New Orleans is great for outdoor activities, which we tend to gravitate towards. Not only do the outdoors give the boys a chance to wear off some of their endless energy, but it helps keep us active while being able to socially distance during these COVID times.
We have found a lot of parks near the city. Some of them are walking distance depending on where you are, and some require a drive to get to them. The trails have varied from dirt to wood boardwalks to paved paths. One of the last parks we explored was Woodlands Conservancy. It is tucked between two schools off of a dirt road. There is a faded sign as you get closer, but we missed it the first time we drove by. The park has a couple of walking trails and one horse trail.
We got there a little late in the day, so we only took the Uplands Trail, which is a little over a mile long. It had rained earlier in the week, so it was pretty muddy in spots (all the trails are dirt). We saw a few animal tracks in the mud and found a tree swing in a clearing.
There are ten WWII ammunition magazines at the end of the Bottomland Trail! I am hoping that the weather dries out and we can hike to go see these. That trail is 5-6 miles long, so doing that in the mud does not sound fun.
Crescent Park is located near the French Quarter, right on the Mississippi River. The park is a little over a mile long. One of the entrances is by the French Quarter Market; it is tucked behind a wall, on the other side of the train tracks. If you are anything like us, you probably walked right by it and didn’t even realize it was there. There is also a parking lot at the other end of the park.
Two of the bridges you can use to access the park. The tall cement one has an elevator and stairs, and is by the French Quarter Market.
The park has several tables and chairs, lots of lawn space for a picnic, great views of the river, and a dog park. There were a lot of runners, bikers, and roller skaters. There is a large covered concrete pavilion of sorts on the French Market side where kids were practicing their on bikes and roller skates.
Foggy morning. Same views: top picture is at the beginning of our walk, bottom is at the end.
It was extremely foggy when we got to the park. We were standing on the walkway right next to the Mississippi River and couldn’t see the water, much less the city. Eventually it started to clear up. Towards the end of the park, the skies were pretty clear and blue, but on our walk back there was still some fog closer to the city.
It was a really nice walk and we enjoyed the park. It seems like it would be a nice green space to walk and enjoy some beignets. 😉 (Note: It would probably be pretty hot in the summer, as there were trees by part of the path, but it didn’t seem like they would really provide shade for the trail.)
City Park is a pretty large park. You can drive and park there, or take one of the streetcars.
The park has a lot of things to do! Free things include playgrounds, walking trails, and picnic tables. Paid items include: Storyland park ($5.47, under 36″ free), Art Museum, Besthoff Sculpture Park ($5/adults, 19 and younger free), City Putt (starts at $10/ages 13+, $8/ages 4-12). There were also soccer fields, tennis courts (reservations/fee), and a dog park (permit required).
We really enjoyed walking around the park under the Spanish Moss.
On our last visit to the Park, we explored the Couturie Forest. It does not have a large parking lot, so you may have to park farther away. There is a little library nearby and a creek with a bridge to cross over. The trails are dirt/mulch. We did get to complete the arduous climb to the highest point in New Orleans: Laborde Mountain. It is a whole 43 feet above sea level! There were even chickens roaming around.
Walking around Couturie Forest: Trees, platform at top of Laborde Mountain, wild chickens, stick shelter, ibis
I would definitely get a copy of the park map on your phone before you go! It is a large park and we did not see a lot of signs with a map on them. It is a nice park to spend the day at.
Chalmette Battleground and Cemetery is another part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park. When we were there, the Visitor Center was only open on the weekend. The park itself was open until 4:00 pm most days.
It is a battleground site. This was our first battleground visit on our trip. There is not a lot to see: a Visitor Center, the obelisk monument, a memorial urn statue, and a plantation house. If you climb the levy, you can look at the river. There is a nice paved walking trail around the monument to the house. There is also a driving path (I did see lots of people walking it too) that leads further back on the battlefield and to the cemetery.
Pano of the Park grounds
The Rodriguez Plantation house is still on the property, although the second story staircase is gated off with a danger sign. We saw that the second story balcony was missing several boards.
The Park’s grounds also contain a National Cemetery, although only 4 from the War of 1812 are buried there. I didn’t know until after our visit, but there is also an audio tour available by calling on your cell phone (number is 504-799-0803 per their website) and there is also a virtual tour.
Cemetery: Can be accessed by walking or driving on the “self-guided driving” path
As a side note: Will saw one of the paintings featured on an informational plaque at the park in his history textbook. He thought it was pretty funny that the image included in his textbook had a National Park Service plaque memo that the image was inaccurate, as the river “was not crowded with ships during the battle”.
SUPER BONUS – Brought to you by the National Parks. Call (504) 799-0802 and learn about the Barataria Preserve.
We wanted to take a nice walk, so we headed to the Barataria Preserve (part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve).
Our first stop was at the Visitor Center at the Barataria Preserve (the Jean Lafitte Visitor Center in the French Quarter is currently closed due to COVID). Unfortunately, we went after work/school, so we didn’t get there until 4:30 and they closed the gates at 5:00pm. We took the shorter Visitor Center Trail, which took about 20 minutes. We really liked the park and decided to come back on the weekend when we had more time. There are several trails that were closed because of damage, so I would recommend stopping at the Visitor Center to see which ones are currently open.
Our second time there, Nick got his Junior Ranger Badge. We took the Bayou Coquille Trail and Marsh Overlook. The trail began as a dirt/gravel path and once you got to the marshy bayou, it switched to a wooden plank trail.
It was gorgeous. We didn’t see any alligators, although we did see lots of caution signs for them. It was probably too cold, as it was in the 60’s. We did see a turtle sunning on a rock, several great egrets, a nutria eating and swimming in the bayou, and a deer.
Part of the bayou was covered in a flotant, which is a floating mass of plants. It looks solid, but is not always strong enough to hold a human’s weight. It certainly looked like you could walk on it, it would be a huge surprise to find out it wasn’t solid and end up in the water!
Although I was disappointed we didn’t see any alligators, going in the cooler weather probably saved us from a few mosquito bites. And as a friend pointed out when they saw the pictures, probably from seeing a few snakes too. (I am glad we missed the snakes, especially since they have cottonmouths and copperheads down here.)
I could spend several days there. I loved seeing the Spanish Moss on the trees and hearing the different bird calls.
The park did a nice job with the informational signs around the trail as well. Several stops had an audio tour that was a great touch. You called a number from your phone and entered your stop number to hear the information. It was really neat (see beginning of this post to experience it for yourself).
There are a few other trails on the other side of the road by the Educational Center. We were told those trails are mostly dirt, so if it had rained recently they would be muddy. We didn’t have the shoes for mud, so we may go back another day.
We wanted to get out and take a walk, so we started looking for local parks. We found Audubon Park. There was on-street parking, and their website states there is a parking lot as well. You can also take the St. Charles Streetcar to get to the Park. The park had a a golf course, a great walking/biking trail. There were a few shelters and spots to have a picnic. There was a pond as well, but no fishing was allowed. It sits next to the Audubon Zoo and also across from Tulane University. The park itself was free, but the Zoo and golfing do cost extra.
Restrooms were also hard to come by if you are not familiar with the park. Shelters 10, 11, 12 are listed as having restrooms. (Two of which are on the same side of the park.) The men’s restroom was closed at Shelter 10 and while the women’s was open, it was missing toilet paper in some stalls and was ok in terms of cleanliness.
We really enjoyed walking around the park and seeing the huge live oak trees. We stopped at the Tree of Life (Note: It’s on the zoo side, not the golf course side, so we had to cross the road to get to that part of the park). It was planted around 1740! The tree was amazingly large and very neat to see.
We also saw The Labyrinth while we were on that side of the park. It is a two part maze, but is built into the ground, so there is no getting lost! We had a kind of sunny day, so it was a little hard to see the different colors of the bricks marking the path.
After years of poking ourselves with sewing needles, bamboo skewers for kebobs, or even sharp corners of the cabinets, you would think that we would learn.
Nope.
In Arizona, Nick touched the red fruit of a cactus. The fruit were smaller than a dime and looked soft, but there were still sharp needles on there! You just couldn’t see them as easily. We had just been researching about the prickly pear cactus fruit and how you have to remove the fine needles from it before eating. However, because they were smaller, I guess he thought he could poke at them.
In Texas, near the Japanese Tea Garden, Ben had a run in with a yucca plant. There were not any sidewalks from the Garden to the neighboring parking lot, so we we trying to walk in the grass area to avoid the incoming car/truck traffic. Ben got too close to a yucca plant and got stabbed by its pointy tip. We did some quick research and found that yucca’s have a toxin in them that create swelling. We keep a stocked first aid kit in the truck, so we cleaned it, put antibiotic ointment and a bandage on and gave him a Benadryl. It bled quite a bit for such a small hole. We changed the bandage that night and used Benadryl cream. It still had quite a bump for a few days and was sore.
We have definitely learned new things on this trip. For example, I had no idea yucca had a toxin and that the ends got harder as the plant got older.
For our stay in San Antonio, we stayed at the KOA San Antonio/Alamo. It was in a more of an industrial/commercial area of town, but it was conveniently located to downtown San Antonio.
The campground had RV sites (pull through and back in), cabins to rent, and tent sites. The campground is located in a flood plain, although I think it would take a lot of rain to reach the RV sites. It also backed up to a bike/walking trail. There was also a park that was within walking distance.
KOA San Antonio/Alamo allowed mail delivery, which was really nice. The mail room was next to the laundry room and office. The office had a nice store, with snacks, drinks, postcards ($0.25 each, the cheapest we found), and miscellaneous stuff. The office also sold ice for $2.70/10 lb. bag, firewood $7/bundle, and propane for $3.25/gallon (I was unaware that the “regular” sized 20 lb propane tank holds 4.6 gallons). The bathrooms and showers were open and looked nice. Laundry was $2/wash load, $1.5/dryer load.
The KOA offered cornhole (bag toss), a pool (not heated and closed for repairs for half of our stay), a playground and gaga ball court, and a fishing pond. The pond was catch and release and did not require a license. The office sold bait. You could also rent bikes and peddle bikes. The boys reported that the peddle bikes were much harder to use, as it was a single gear and the bikes were heavy.
Unlike the other KOA campgrounds we have stayed in, there were no planned activities due to Covid. The other KOA’S had indoor (which we did not do) and outdoor activities, and take and go crafts.
There was breakfast for sale 7-11am. When we were first there, it was limited to pancakes (unlimited for $3.99, but you start with two and go back for more). Halfway during our stay, the menu changed to offer more items. We loved the breakfast tacos (sausage, potato, egg, and cheese in a soft taco/burrito). In the office, you could place an order for pizza for order (Brother’s Pizza). It is made in the office. At home, Brother’s Pizza is connected to a gas station, so we were a little hesitant to try it. However, we did give in one night and gave it a try. It was ok pizza, not the best but not bad either. The crust was a little softer than I would normally like, but it was nice to have the option when we didn’t want to cook or go out.
The campground also hosted a Christmas Eve tamale dinner for free for the campers. It was held in the large barn (which had been closed for social distancing). Tables were set social distance apart, staff wore masks and spaced people apart while entering the building. Each person got a container with 2 tamales, beans, rice, and the option of water or tea to drink. It was a really nice gesture and also nice to partake in a Texas Christmas tradition.
The front of the campground was gated and you needed a code to get in at night, but anyone could walk in the back from the bike trail. There was a bike stolen while we were there (not ours), so I would lock up your gear. There was some train/road/air noise, which I did notice at night.
It was in a convenient location to San Antonio and about a little over an hour from Austin. If we were in the area, I think we would stay here again.
We wanted to find a new place to explore and walk around. After Googling for a little bit, Ben found a park with a 4.5 star rating, Brackenridge Park. It definitely earned its rating! It was a really neat area to walk around with trails, water, picnic areas, and lots of neat bridges and buildings.
It was on the San Antonio river, near the zoo, so parking could be a little busy.
The area had been used as a swimming area in the early 1900’s and there are still several buildings from then, including the Pavilion (which is gorgeous).
It was a really nice day to walk on the trail and around the area. If you are in the San Antonio area, I would definitely check it out!
Right now the timed entrance tickets are not being used. According to their website, there are some days near the holidays that the park will be using the timed tickets again, so check their website if you are going near Thanksgiving and Christmas. The website also stated that there was currently a limit to 1,000 people/day.
The Park opened at 8:00am, Cavern opened at 8:30am. We got there about 7:45am, and there was already a line to get into the Visitors Center. Because of the daily entrance limit, I would try to get there as early as you can. We were in the cave about 4.5 hours.
The Visitor Center had bathrooms, 2 gift shops, a ticket booth, and an informational booth (park map, junior ranger books). There were not any ranger tours (Covid), but you can rent an audio tour ($5). I would really recommend the audio tour, it had some great information and also could be useful for kids who don’t like to (or can’t) read the signs. The Visitor Center has some interesting information at the exhibits, as well as a model of the cave.
The Cave had both elevators and a Natural Entrance. If you can, take the Natural Entrance down into the cave. It was quite the view and experience to walk these switchbacks down into the cave.
There were no bats while we were there, as it was too late in the season, but it must be amazing to see them exit at night.
It is a little scary when think about how far down you are. Nick was listening to audio tour and pointed out a section with tiny stalactites laying on the ground. They had fallen in an earthquake. Of course, then I looked to the ceiling and prayed for no shaking or earthquakes because that would really, really hurt. (There were also emergency call buttons to reach the Rangers throughout the cave. It was paved and had guardrails throughout.)
Top right picture: small fallen stalactites.
When you finish walking the cavern, it brings you to the elevators and lunch area. They sold drinks and cold items there. We took the elevators back up (it looked like maybe it was one way). The elevator rose 754 feet to get back to the Visitors Center!
Recommendations: Bring a water bottle. (No food or gum is allowed, but plain water is.) Wear boots, or at least shoes with a really good tread (some spots are slick, some are a little steep). Bring a small flashlight: you can see some cool things, and well…what if they loose power? It is completely dark when there are no lights.
Jim White was the first known person to explore the cave (from 1898 to 1902). He saw what he thought was smoke and went to investigate what/where it was. The smoke turned out to be bats exiting the cave. How bored do you have to be to repel (because the Natural Entrance Switchbacks were not there), with a lantern into an unknown hole in the ground?! Seriously, it had to have been nerve wracking. He unfortunately, according to the Ranger Will talked to, never filed a claim on the cave/land. Miners came in to mine the guano and sold it to farmers, specifically to citrus groves. Eventually, the government came in and declared it a National Monument and then a National Park.
