Pear River Eco Tours in Slidell, LA takes you buzzing through the bayou as you search the waters of the Honey Island Swamp for wildlife. It’s a must-do adventure for any animal lover, or for any first timer in the swampy South.
We took our Pearl River Eco Tour while we were road tripping the Louisiana Craft Brewery Trial. It’s easily accessible from New Orleans or the Covington / North Shore area as it’s only a 45 minute car ride. This is definitely a change from the big city party life of New Orleans and a great option for something to do during the day. We arrived for our afternoon tour and were quite excited, you see even though Lauren and I had both grown up right outside of the Everglades neither of us had ever gone on a swamp tour. If you’re not from the South, I recommend the morning tour, as the afternoon can get very hot and humid. tip: wear bug spray. Seriously. Once you’ve applied bug spray, apply more. Then you might be safe
We arrived for our tour and were super excited, although the whole operation is pretty small, they were quite professional and got us on our little boat pretty quickly. Once on the boat, we set off on our mission: to spot as much wildlife as possible. The good news is the swamp is chock full o’gators and other little critters so it wasn’t too challenging to find them.
The one thing that happened while we are on the tour that left us a bit concerned was this.
While on the water, the operator puts a marshmallow on a stick to bait and feed the gator. While it creates quite the spectacle, the idea of humans interfering with wild animals on such a scale leaves me a bit troubled. While on the water all the operators from all the tour companies were doing it. They claim the marshmallows are harmless, but to me it teaches the wildlife that we are a source of food. If you plan on taking a swamp tour, just be aware that this will happen and make your decisions appropriately.
As the tour continued through the swamp we moved away from the gator habitats and got to see what rural life is like on the bayou.
After some time on the open water, we made our way into the smaller canals and tributaries of the bayou. We were in search of some of the little woodland creatures in the area.
After a bit of effort, we found this guy. His name was Roger. He was super cute, and apparently also likes marshmallows.
After finding the raccoons we turned around and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the swamp as we made our way back to the docks.
Overall, the Pearl River eco tour lasted about 2 hours. If you’ve never been in that kind of swamp environment, it’s definitely worth getting out there to see and hear the exotic sights and sounds of the bayou.
