# River Road & the Felicianas *The Mississippi's levee roads to Natchez* River Road & the Felicianas is a ~200-mile back-roads route from New Orleans to Natchez on LA 18, LA 44 and US 61, driven in 1–2 days, that stays off I-10 through the Gulf Coast. - **Drive:** New Orleans → Natchez - **Distance:** ~200 mi - **Days:** 1–2 - **Highways:** LA 18, LA 44, US 61 - **Avoids:** I-10 - **Region:** Gulf Coast - **Themes:** History & Markers, Oddities & Roadside Wonders, Civil War, Natural Beauty The levee roads between New Orleans and Baton Rouge hold America's hardest history in its grandest architecture — told honestly now at Whitney, from the perspective of the enslaved. The same corridor is petrochemical country today; the contrast is part of the story. North of Baton Rouge the road climbs into the Felicianas — English Louisiana, Audubon's birds, a famously haunted inn — and ends on the bluff at Natchez, where three routes of this atlas tie their knot. Markers: Louisiana's River Road markers line both banks; the Felicianas add a thick layer of their own. ## The drive, segment by segment ### The German Coast *New Orleans → Vacherie · ~50 mi* Destrehan to the west-bank plantations: Whitney (essential), Evergreen's double row of cabins, Oak Alley's postcard oaks. This shore also rose in 1811 in the largest slave revolt in American history. Stops: - **Destrehan Plantation** (Destrehan) · History & Markers — The oldest documented plantation house in the lower Mississippi valley (1787) — and a tribunal site after the 1811 German Coast uprising, when hundreds of enslaved people marched on New Orleans. The history is told straight here now. - **Whitney Plantation** (Wallace) · History & Markers — The one museum on the river told entirely from the enslaved person's perspective (opened 2014) — memorials, first-person narratives, the Wall of Honor. The essential stop on this road; book the timed tour. - **Evergreen Plantation** (Edgard) · History & Markers — Twenty-two cypress slave cabins in an unbroken double row — the most intact plantation landscape in the South, still a working farm. Tarantino shot Django Unchained here, uneasily. - **Oak Alley** (Vacherie) · History & Markers — The quarter-mile allée of 28 live oaks, planted a century before the 1839 house. The postcard of the Old South — read its slavery exhibit so you see the whole picture. ### The Sugar Kingdom *Vacherie → Baton Rouge · ~60 mi* Donaldsonville's proud history, Houmas House's gardens, then Baton Rouge: Twain's despised 'sham castle' capitol and Huey Long's skyscraper one, with his bullet scars in the marble. Stops: - **Donaldsonville** (Donaldsonville) · History & Markers — In 1868 Pierre Caliste Landry became mayor here — the first Black mayor of any American town. The River Road African American Museum carries the story forward. - **Houmas House** (Darrow) · History & Markers — The 'Sugar Palace' and its gardens — Bette Davis filmed Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte here. Stay for dinner in the old kitchen if the budget allows. - **Louisiana's Two Capitols** (Baton Rouge) · History & Markers — The crenellated Old Capitol — Mark Twain called it a 'little sham castle' and blamed Sir Walter Scott for the South's worst ideas — and Huey Long's 34-story tower, where the Kingfish was shot in 1935 and lies buried out front under his own statue. Free observation deck. ### The Felicianas *Baton Rouge → Natchez · ~90 mi* US 61 climbs into loess hills: Port Hudson's siege lines, St. Francisville's moss-draped lanes, the Myrtles' ghosts, and the last run up to the Natchez bluff. Stops: - **Port Hudson** (Jackson, LA) · Civil War — The longest true siege in American history (48 days, 1863) — and among the first major assaults by Black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards, whose valor here helped change the Union army. - **The Myrtles** (St. Francisville) · Oddities & Roadside Wonders — Promoted as 'one of America's most haunted homes' — the Chloe legend, a mirror that allegedly holds spirits, and a B&B if you're brave. The town around it is the prettiest in Louisiana, ghosts or no. - **St. Francisville** (St. Francisville) · Small Towns — English Louisiana: Grace Church's mossy churchyard, Rosedown's gardens, and Oakley House, where the young Audubon painted dozens of his birds as a live-in tutor. - **Angola Museum** (Angola) · History & Markers — At the gate of the prison that occupies a former plantation — unsparing history, and the famous (and controversial) October inmate rodeo. LA 66 dead-ends here: 'the end of the road' in every sense. - **Rosemont** (Woodville, MS) · History & Markers — Jefferson Davis's boyhood home, kept small and plain — a footnote that explains a lot of what follows upriver. - **Mammy's Cupboard** (Natchez) · Oddities & Roadside Wonders — A 1940 roadside restaurant built as a 28-foot hoop-skirted woman; you eat lunch inside the skirt. A complicated icon — repainted, reconsidered, still serving legendary banana caramel pie. ## Tips and best time to go - Whitney requires timed tickets; do it first and the rest of the road reads differently. - Azalea peak is March; the Angola rodeo is October Sundays. - Natchez ahead: see the Blues Highway's last stop for the bluff city itself. ## Worth a detour - **San Francisco Plantation** — The 'steamboat gothic' confection near Garyville — currently closed to tours, but the exterior alone explains the term. - **Cancer Alley context** — Between the mansions stand fence-line communities fighting the petrochemical corridor — St. James Parish's story is as much River Road as the oaks are. - **Clark Creek waterfalls** — Just over the Mississippi line at Tunica Hills — actual waterfalls in Mississippi, a genuine surprise. ## Spurs & side-roads - Angola & LA 66 ## Frequently asked questions ### How long is River Road & the Felicianas and how many days does it take? River Road & the Felicianas is about 200 miles and takes 1–2 days at a back-roads pace. ### Where does River Road & the Felicianas start and end? It runs from New Orleans to Natchez. ### Which highways does River Road & the Felicianas follow? It follows LA 18, LA 44 and US 61. ### Which interstate does River Road & the Felicianas replace? It avoids I-10, using LA 18, LA 44 and US 61 instead. ### How many stops are on River Road & the Felicianas, and what are the highlights? 13 stops are mapped, including Destrehan Plantation, Whitney Plantation, Evergreen Plantation, Oak Alley and Donaldsonville. ### Which ready-made itineraries include River Road & the Felicianas? The Natchez Trace, End to End (5 days), The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run (6 days), The Deep South Grand Circle (14 days), The Whole Hog (28 days), Memphis to New Orleans on US 61 (4 days) and The Great River Road, Southern Act (6 days). ### When is the best time to drive River Road & the Felicianas? The atlas’s seasonal note for this route: “Azalea peak is March; the Angola rodeo is October Sundays.” ## Ready-made itineraries using this route - [The Natchez Trace, End to End](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/trace-end-to-end) — 5 days, ~720 mi - [The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/red-dirt-run) — 6 days, ~900 mi - [The Deep South Grand Circle](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/deep-south-circle) — 14 days, ~1700 mi - [The Whole Hog](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/whole-hog) — 28 days, ~4300 mi - [Memphis to New Orleans on US 61](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/memphis-to-new-orleans) — 4 days, ~500 mi - [The Great River Road, Southern Act](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/great-river-road-south) — 6 days, ~650 mi ## Connects with - [Cane River & El Camino Real](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cane-river-camino) — Natchez → Toledo Bend - [Natchez Trace Parkway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/natchez-trace) — Natchez → Nashville - [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) — Memphis → Natchez --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-05