Park # 253, Cane River Creole NHP- Louisiana

I made the drive up here today Sunday, June 9th to save 120 miles on the motor home, driving up from Alexandria, La. 

I had planned to hit three locations that were open for this park, and did. 

I got to the Natchitoches Visitor Information Center, in downtown Natchitoches, and also the Magnolia and Oakland Plantation sites. 

The Downtown visitor center didn't have any stamps for this park, so I headed first on down to the Oakland Plantation. 

There were supposed to be two locations for stamps here, a pavilion, only open on the weekends, and a store. 

Nobody home here at the Pavilion, and no stamps, either. 

This was the store building, and it was eerie, not a soul was there. 

Totally empty!!!!!!

The plantation house on the property is privately owned, and not part of the park.

Well, this was a first, the first time I have visited a totally unmanned National park!!  Fortunately, the three passport stamps that were listed for here were there, but none were at the Pavilion.  

From there, I headed about 11 miles down the road to the next unit, the Magnolia Plantation. 

The same situation here-  totally unmanned!!!!  Here too, the stamps were out on a ledge, so I got the three stamps that were supposed to be here. 

Because there was no one around, I was not able to get to the store at Oakland, so I was not able to get any pins, hiking medallions, or postcards, if they exist at all. 

This is probably the greatest disappointment for a National Park I have seen-  very little signage, invitations to self tour if you wanted to, so what- to see part of an old southern plantation. 

On to Natchez tomorrow!!

Park 190 Big Thicket National Preserve, Kountz, Texas

This was a stamp and run, based on the fact that the park is over several locations, and we were in a hurry-  The Visitors Center is located about 30 miles above I-10 that we were traveling on, so I unhooked and ran up and got the park stamp.  Also got a pin.