Lake Fausse Point State Park

We spent Friday and Saturday at Lake Fausse Point in St. Martinville, LA. This is one of our favorite state parks. We always see alligators, snakes and lots of birds. We spent most of our time hiking the trails. This park has 3 hiking trails and we walked 2 of them.

The mosquitoes were terrible and they didn't leave us alone, even after dousing with Off bug spray. Because of that we had to walk faster than we'd like. They swarmed us every time we stopped for a picture. Normally we walk slowly through the woods while looking for alligators or snakes on the bank. Most of the trails follow slow moving bayous which alligators (and mosquitoes!) love.

Some parts of the trails have elevated boardwalks over the swampy sections.

I saw these ferns all along the trails! I love the way they look.

This is a picture of huge sycamore tree. We saw several sycamores in the park, but this one seemed the biggest. You can tell its a sycamore tree from the white smooth bark! Isn't it pretty?

Seeing this water moccasin was one of the highlights of our trip. Believe it or not, this was the only snake we saw. Usually we see plenty snakes here. This snake was laying across the trail, but as we walked closer he moved off a few feet. He sat very still and let us take lots of pictures of him. I think he was about 2 feet long.

We walked upon a family of squirrels eating pecans and this squirrel completely ignored me and let me get a picture. The younger squirrels were moving too quickly for a picture. Not long after we saw this squirrel, I spotted a black squirrel! I've never seen one alive and in the woods (up until now I'd only seen a stuffed one). Unfortunately I didn't get my camera up in time for a picture. He was really big, probably twice the size of the squirrels I normally see.

I believe this is an owl nesting box. The opening is big so I figured its for an owl, although I didn't see any owls around the box. We heard several owls hooting at night.

This is a bayou coming off Lake Fausse Point.

Here's our tent. We stayed in spot #19. There are lots of sites available, some back up to the bayou and some are in a more wooded area. I knew the bayou sites were the popular ones, so I choose a spot without any close neighbors. Each site is paved and has a picnic table, tent pad, BBQ pit and a fire ring.

David found this fishing bait in a tree close to the bayou. He's always on the lookout for baits hung up in trees and he usually finds one in every park we visit. Thanks for reading!