Trail: Trail C
Hike Location: Lake Fausse Pointe State Park
Geographic Location: east of St. Martinville, LA (30.06008, -91.60961)
Length: 3.4 miles
Difficulty: 3/10 (Easy/Moderate)
Date Hiked: February 2025
Overview: A flat loop hike with good wildlife viewing along several bayous and lakes.
Park Information:
https://www.lastateparks.com/parks-preserves/lake-fausse-pointe-state-park
Hike Route Map:
https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=979662Photo Highlight:
Hike Video: (coming January 16, 2026)
Directions to the trailhead: From St. Martinville, take SR 96 east 12 miles to SR 352 and turn right on SR 352. Drive SR 352 south 13 miles to the signed state park entrance on the right. Turn right to enter the park, pay the entrance fee, and park at the main trailhead parking area on the left 0.2 miles from the entrance. A sign and restroom building on the right mark the trailhead.
The hike: The drive into Lake Fausse Pointe State Park is pure Louisiana. Most visitors start by driving through Lafayette with its oil/natural gas industry, large regional public university, and heavy French influence. Next you drive through St. Martinville, a small town with a large Black population and heavy Roman Catholic influence. The final 13 miles run along a levee, and few places outside of southern Louisiana have levees as long or tall as this one.
Once you finally get there, you find a real gem of a park. Consisting of 6000 acres deep in the heart of southern Louisiana's Cajun Country, remote and rustic Lake Fausse Pointe State Park is a sportsman's and nature lover's paradise. For such a remote park, it has surprisingly good amenities. The park offers a 50-site developed campground, 18 cabins, several primitive campsites accessible only by trail or canoe, a boat launch, a playground, and several picnic areas.
For hikers, the trail system at Lake Fausse Pointe State Park consists of 3 loops all of which start from a common trailhead. The loops are simply labeled A, B, and C in order of increasing length. This hike takes you around the C loop, which traces the perimeter of the park. While I would not want to come here in the summer due to heat and bugs, I saw a lot of wildlife and had a great hike when I came here on a Friday morning in early February.
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| Trail entrance at trailhead |
The common entrance trail heads west across the park road from the parking lot. Almost immediately you cross a wide wooden bridge over Old Bird Island Chute to reach an information kiosk where Trail A exits right. As directed by a wooden sign, continue straight to begin Trail C.
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| Lake Fausse Pointe |
Less than 5 minutes into the hike, you reach a west-facing wooden overlook platform that provides a nice view across Lake Fausse Pointe. The large, calm lake is dotted with islands near the shore, and I saw several lapwings enjoying the lake on the warm and humid morning that I came here. Past the overlook, the trail heads south through a seasonally wet forest with some tupelo trees. Some wet areas will need to be negotiated, but wooden boardwalks get you over the worst of the wetness.
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| Trails B and C split |
At 0.3 miles and at the end of one of the boardwalks, Trails B and C part ways at another signed trail intersection. This hike turns left to stay on Trail C, which is marked with orange plastic diamonds. Soon you pass the first of 7 signed primitive backpack campsites. Each of these sites are reached via a short signed spur trail, and each site has a picnic table, a fire pit, and room for a couple of tents. These primitive campsites allow you to turn this hike into a super short and super easy backpacking trail provided the heat and bugs are not too bad.
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| Backpack campsite |
For the next 1.1 miles the trail heads southeast on a level course through classic lowland scenery. In some ways this hike is very boring: there is no noticeable elevation change, and the scenery never seems to change. Yet the park's remote location and abundant wetlands ensure good bird and wildlife viewing. I saw 2 roseate spoonbills, an egret, some herons, some cardinals, a chickadee, some robins, and some deer on this hike.
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| Spur trail to canoe campsite #5 |
At 1.3 miles, you reach signed canoe campsite #5, which is my favorite of the primitive campsites at this park. Not to be confused with backpack campsite #5, this site is accessible by canoe trail and by hiking trail. The site occupies a small knoll on the edge of the channel, and I saw much wildlife including several alligators while sitting and resting at this site. |
| View from canoe campsite #5 |
For the next 0.7 miles the trail parallels the water channel as you round the south end of the loop. The deep muddy channel stays in sight through the trees to the right. The hiking is easy but the scenery repetitive except for the wildlife. Just past 2 miles, the trail curves left to leave the channel. |
| Crossing a boardwalk |
After crossing the longest boardwalk on this hike, you reach a trail intersection at 2.3 miles where both options are marked with orange diamonds. The option going left is a short-cut that leads to the park's conference center, and it is the wettest trail in this park. This hike continues straight to hike the longer and dryer version of Trail C.
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| Hiking along Borrow Pit Canal |
Very quickly the trail comes out at the park's cabin area. Turn left to hike 0.3 miles on the park's cabin road, but look for the orange diamonds on the right at 2.6 miles where Trail C leaves the road and returns to single track dirt trail. The rest of the hike stays in a narrow swath of woods between the park road on the left and the Borrow Pit Canal waterway on the right. This area is slightly higher than most of the ground you have trodden so far, and large numbers of palmettos live in the understory. Just shy of 3.4 miles, you reach the trail's end at the main park road. The trailhead parking area with your car is only a couple hundred feet to the right.
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