Jean Lafitte NHP Barataria Preserve
6588 Barataria Blvd, Marrero, LA
Marrero, LA
A national park swamp of cypress, marsh, and slow bayou just south of New Orleans, named for the pirate who once ruled these waters.
The Barataria Preserve is the swamp-and-marsh unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, a piece of the National Park Service devoted to the wetlands and culture of south Louisiana. Just across the river from New Orleans, it protects a broad expanse of cypress swamp, freshwater marsh, and bottomland forest, laced with boardwalk trails that carry visitors right into the wild.
The preserve is named for Jean Lafitte, the notorious smuggler and privateer who used the maze of Barataria's bayous to run contraband in the early 1800s. Today the story of the land runs deeper than any pirate legend, reaching back to the Native peoples who first lived here and forward to the Cajun and Creole communities who still fish and trap these waters.
What Guests Love
- Boardwalk trails that lead straight into a working cypress swamp
- Alligators, wading birds, snakes, and turtles seen close from the trails
- A genuine national park swamp experience minutes from New Orleans
- The layered story of Native peoples, Cajun settlers, and the pirate Jean Lafitte
Worth Knowing
- This is a unit of the national park system, so it welcomes visitors at no cost to enter
- Bring insect repellent in the warm months, when mosquitoes are heavy near the water
- Trails include boardwalk and unpaved sections that can flood after heavy rain
- Keep a safe distance from alligators and never feed wildlife
Details
Marrero, LA
Learn about Jean Lafitte NHP Barataria Preserve
The Barataria basin
The Barataria basin is a vast wetland system between the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche, a mosaic of swamp, marsh, and open water that stretches south toward the Gulf. The preserve protects a slice of this landscape close to New Orleans, showing the natural transition from forested swamp to open coastal marsh.
These wetlands are among the most productive and most threatened landscapes in North America. They buffer the coast from storms, shelter countless creatures, and support the fishing and trapping culture of south Louisiana, even as the broader region loses land to erosion and subsidence. The preserve helps protect and interpret this vital, changing world.
Native peoples and Cajun settlers
Long before Europeans arrived, Native peoples lived along these bayous, leaving behind shell middens and other traces of villages that thrived on the abundance of fish, shellfish, and game. Their descendants, including communities of the Chitimacha and others, remain part of the living heritage of coastal Louisiana.
In later centuries the Barataria country became home to Cajun, Creole, and other settlers who made their living from the water, fishing, shrimping, trapping, and moss-gathering in a way of life shaped entirely by the wetland. The national park preserves not only the swamp but the human story of people who learned to live within it.
The pirate Jean Lafitte
The preserve and park take their name from Jean Lafitte, a smuggler and privateer who, with his brother and a network of followers, controlled a thriving illegal trade through the tangled waterways of Barataria in the early 1800s. From this hidden base he moved smuggled goods and enslaved people into New Orleans, evading the law in the labyrinth of bayous.
Lafitte's legend took a patriotic turn during the War of 1812, when he and his men aided General Andrew Jackson in the defense of New Orleans, earning a measure of pardon. His story, part outlaw and part folk hero, is inseparable from these waters, and it lends the natural preserve a colorful historical backdrop.
Walking the swamp
Visitors experience the preserve mostly on foot, along a network of boardwalk and dirt trails that lead through cypress swamp, palmetto flats, and the edges of the marsh. The boardwalks let you stand above the dark water among the cypress knees, close to alligators, herons, turtles, and snakes.
A visitor center helps orient newcomers, and rangers often lead walks and talks that bring the ecology and history to life. As a national park unit, the preserve welcomes visitors freely, and it offers one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to experience a genuine Louisiana swamp just minutes from the bustle of New Orleans.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Marrero
Downtown New Orleans
About 20 miles northeast
The French Quarter and city core, reached across the Mississippi River from the West Bank.
Town of Jean Lafitte
About 8 miles south
A fishing community deeper in the bayou country, named for the pirate who worked these waters.
Barataria swamp tours
Nearby
Guided boat tours from the surrounding area that carry visitors deeper into the bayous and marshes.