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Accessible Adventures
Wheelchair-Friendly Options Welcome Visitors on The Northshore.
BY TRAVEL WRITERS BARBARA & JIM TWARDOWSKI
WHETHER YOU ARE ATTENDING AN ANNUAL FESTIVAL or longing for an unhurried weekend away, you’ll find The Northshore welcomes wheelchair users.
Wheelchair accessible paths beside the Mandeville Lakefront seawall provide unobstructed views of Lake Pontchartrain and allow you to linger along the lakefront. Stop for a selfie at the gazebo or underneath a 100-year-old live oak tree. Wheelchair access points may be found at several spots along Lakeshore Drive. Larger vehicles may be accommodated in parking lots behind lakefront businesses and off Jackson Ave. by Pontchartrain Yacht Club.
The Tammany Trace, 31 miles of an asphalted wheelchair-accessible trail, runs through five communities, making it easy to roll on this rails-totrails converted path. From elevated vantage points, glimpse views of wildlife, bayous, streams and rivers.
Heritage Park, near Olde Towne Slidell, overlooks Bayou Bonfouca with a wide cement path winding alongside it to meander by the bayou. Next door, Palmettos on the Bayou features a Cajun brunch on Saturdays.
Embrace nature at Fontainebleau State Park on an all-terrain track wheelchair now available for public use. The electric-powered chair is free to use, and reservations are required 48 hours in advance. Wheelchair-accessible cabins are currently under construction, slated to re-open in summer 2024.
More than 4,000 free-roaming endangered, exotic and threatened animals live at the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom. Hop aboard a wheelchair-accessible covered wagon for a guided tour and feed the wildlife, such as free-roaming bison, giraffes and kangaroos.
Shop for one-of-a-kind finds to take home at many shopping venues across the parish. On Saturdays, the Mandeville Trailhead Community Market vendors sell prepared foods, fresh produce and a slew of arts and crafts. Booths line wheelchair-accessible sidewalks.
