St Bernard State Park, LA

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St Bernard State Park is located near the Mississippi River just 19 miles from New Orleans' famous French Quarter. It provides a peaceful, natural setting for recreation among wetlands and woodlands. Visitors can hike at one of 51 improved campsites with electric and water hookups, hike the nature trails, swim in the large swimming pool and picnic. Although under 8-10 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina, the park survived fairly well.

Date of visit: Jan 2016

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We made a reservation about a week before our planned arrival. With the help of the park map on ReserveAmerica and Google Earth we were able to pick a nice south-facing site, 12.

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We originally planned to stay six days, but after arriving we decided to stay another week. To do so, we had to move to site 26. Fortunately for Puddy-Tat, it also faced south; she loves to lounge on the dashboard in the sun.

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On a beautiful sunny afternoon I made my walk around the campground to take some pictures. When first entering the campground loop, one sees sites 1, 3 and 5 on the right.

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Across the road on the left are sites 2, 4 and 6.

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Sites 11-9. There is a very nice mix of grass of trees here. Most trees are cypress, but there are other varieties as well.

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Sites 9-11.

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Sites 17 and 20.

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Sites 18 and 20.

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Sites 21 - 23 are at the far end of the loop.

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Starting around the back side of the loop we find sites 24-25.

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Sites 28, 30, 31 and 33.

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Sites 34, 36 and 38.

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Sites 33-41.

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Sites 42-44. The class C is on site 43.

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On the left the motorhome is on site 45, the tent in the distance is on 43, while on the right is 47.

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Site 51 on the right, 50 on the left.

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The bathhouse offers free hot showers and has a laundry room with two washers and two dryers - a dollar a load. The bathhouse could use a little sprucing up, and on the men's side, two of three showerheads were missing.

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There is a small play area near site 14.

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There are two areas in the day-use portion of the park. One is a large picnic area with lots of tables and grills. There is also a large splash-pad which the kids will enjoy.

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A covered pavilion can be rented for special occasions.

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There is also a larger play area in the picnic area.

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There are lots of man-made lagoons in the park with shallow waterways connecting them. This sturdy bridge crosses over one of them to a large open area with even more picnic table and connects to the network of nature trails.