Caddo Lake

The lake was created by the Great Raft, an enormous natural log jam that choked the Red River for more than two hundred and fifty kilometres and backed water up into the surrounding bottomland; it was cleared in stages, the last of it in 1873, and the lake would have drained, so a dam was later built to hold it. What remains is around ten thousand hectares of lake and bald cypress, draped in Spanish moss, threaded by marked boat channels because navigating without them is genuinely easy to get wrong. It is a Ramsar wetland of international importance. Caddo people lived here and the lake carries their name. Invasive giant salvinia has been a persistent management problem, choking channels in some years.

Highlights

• A cypress maze - hung with Spanish moss.
• Marked boat channels - because navigation without them is hard.
• A lake made by a log jam - the Great Raft on the Red River.
• A Ramsar wetland - of international importance.

When to go

October to April; summer heat and insects are heavy. A full day.

Things to know

Access is by boat and getting lost is a real risk without the channel markers. Giant salvinia blocks channels in bad years. Alligators are present. Summer mosquitoes are severe.

Nearby

Jefferson is west; Shreveport is south-east in Louisiana.

Key facts