View
Float the Pearl
1. Park a car or arrange to be picked up at Lakeland Drive or at the boat ramp inside Lefleur’s Bluff State Park. (Go in the Mayes Lake entrance off of Lakeland Drive between the Shell Station and the children’s baseball fields, then pay your $2 to get through the ranger’s gate. At the Mayes Lake picnic entrance, take a left down the dirt/gravel road until you get to the boat ramp. Park a car and then head back out with your other car and canoe.)
2. Take your canoe up to the Barnett Spillway boatramp off of, you guessed it, Spillway Road. You can park up there and carry your canoe to the water.
3. Get in your canoe and paddle. I’ve done this only once with lots of stops, but it can easily take the better part of a day, particular if you’re taking photos or stopping to hike or picnic.
4. Enjoy the sandbars, check out the cypress swamps and don’t forget some water and powerbars.
5. If you’re not pulling out at Lakeland Drive, then you’ll paddle past the bridge overhead for Lakeland, then another slightly-too-long distance before you come up to the boat ramp on your right. (I was tired by the time we got to this point.)
6. Pull your canoe out of the water, secure it to you car and then decide whether you’re going to have one responsibly considered beer or margarita before you head back up to Spillway to retrieve your other car. ;-)
