Bayou Teche National Water Trail

You can kayak, canoe, or drive along the Bayou Teche Paddle Trail. Volunteers with the TECHE Project organize and conduct cleanup days, year-round, to keep the Teche in good shape for leisurely outdoor activities and events such as Tour du Teche. Also through the efforts of the TECHE project, in 2015 Bayou Teche was added to the National Water Trails System, a first for Louisiana! The National Water Trails System is a network of “exemplary water trails that are cooperatively supported and sustained.” The system was established to protect and restore waterways, something local volunteers have been doing on the Teche for a long time.

Thanks to their hard work, visitors can paddle through 15 communities and four parishes (St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia, and St. Mary) along 135 miles of water on their own using the Bayou Teche Water Trail map. The map identifies all thirteen established access points for paddle trips as short as seven miles and as long as 135.  It is nestled in the Bayou Teche Corridor and is part of the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area.

For more recreation information, visit TecheProject.org.