Acadiana Park Campground

Acadiana Park is a 110 acre facility that includes baseball, softball, tennis, soccer and basketball facilities. It’s also home to an extensive 36 hole Frisbee golf course that’s located throughout the park.

Located in a wooded section of Acadiana Park, a 150 acre facility in the northeastern corner of Lafayette, Louisiana (south-central Louisiana), the Nature Station and its accompanying 6 mile trail system is owned and operated by the Division of Arts & Culture, in the Department of Community Development, Lafayette Consolidated Government. Environmental education programming began here in 1974 as an offshoot of our parent organization, the Lafayette Science Museum. As a result of increasing demand for our programs, the Nature Station was constructed in 1978. Since that time, our staff has conducted field trips, workshops, and other educational activities and programs for many thousands of school children and adults alike.

Ecologically, the Nature Station Trails are situated at the juncture of two major systems: the Gulf Coastal Tallgrass Prairie (or remnants thereof), and the Mississippi River Floodplain. Several thousand years ago, as a result of large volumes of meltwater streaming southward at the end of the last “Ice Age”, the ancient Mississippi River strayed westward into what is now south-central Louisiana, expanding its floodplain by about fifty miles, and flowing through this area for approximately one thousand years. As glacial meltwaters gradually subsided from the north, the river moved back into its “original” stream bed; a course which it continues to follow today, taking it through the cities of Baton Rouge (fifty miles to our east) and New Orleans (one-hundred- twenty-five miles to our southeast), before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, some one-hundred miles south of New Orleans. As a direct result of these historic climatic/geologic changes, present-day Acadiana Park straddles this ancient juncture of river and prairie, with the prairie terrace itself laying some 45-50 feet above the adjacent floodplain (where the Nature Station itself is located). Separating these two land forms is a wide, bluff-like shelf (escarpment) which was actually the western bank of the ancient Mississippi. Thus, present day Acadiana Park supports three major habitat types: a bottomland hardwood forest on the Mississippi River floodplain, a transitional oak-hickory forest on the escarpment, and the remnants of what once was a tallgrass prairie on the prairie terrace. Of course, each of these major habitats supports its own plant communities; and in turn, each plant community supports its own complement of animals. While the plant communities are pretty much fixed, the animal communities vary according to yearly seasonal cycles.

PARK RULES

1. Residential camping is not permitted. All campers are LIMITED to a maximum stay of 10 days. After 10 consecutive days, personal and camping equipment will be removed. 30 days must elapse before returning. There can be no exceptions without written authorization from the Recreation and Parks office.
2. The rental fee is $28.00 per pad per night. Fees paid daily or in advance. One camping unit per pad is allowed. Extra camping units (tents) will be charged the regular rental fee of $28.00 each. Exception will be for children under 18 using separate tents on the same pad at no additional charge. Please Keep Receipt on Window – Dashboard
3. QUIET TIME is from 11:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m.
4. FIREARMS, other weapons and drugs are prohibited.
5. PETS must be leashed at all times.
6. DESTRUCTION of trees such as nailing or chopping is prohibited.
7. The maximum SPEED LIMIT throughout the park is 5 miles per hour.
8. Off-road motor vehicles are NOT ALLOWED in the campground. Golf carts are allowed with a licensed driver
   only.
9. ALL EQUIPMENT and PERSONAL property brought into the camping area is the responsibility of the owner.
10. WASHING of utensils, recreation vehicles, or clothing at faucets and bath houses is prohibited.
11. ALL campers should CLEAN their campsite before departure.
12. Registered campers are RESPONSIBLE for their guests.
13. FIRES ARE PERMITTED in Fire Rings Only. Campers are responsible to put all fires out before leaving the park.
14. ONLY campers, their invited relatives or guests will be permitted within the fenced enclosure of the
    campground.
15. Grey water may be dumped on ground – black water is NOT allowed to be dumped on ground.
16. Check in and check out time is 3:00 p.m.
17. No major construction to be done to campers at campground.