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Jungle Gardens on Avery Island is a popular destination that should not be missed when visiting Lafayette, Lake Charles or New Orleans in the southwestern area of Louisiana.

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The garden is a tranquil, hidden oasis on top of a giant salt dome, which began to form more than 150 million years ago. Avery Island is also home to the legendary TABASCO® brand hot sauce factory.

The Tabasco hot sauce factory is the only place in the world where they manufacture and produce this hot sauce. Take a tour of the Tabasco Factory before embarking on the three- mile, self-guided driving tour of the beautiful Jungle Gardens.

Avery Island

Avery Island boasts more than 100 historic buildings, along with many archaeologically significant sites. The 2,200-acre area is on the National Register of Historic Places to ensure the protection and preservation of the archaeological and architectural integrity of the site.

The island is surrounded by a salt marsh, cypress swamp, and bayou. The word “bayou” is a French term for a slow-moving small steam, derived from the Choctaw Indigenous word “bayuk.” Its rich natural resources include oil production started in 1942, and salt mining in 1862.

The Avery and McIlhenny families have owned the island for almost 200 years. The McIlhenny family has been making the world-famous Tabasco hot sauce on the island for 160 years.

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Avery Island Salt Dome

Avery Island sits on a huge salt dome. It is the largest of five salt domes along Louisiana’s coast.

The dome is 163 ft (50 m) high and 2 mi (3.2 km) in diameter. Scientists believe the salt dome began to form more than 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period and could extends miles underground — similar to an upside down mountain the height of Mount Everest.

Since prehistoric times, salt has been extracted from the island and Indigenous peoples started collecting salt from brine spring water. Early settlers to the area began extracting salt using the same method.

Avery Island historic marker for the first rock salt mine. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Rock salt on display in the Tabasco Museum on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Avery Island Salt Dome Atchafalaya Water Heritage Trail. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Things to do in Avery Island

Tabasco Tour Experience

Learn everything about Tabasco. The Tabasco Tour Experience provides insights into the production of the iconic hot pepper sauce from start to finish. It includes a visit to the Tabasco Museum, Tabasco Factory, Tabasco Store and Restaurant 1868. Here’s a map showing the facilities on the tour.

The iconic sauce got its start when Edward McIlhenny, the inventor of Tabasco, planted some seeds for Capsicum frutescens peppers he was given from Mexico.

Did you know that the original name of the popular hot sauce was “Petite Anse Sauce?” It was renamed shortly after to Tabasco, a Mexican word meaning, “land where the soil is humid” or “place of coral or oyster shell.”

Capsicum frutescens peppers are grown to make Tabasco sauce on Avery Island. Photo: Kevin Wagar©

Tabasco Museum

The first part of the Tabasco tour experience is a stop at the museum.

The self-guided tour covers all aspects of the history of the people and the land, Avery Island Conservation and production of the hot sauce, including the pepper greenhouse and barrel warehouse, and the salt mining.

Historic photo of the McIlhenny Company Tabasco truck and workers

Tour the Tabasco Factory

Visit the Tabasco Factory to see the entire process that goes into the making this iconic hot pepper sauce. It takes nearly five years to go from planting the seeds to the final production of bottling the sauce.

After the peppers reach the perfect shade of red they are harvested and crushed with salt to make what is called a mash. This concoction is aged for up to three years in white oak barrels. At the end of this aging, the peppers are graded into flavour and heat level.

Vinegar is added and it is aged for up to another three weeks. The mash is then strained to leave only pure liquid to be bottled.

Outside the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Large vats of Tabasco inside the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island near Lafayette Louisiana. Photo: Kevin Wager©

Large vats inside the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island near Lafayette, Louisiana. Photo: Kevin Wager©

White oak barrels inside the Tabasco Factory. Photo: Kevin Wager©

The production line inside the Tabasco Factory. Photo: Kevin Wager©

Little Red Stick used by Tabasco pepper pickers to check color for ripeness. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Tabasco Store

Hot sauce lovers can sample all varieties, flavors and heat levels of hot pepper sauces created by the factory. Hot pepper jellies, Bloody Mary mix, chili starters, barbecue sauces and an assortment of other products are also available.

The newest addition to the lineup is a limited edition Avocado Jalapeño Hot Sauce Dressing.

Every kind of Tabasco® pepper sauce and related products inside the Tabasco Factory Shop. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Restaurant 1868

Next to the museum and store, step inside Restaurant 1868 to try some true southwestern Louisiana Cajun-style food — spiced up with Tabasco sauce, of course.

We tried the $8 Boudin Eggrolls and the $13 Sampler. The two deep-fried eggrolls are stuffed with boudin (sausage) and pepper jack cheese along with tangy pepper jelly.

The Sampler is a cup each of three popular southern dishes, including crawfish etouffee, chicken and sausage gumbo, and red beans on rice.

Prices are very reasonable. See a menu.

Outside Restaurant 1868 at the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Outside Restaurant 1868 on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Boudin eggrolls stuffed with boudin and pepper jack cheese with a cup of Tabasco spicy pepper jelly at the Restaurant 1868 on Avery Island.

Boudin eggrolls stuffed with sausage and pepper jack cheese with a cup of Tabasco spicy pepper jelly at the Restaurant 1868 on Avery Island.

The sampler served at Restaurant 1868 includes Crawfish Etouffee, chicken and sausage gumbo and red beans. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr@

Jungle Gardens of Avery Island

Take a three-mile, self-guided driving tour of the semi-tropical, 170-acre Jungle Gardens. This beautiful, peaceful area first opened to the public in 1935, and is a great spot to enjoy nature at its best. Naturalist Edward Avery McIlhenny, son of E. McIlhenny, the inventor of Tabasco sauce, began creating the gardens on his estate in the 1920s. Edward collected botanical exotics from around the world.

The garden houses one of the largest collections of live oak trees more than 100 years old, all dripping with Spanish moss. There are 64 varieties of bamboo and North America’s oldest timber bamboo groves. Also found in the garden are 251 varieties of camellias and an abundance of Azaleas.

The stunning gardens on Avery Island features a bird sanctuary, known as Bird City, and abundant wildlife, including white-tailed deer and alligators, inhabit the ponds and waterways.

Take a virtual tour here.

Avery Island Bird Sanctuary – Bird City

Conservationist Edward McIlhenny founded the private bird sanctuary, Bird City, around 1895, out of concern for the demise of the endangered snowy white egrets. The egret’s feathers used in women’s hats, were highly prized by local hunters and the number of birds rapidly declined.

McIlhenny started by raising eight birds in the protected aviary he created. He eventually released them to naturally migrate. The birds returned to their safe haven each spring, and their population grew to around 100,000 by 1911.

Snowy white egrets continue to migrate to Bird City along with other birds. The best time to see these fine birds is from February to April each year. Birdwatching tours are available all year.

Here is a list of the birds found in the gardens.

Snowy white egrets take refuge at Bird City in Jungle Gardens Avery Island in Iberia Parish. Photo: Kevin Wagar©

Photos of Jungle Gardens on Avery Island

Alligators inhabit the ponds of Avery Gardens near LaFayette Lousiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Alligators and wild birds inhabit the ponds of Avery Gardens near LaFayette Louisiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Take a tour of beautiful Avery Island near LaFayette Louisiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

A Buddha 900 years old watches over a section of the tranquil grounds of Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Jungle Gardens Avery Island near LaFayette Lousiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Take a Jungle Garden tour on Avery Island to see the stunning gardens. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

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Fun Facts about Jungle Gardens on Avery Island

It’s a 170-acre semi-tropical garden created by Edward McIlhenny, son of Tabasco® founder, on part of the family’s 2,200 acre estate.
Edward McIlhenny founded the private bird sanctuary, Bird City, around 1895.
He saved nearly extinct snowy egrets and by 1911, their numbers grew to 100,000 birds.
He brought back the white-tail deer population.
A 900-year-old Buddha watches over a section of the tranquil zen-like grounds.

A Buddha 900 years old watches over a section of the tranquil grounds. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Alligators inhabit the ponds.
Pepper plants are grown to be used in the factory to make Tabasco.
There are 251 varieties of camellias and an abundance of Azaleas.
There are 64 varieties of bamboo.
It is one of the largest collections of live oak trees more than 100 years old, dripping with Spanish moss.
The exotic garden plants come from all over the world.
Did you know Spanish moss is not a moss? It is a flowering plant called epiphytic or ‘air plant.’ This type of plant grows typically on trees or on top of other plants and does not have roots in the ground. It is in the same family of plants as pineapples and orchids.

Beautiful Jungle Gardens on Avery Island is full of giant live oak trees. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Giant live oak trees on the tranquil grounds of Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. Photo: wendy Nordvik-Carr©

How to get to Avery Island

How to get to Avery Island from Lafayette

Avery Island is a short 50 minute (30.7 mi) ,mostly along Highway 90.

While traveling along Highway 90 through Iberia County, watch for the abundance of sugar cane plantations. The Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival is held the last weekend in September in New Iberia to celebrate everything sugar and the end of harvest. This fun family-focussed event includes several parades, entertainment and lots of food.

How to get to Avery Island from New Orleans

Jungle Gardens and the Tabasco Factory it is a two hour and 15 minute (137 mi) drive, without traffic or stops from New Orleans.

How to get to Avery Island from Lake Charles

Take a full-day road trip or longer from Lake Charles to Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, traveling 5.5 hours, round trip without stops. This amazing journey passes through the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road. Services are limited along the route, but the natural experience along the scenic byway are definitely worth checking out.

With 400 different species of birds, this area is considered one of the top birding places in North America. The road rims the Gulf of Mexico with plenty of access to beaches and marshland in Louisiana’s outback wilderness. A word of caution — remember American alligators live in the freshwater lakes, swamps and bayous of the southwest.

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