Our favorite things about our first Louisiana State Park

After our first hike with its questionable ending, we are settled into Palmetto Island State Park. This is our first Louisiana state park, and we definitely give it a thumbs up. Opened in 2010, this is a very new public park when compared to the many national and state parks we have experienced. Because it is so new, we are enjoying a long camp site that is wide enough to deploy the slides that modern RVs have. Good job, Louisiana!

On our last afternoon here, we decided to kayak part of the Vermilion River that flows through our state park. They have a nice spot to put in kayaks and canoes, with plenty of parking. Good job, Louisiana!

The banks of the river are lined with the signature palmettos here at Palmetto Island State Park.

They are also lined with a few alligators. It's always a bit of a thrill to be in an inflatable boat and so close to such big animals with such sharp teeth.

At times, the river widens into a couple different lakes. That's when we found this sizable gator.

Unlike the docile alligators at the last state park, these guys are not nearly as used to visitors. Instead of lying on the shore for hours, this one slid into the water when we passed by. We must say that we prefer watching alligators on the shore, rather than wondering where they are while sharing the water with us.

This guy was also moving around as we floated by.

At the last lake in our journey, we found this big gator sunning himself. He greeted us with a open-mouth-smile.

For some reason, that big "smile" didn't feel all that friendly. We gave him a wide berth as we circled the lake and paddled back to our car.

On our way home we paddled by several other interesting sights. Denisa liked this little turtle, precariously balanced on the top of a log two feet above the water. It would have been interesting to see how he got up there.

From a distance, we saw this bright pink bump on a tree trunk by the river. That bubble-gum pink wad looked like someone had discarded their gum on that tree. But when we rowed closer, we saw it was actually made of hundreds of eggs. We later googled "bright pink eggs on a tree" and found out that they were deposited by a fresh-water apple snail. We'll count that as another of God's wonders.

Our last wildlife sighting was on the bank as we were putting the boat away. It's a blurry picture, but this is our second sighting of the wild hogs that are digging up big sections of the state park.

We have really enjoyed our stay here at our first Louisiana state park. Another of our favorite features are the comfort stations. It includes nice toilet and shower facilities. But we really like that it also includes free washers and dryers. 

Yes, we have a washer and dryer inside our motor home, but they are small in capacity and it takes a long time to dry a load of towels. We really appreciated the ability to catch up on big loads of laundry during our stay in a state park. We think that's a first for us! Really good job, Louisiana!