If you’re wondering where one can go for a spring day trip from Lafayette, Louisiana, there are many beautiful and interesting destinations to choose from. Here are a few examples.
Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge
If you’re longing to explore the great outdoors, take the 35-mile drive from Lafayette to the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, which lies just east of the Atchafalaya River. This refuge offers diverse landscapes that include hardwoods, Bald Cypress-Tupelo swamps, and bayous, which are slow-moving streams. These various habitats house over 200 species of resident and migratory birds, as well as numerous other animals like wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, swamp rabbits, gray and red foxes, coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, and the American beaver.
At this beautiful refuge, visitors can enjoy various outdoor activities, such as hunting, wildlife viewing, paddling, hiking, and biking. If you’re into fishing, the waters of the river offer an abundance of largemouth bass, white and black crappie, bluegill, red ear sunfish, and channel catfish.
Avery Island
Another beautiful destination, which is just a 30-minute drive out of Lafayette, is Avery Island in Iberia Parish. Long before the Avery family — for whom the island is named — settled on the island in the 1830s, the Native Americans realized that the island is actually a large salt dome that was probably shaped from an ancient seabed, and started to manufacture salt. In the 1860s, Edmund McIlhenny married into the Avery family and started growing pepper plants on his in-laws’ farm. The pepper plants thrived, and in 1868 McIlhenny founded the now famous Tabasco pepper sauce brand.
Many years later, McIlhenny’s son, Edward, established the Jungle Gardens next to the Tabasco factory with the goal of creating an egret sanctuary. He initially reared eight young egrets and then released them to migrate to the Gulf of Mexico. The following year the egrets returned with other species and have done so ever since. The garden also boasts a 900-year-old Buddha statue and numerous exotic plants that Edward introduced to the island’s landscape, including Japanese camellias, Egyptian papyrus sedge, and many varieties of azaleas.
Henderson
Henderson is a small town that lies only about 17 miles outside of Lafayette. The town is known for its Cajun culture and excellent Cajun fare. If you like crawfish, you’re in the right part of the world as the town offers a number of restaurants, for instance, Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant, that serve delicious crawfish meals. Henderson is located in the Atchafalaya Swamp, which you can view through one of the many swamp tours on offer in town.
The Atchafalaya Basin Airboat Swamp Tours company, for instance, takes visitors out into the swamps on airboats, which are able to venture deeper into the swamps than regular boats. Once you’re back on land, enjoy a refreshment at a venue where you can view some Cajun/Zydeco dancing before heading home.
These are only three examples of the beautiful and diverse places that lie a short drive outside of Lafayette. Featuring natural beauty, historical sites, and a rich cultural heritage, the surrounding areas have a lot to offer and you will not run out of day-trip destinations any time soon.