Four Mile Bayou Road
A Hollywood jungle amid the Atchafalaya swamps
Want to visit Tarzan’s jungle? Then you need to get yourself to Morgan City, Louisiana and drive north on U.S. 70. Turn right in Stephensville, then right again when you reach the first bridge. You’re deep amid early Hollywood’s substitute for Africa: the Atchafalaya swamps.
Many tourists associate the name Atchafalaya with a spillway—an officially designated receptacle for the overflow from major Mississippi River floods that lies just west of here. The spillway is a wonderful destination, in part because (for obvious reasons) it’s almost empty of permanent homes. But the spillway has its downsides, too. It’s difficult to access, since there are almost no roads, and yet—thanks to many nearby airboat tour companies—it’s also ever-so-slightly Disneyfied.
Most visitors—mysef included, until recently—overlook …
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