Grand Isle State Park

Louisiana Highway 1 runs 436 miles from Shreveport to the Gulf, and Grand Isle State Park sits at the end of it — the eastern tip of the only inhabited barrier island in the state. One mile of maintained beachfront faces open water. The observation tower looks across to Fort Livingston on Grand Terre Island. A 2.5-mile nature trail winds through coastal habitat where chenier ridges — old Mississippi sediment deposits — support live oak and hackberry. This is Louisiana's only state-owned and operated beach on the Gulf Coast, and one of the only places in the state where people surf. Forty-nine premium campsites offer water and electrical hookup. Ten beach tent sites are available for primitive camping. Canoe, paddle boat, and surf bike rentals handle the logistics. Spring migration is the reason to plan around the calendar. Hundreds of neotropical bird species pause here after crossing the Gulf of Mexico, using the island's chenier forests as stopover before continuing north. The annual Migratory Bird Festival coincides with their arrival in April. Grand Isle has been pummeled by hurricanes on average every 7.88 years since 1877 — sixteen-foot storm surges in 1893 and 1909, total destruction in 1860, and Hurricane Ida in 2021 damaging every structure on the island. The wetlands at the mouth of Barataria Bay lose acreage yearly. In 2011, volunteers planted more than 1,600 mangroves in the park to stabilize sediment. In 2012, following Hurricane Isaac, they installed dune fences and planted 12,000 plugs of dune grass along the beach. You come here because the Gulf is still here, and so is the island.