Shell Beach

The marshes dissolve into Lake Borgne at Shell Beach, and Lake Borgne dissolves into the Gulf. This is the ragged southeastern edge of St. Bernard Parish, where solid ground gives way to open water and the question of where Louisiana ends becomes negotiable.

New Orleans was founded on a bend in the Mississippi because it controlled access to the whole river valley — the interior of a continent funneled through one crescent. Shell Beach sits at the opposite end of that logic: the place where all that gathered water finally disperses. The Chandeleur Islands, barrier islands 30 miles offshore, are visible on clear days, a low smudge between the marsh and the horizon.

Anglers come for redfish, speckled trout, and flounder. The fishing is world-class inshore work, and charter operations launch year-round from the marina. Fall redfish season fills the calendar; book ahead.

Katrina's surge took the community down to its pilings. What rebuilt came back around the fishing industry — the thing that made sense of living here in the first place. The water that destroyed it is the water that sustains it. Go for that, and for the specific pleasure of standing where the marsh runs out.