when we checked in. We like participating in local events. They help give us a feel for the people who live in the area. This was the first time they’ve held the Watermelon Festival in 20 years.
The festival was like a small county fair, with vendors showing off their wares and food, a few carnival rides, pony rides, a car show, and live music. We were there for the children’s hot dog eating contest, but they had all sorts of old fashioned contests scheduled, such as watermelon seed spitting, greased pig catching, frog jumping, and a turtle race. It was free entry into the festival, except for the rodeo later that evening.
We were there during lunch time, so we got our fill of pulled pork sandwiches, watermelon flavored fresh squeezed lemonade, and, of course, a cold slice of watermelon. After listening to the band for a little while, we decided we had enough of the heat and headed back to the campground, but not before purchasing a whole watermelon on our way out.
It was another afternoon spent inside Red Tail in the air conditioning, staying out of the heat. In the evening, Keith filled our fresh water tank about half full, so we wouldn’t have to bother with it the following day. While he was out there, the cover for the light above the water compartment fell off. So then he spent some time re-attaching the cover using silicone.
We didn’t mind spending so much time inside Red Tail. It is nice to have time to relax. Yes, it was hot, but we still enjoyed exploring the trails on foot and on our bikes. We love being out in nature, even with spiders.
Check out our related video: Bogue Chitto State Park, Louisiana
(Ann)