Mile 156.0 LBD — College Point Beach & Greenspace

John Ruskey

26 Apr 2026 � 1 min read

Beautiful low water sandbar perched in quiet bend of the river. Picnicking or camping would only be possible in low water levels, below 20BR.

There is a wonderful calm from the hub-bub of industry as the river rolls through Rich Bend around College Point. If it is that magical time of day, and the water is in the low to medium water stages (0-20BR) make a stop at the College Point sandbar and beach. This area is dry up to around 20 on the Baton Rouge gage, and up to that point would make peaceful camping or picnicking (or just want to take a walk in a beautiful wild location). Your senses might be succulently titillated by the fragrance of mosses, ferns, cypress trees, hibiscus, magnolias, and maybe a hint of brackish water mixed in. This is the south wind wafting over the river from southern St. James Parish. In between you and Gulf of Mexico at this point it is all cypress tupelo wetlands including bulltongue, cattail, submerged aquatics, red maple, American elm, sugarberry, Nutall oak, water oak, and obtusa oak, and invasives like water hyacinth, Bidens sp. “fourchette," and an aquatic fern known as common salvinia. Breath deep - this is the true natural aroma of South Louisiana! Only one mile south of you here at College Point the natural high ground paralleling the river falls away into the cypress swampland of southern Louisiana. You can feel the richness in the air here, and due to its relative distance from the busy petro plants upstream and downstream, a calm pervades the area. This feeling is further enhanced by the presence of a nearby Jesuit spiritual retreat center, Manresa On The Mississippi, which protects this stretch of unspoiled batture from East Bank encroachment.

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