Louisiana Gravel Road Named Among ‘Best Gravel Roads’ in Country

(KMDL-FM) The word "Best" is seldom used when describing anything about Louisiana's highways, roadways, biways, and gravel roads. But oddly enough, the latter of those four options, the gravel one, recently earned the state a unique accolade for something that most of us wouldn't think an honor would be appropriate.

If you break down Louisiana's roads and highways, it shakes out like this. The state has over 16,600 miles of state highways. There are nearly 900 miles of Interstate highways in the state. When it comes to gravel roads, there are no specific statistics kept on that. But we can speculate that with over 1.375 million miles of unpaved roads in the country, Louisiana has its share.

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It would be a fair question to ask, "At what point is a road considered to be a gravel road"? According to the best definition that we can find, a "gravel road" is a road bed that utilizes rock or gravel as the surface. There is no overlay, just rocks and usually a lot of dust. So no, the Evangeline Thruway, even though you can get rock chips on your windshield for miles, is technically not a gravel road.

Who Surveyed The Best Gravel Roads in the United States?

This recent survey of "off the beaten or at least unpaved path" roadways is courtesy of a car dealership in Miami Lakes, Florida. The good folks at Potamkin Hyundai surveyed customers and asked them what some of the "best gravel drives" you could make were.

Many states had several gravel roads to be proud of. Heck, Mississippi had three of them. I know that's got to make those folks proud. But here in Louisiana, I only found one roadway that made the survey. If you wanted to take that roadway, you'd need to get off the beaten path, but not by much.

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Where Is Louisiana's Best Gravel Road?

In Louisiana, to take the Great Gravel Getaway, my name for it, you'd have to travel to the thriving metropolis of Krotz Springs. That's a great community on U.S. 190 where the boudin and cracklins are good, and the posted speed should always be followed.

The route mentioned on the Potamkin Hyundai survey was in the Sherburn Wildlife Management Area. The survey entry mentioned "roads," so we will assume there are several gravel roads to choose from, and they all offer something spectacular to see.

Here is the list, if you wanted to peruse:

Created by Gunther-Volvo-Coconut-Creek • Viewlarger version

As you can see, there are a lot of great gravel getaways that you could choose if the sound of the wheels singing on the asphalt is getting to be too much for you. I would just suggest you check the weather before you drive.

Here in Louisiana, it only takes about five minutes of an afternoon shower or storm to turn a gravel road into an impassible mud pit. Probably something you wouldn't want to take your Hyundai through unless you wanted to meet a guy in a real truck who could pull you out.