Riding the Cajun Riviera: The Creole Nature Trail

When you go somewhere, do you ever feel like you have unfinished business there?  That you just didn't see enough of the sites, ride enough of the roads, or eat enough of the good food.  I felt like this after riding the Cajun Riveria.  This stretch of beach lies between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Port Authur, Texas.  What did we like most about it?  It's not a tourist destination yet!!! That it is relatively desolate and remote.  To me, motorcycles are meant to be here.

You're not going to find Ripley's Believe it or not here, but you will find some great motorcycle roads.  Some roads with no traffic running along the ocean.  In the bayous and swamps, some high speed turns that will take your breath away. We left Lumberton, Texas,, on a foggy 62-degree morning headed to the Cajun Rivera. After a quick stop at the Big Thicket National Preserve, we ride through Port Arthur we take Texas 82 towards Cameron and Holly Beach. We are riding the Creole Nature Trail. That is a circular loop along the beach and through the Bayous of Southern Louisiana.

As we cross the Sabine Lake Causeway Bridge, you can see the Louisiana Marshland and the Ocean in the distance. It stretches to the horizon. Most of Louisiana south of Interstate 10 is one big swamp, along the coast is a strip of land that forms partial Barrier Islands Running along the ocean on Highway 82, which is mostly a straight road with some High Speed turns. A right road with almost no traffic with swamp on one side and the Ocean on the other traveling 70MPH. It’s a unique experience.

We ride through the metropolis of Holly Beach, which in reality, is a sleepy little town on the beach with just a few beach homes and an RV park.  We stop in Cameron for lunch at the Anchor Up Grill for the world-famous Kick-in Shrimp Po-boy. It was worth the 140-mile ride one way. After lunch, we catch the ferry and head back up the bayou on Louisiana 27, then it’s Interstate 10 for a quick trip back to Lumberton.  These are some magnificent high-speed roads with highspeed turns running through the bayous.  Not a soul for miles except the occasional lake fisherman parked on an access road into the swamp.  

I wish we could spend more time riding more of these roads, but the weather is getting ready to turn, plus we are running out of time. So maybe on the next trip.  So there is unfinished business here, I just hope they don't run out of Oysters before we get back.