About fifteen miles northeast of Bossier City, Cypress Black Bayou is the local escape from the casinos and strip malls — a few thousand acres of lake, swamp, and pine forest with a campground, a fishing pier, and a small but respectable nature centre. There is a modest zoo with native Louisiana wildlife: alligators, raccoons, bobcats, and a couple of black bears.
It is the kind of well-loved local park that out-of-state visitors miss entirely. Come for a slow morning by the lake, pack a picnic, and you will see a side of the area that has nothing to do with riverboats.