October 11, 2026, Nathan Tremaine, and Kimberly and Charles Paxton met up at the Crossroads check-in station at about 4PM for a Sunday evening safari drive around Tensas National Wildlife Refuge! Our goal was wildlife observation and photography! We wanted to observe Louisiana Black Bears and other wildlife at the refuge. We enjoyed fish-watching at the Crossroads bridge first and then set off toward the Visitors’ Center at a slow pace, keeping a look-out for wildlife. I missed Nathan’s first observation of a bear as we completed the Greenlea wildlife loop. It was sniffing something by the road, and then slipped into the forest toward Big Rainey Lake. None of us got a photo of that one.
We waited for a while and then Nathan spotted a young Black Bear behind us in the rear view mirror! It was scratching its rear end against a sign for a while and then it moved off the road and we got into position to look where it went!
Nathan captured this cool video of it and shared it with us!
