Davis Bayou Area, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi - March 19th to 21st, 2023

The Davis Bayou Area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore was our first visit to the ocean in Season Five: The Southern States. Ocean Springs is a cute little seaside town right next door. Swamps, alligators, and sandy beaches let us know that this season was definitely going to be different than Season Four: Alaska Bound.

Sunday we drove from Grand Ecore RV Park near Natchitoches in Louisiana to Davis Bayou Campground in Gulf Islands National Seashore near Ocean Springs in Mississippi. Since it was a long drive, for us anyway, we stuck to mostly the interstate highways. However, we did cut over from I-49 to I-10 via Louisiana Highway 71. That broke up the monotonous interstate driving with some interesting scenery. Highway 71 goes through LeCompte, the pie capital of Louisiana. We didn’t see Lea’s Lunchroom until it was too late to turn in. Ann cannot believe Keith didn’t turn around to go back for pie.

We also saw quite a few unusual farm fields which we tried to figure out what they were growing. Some were well defined rows of some type of grass, with deep channels of dirt between the rows. We believe these were sugar cane fields.

Then there were fields that were under water, with buoys lined up in rows. We’re thinking those might be rice fields. We know both sugar cane and rice is grown in Louisiana. A little research revealed that the bright orange things in the water that we thought were buoys are actually the tops of crawfish traps. Rice farming has become only affordable on a large scale. Some of the smaller rice farmers have turned their fields into crawfish farms, using the rice to feed the crawfish (New York Times article).

We stopped in Ponchatoula like the Hammond couple we met the day before recommended (Cane River National Heritage Area, Louisiana - March 16th to 18th, 2023). We bought a flat of strawberries from a roadside stand in town. It was a lot more strawberries than we needed, but we now have a decent sized freezer to store some of the berries in.

Our original plan was to eat lunch at Paul’s Cafe, as was recommended, but it was Sunday, and Paul’s was closed. Instead, we went to Toula Burger, just a block away. The place was hopping. We ordered our food at the counter and stood there waiting for it. There was not an open table in the place. However, before our food was ready, a table opened up. The table sat four and there was another couple who came in after us who was also waiting for their food. We offered to share the table with them and they gladly accepted.

The other couple was from Michigan. They were on their way back to Michigan after spending the winter in Texas, in an RV. We had a lovely time getting to know each other during lunch. We wish them happy and safe travels!

Toula Burger serves both smash burgers and po’ boys. A po’ boy is a Louisiana style sub sandwich made with New Orleans style French bread. They are usually filled with roast beef, seafood, or sausage. Ann ordered the Cajun sausage with sweet fries, what they call sweet potato fries. Keith had a burger with fries. The menu said the Cajun sausage was HOT, but it turned out to to be not very spicy at all. The sausage was served with roasted pepper aioli, pepper jack cheese and roasted red peppers. Very flavorful and tasty!

We arrived at the campground before dinner. We were not hungry yet since we had such a filling lunch, so Ann got busy with the strawberries. She cut up half of them and put them in the freezer. It is so nice having freezer space. We made use of the freezer a few days prior when we couldn’t find a small package of pork chops at the store and had to buy five of them. In previous seasons, we would have had to pass on the larger packages since we had no room for extras in Red Tail Lodge One (our VanDOit camper van).

Monday we explored the trails and roads within the Davis Bayeau Area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The Davis Bayeau Area is the only part of the national seashore that is on the mainland and not on the barrier islands. The National Seashore extends along the barrier islands from Mississippi, Alabama, and over to Florida. We camped in Fort Pickens, another area of the national seashore, a few years ago (Defending the Beach: Fort Pickens, Florida - July 24 to 26, 2019).

The Davis Bayeau Trail goes from about the campground all the way over to the Visitor Center, about one mile, but it runs alongside the road. There is plenty of room to be off the road, so the traffic is not too annoying. There are a couple of ponds along the way where alligators like to hang out. When we went by the first pond, there was an alligator sunning himself on the far bank along with a few turtles doing the same on a couple of logs.

Also along the way, we took a detour to check out the Nature’s Way Loop Trail. It is a short trail through the oak and sweet gum trees, with a view out over some swampy areas. We didn’t spot any animals on the trail, but we heard quite a few birds up in the trees. The Visitor Center has some nice displays along with a park movie. After watching the informative movie, we sat out on the deck behind the Visitor Center to enjoy the view while eating our snacks.

There was a ranger led walk at 1 pm, so we joined it. The ranger led us from the Visitor Center down to the Fishing Pier, pointing out the different plants along the way and talking about the different animals common in the area. A man from Palisades, Colorado was fishing on the pier. He had already caught a sheepshead fish and caught another one while we were there.

On our walk back to the campground, we took a couple more detours. The first one was down Eagle Point Road. From the map, it looked like it would head over to a beach area. However, the road lead to a residential neighborhood with no public access to the shoreline.

The next detour was down the CCC Spur Trail. This trail ended at the foundations of some buildings built by the CCC for when the area was Magnolia State Park, before it became a part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. It looked like there might have been a nice view of the ocean from there at one point, but it was now too overgrown to see much of anything.

As we passed the pond again, the same one where we spotted the gator earlier in the day, we were lucky to spot another alligator, perhaps the same one. At first we didn’t see him, as he was hidden pretty well in the tall grass on the far shore. But then he moved and swam across the pond and disappeared further back to the shore that was out of sight from our vantage point.

Our last detour was down the road to the boat ramp. There were some peaceful views out over the water, with some bird activity.

Other than the alligator sightings, there was nothing spectacular about our walk. But yet it seemed very rewarding. In total, we walked a little over five miles with an elevation gain of 118 feet in about three hours. It was hike #8 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023.

Tuesday was our maiden voyage on our new RadExpand 5 e-bikes. We rode them from the campground over through the town of Ocean Springs, right next to the Davis Bayou Area. It was just a few miles into the center of town where most of the little shops were. On the way, we passed through neighborhoods, a nice mixture of large, grand homes and small, cute cottages. We took a loop that brought us by white, sandy beaches, then alongside the Ocean Springs Harbor before reaching the Visitor Center at the old train depot. We locked our bikes up at a bike rack there, then walked up and down the two main streets to check out all the shops.

For lunch, we stopped at Glory Bound Gyro Company. Not exactly southern, Cajun, or Creole cuisine, but it was tasty. We stuck with the traditional gyro and gyro platter, but they had a whole slew of different types of gyros, from surf-n-turf to Buffalo chicken. There was a resident cat that strolled around like he owned the place. He would wander over to tables who had just received their food, hoping for a scrap or attention, even though there was a bowl of cat food on the floor near the bar.

For dessert, we strolled back to the French Kiss Pastries. The pastries were works of art. Unfortunately, they were out of chai tea, so Keith had a coffee latte and Ann tried the lemon ginger tea. We don’t remember what Keith’s pastry was called, but Ann had the apple turnover. Her pastry was not as decorative as Keith’s, but they both tasted delicious.

Returning to our bikes, we continued a loop around town, including Front Beach Drive, which goes along the nice public beaches. It was a warm day for a change, in the upper 60’s, so there were lots of people out enjoying the weather. We didn’t use the pedal assist for most of our ride, since it was pretty flat. However, as we were returning on East Beach Drive, there was a strong head wind, so we both turned on the power, at the lowest level of one (out of five). In total, we rode about ten miles. It was a lovely way to spend a beautiful day.

In the evening, we tried to sit outside since it was a warm day. However, the no-see-ums were active. In a matter of a couple minutes, we got bites all over the backs of our hands. Luckily we were still wearing long sleeves. No-see-um bites are deceptive, because they don’t seem that bad when they first bite, they are hardly noticeable. But we’ve been bitten before, so we knew exactly what they were and retreated inside Red Tail. The bites turn red and become really itchy after a day or two. We didn’t try bringing out the Thermacell so we don’t know if that is effective agains no-see-ums.

We enjoyed the Davis Bayou Area along with Ocean Springs. It gave us a taste of what was yet to come. Over a month in Florida was coming up next and we were excited.

Check out our related video: Davis Bayou Area, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi

(Ann)