Grand Isle

Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island sits at the end of Highway 1—seven miles separating Barataria Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. That position made Grand Isle the front door to Jean Lafitte's empire and later a Civil War fortification. Now it's a fishing town of just over a thousand people, two hours south of New Orleans, with more than 280 species of fish in the surrounding waters. The annual Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo has run since 1928, drawing over 15,000 people to what has become one of the premier saltwater fishing tournaments in the United States. The island is also home to Louisiana's only state-owned and operated Gulf beach, where people camp, fish from piers, and—in one of the few places in Louisiana where this happens—surf. Grand Isle has been pummeled by hurricanes on average every 7.88 years since 1877. In 1860, a 6-foot storm surge destroyed everything. In 1893 and again in 1909, 16-foot surges leveled the island. Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Tropical Storm Frances in 1998 put the entire place underwater. Hurricane Ida's eastern eyewall hit on August 29, 2021—the sixteenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—and damaged 100 percent of the island's structures, destroying 40 to 50 percent outright. Entergy decided to fully rebuild and strengthen the power grid rather than patch it. The island has been rebuilt so many times that resilience isn't a philosophy—it's the only available identity. Grand Isle State Park offers beach access, camping, and fishing at the island's eastern tip. The surrounding chenier forests—hardwood ridges built from Mississippi River sediment—host one of the great migratory bird stopovers on the Gulf Coast. The annual Grand Isle Migratory Bird Festival, established in 1997, draws birders to watch flocks pause before and after making the flight across open water. Highway 1 starts here and runs 436 miles to the northwest corner of the state. The causeway at the island's west end is the only land access. You go because it's the end of the road, and because the people here have decided that being at the end of the road, in the path of everything the Gulf sends, is worth it.