Bayou Wilderness RV Campground

Visit the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge near Lottie, just an hour's drive east when you're camping at Bayou Wilderness RV Campground. Here you can see a vast, wild swamp sustaining regional habitats such as bottomland hardwood forests, bayous, oxbow lakes, and wetlands and featuring native species including the Louisiana black bear, migratory neotropical songbirds, waterfowl, and other aquatic animals. The old Big Alabama Bridge has been converted to a public wildlife viewing area with interpretive displays, and there is also a public interpretive nature trail. The sporting complex features rifle, handgun, archery, and skeet/trap ranges. Outdoor recreational opportunities include paddling and paddle trails, hiking, biking, hunting and fishing, wildlife viewing, and nature photography. The Thistlethwaite State Wildlife Management Area north of Opelousas is another opportunity to experience raw natural beauty when you are camping with a travel trailer near here. This area covers 11,000 acres and features mixed forest cover, pecan, hickory, hackberry, elm, maple, cypress, palmetto, dogwood, redbud, elderberry, French mulberry, and blackberry. It is home to deer, squirrel, rabbit, beaver, raccoon, bobcat, otter, opossum, birds of prey, woodpeckers, and neotropical migrant songbirds. There is one mile of wooded trails, and recreational opportunities include hiking, birding, hunting, and trapping. The Acadiana Park Nature Station is owned and operated by Lafayette’s Division of Arts & Culture in the Department of Community Development. It’s a great place to visit when you camp in an RV near Carencro. It features both Mississippi River floodplains and Mississippi River escarpments as well as vines, ferns, fungi, mosses, and wildflowers. Birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, and insects and spiders live here. There are six miles of hiking trails and a kayak launch. Environmental education and interpretive programming for all ages include public tours, night hikes, weekend nature talks, and weekend trail tours as well as young naturalist clubs and outreach programs.