One Of New Orleans' Most Unexpected Tourist Attractions Is A Giant Unique Tree With Incredible Giraffe Views

It's not hard to make a case for New Orleans being the coolest, most unique city in the United States. Home to legalized on-the-street alcohol, mediums lining Jackson Square, tiny voodoo shops, two-story French architecture, jazz in its original birthplace, po' boys, crawfish, red beans and rice, and the occasional very, very bad weather: There really isn't any other place like it. But in case folks didn't realize, New Orleans has another nifty feature that might get overlooked in the jazzy stew and street side milieu: The Tree of Life. No, we don't mean Yggdrasil or that one, same-named tree from Genesis in the Bible. We mean a climbable, massive oak planted in 1740 that abuts one side of the giraffe pen in the nearby Audubon Zoo. If you're lucky, you might get to relive carefree childhood tree-climbing times and also spot the curious face of the world's most long-necked animal staring at you.

Granted, the Tree of Life — formally the elegantly named Étienne de Boray Oak — wasn't planted to help people gaze at mammals. The tree was planted only 22 years after the French founded New Orleans in 1718 and 144 years before non-indigenous animals started getting housed in the park in 1884. It's just a happy coincidence for travelers and locals that the Tree of Life's long-limbed branches have continued to grow and grow. 

Nowadays, the tree plays host not only to lots of climbing, but loads of wedding photos and the general interest of passersby and tourists. But if you want to climb the Tree of Life, proceed with caution. It's not explicitly illegal to climb trees in Audubon Park, like it is trees in City Park in New Orlean's north, but it might not be the most mannerly or respectful thing to do, either.

It might seem odd to make a single tree your destination while exploring a city as endlessly vibrant as New Orleans, but the Tree of Life in Audubon Park is a lesser known but equally iconic and unique facet of the New Orleans panorama. Located within eyeshot off East Drive along Audubon Park's eastern border, it'll take you about an hour to bus or tram it there from a tourist-heavy place like the historic French Quarter, St. Louis Cathedral, Café Du Monde, Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo full of mystical and magical items, the House of Blues, and all such other tourist favorites are located in the northeast of Southern New Orleans. That area also has historic eateries like the Napoleon House, reputedly once planned to be the hiding place of Napoleon Bonaparte, himself. Audubon Park is located opposite the French Quarter in the southwest near the Mississippi River, which might be why it's not so mobbed as other places. 

Nonetheless, when you get to the Tree of Life, you'll probably come across some other random people lining up to take photos. You might have a hard time spotting the Tree of Life, otherwise, as there's lots of big, old trees in New Orleans. But while the Tree of Life doesn't have poles holding up its branches trees like the even older McDonogh Oak in City Park (yet), it does have a nearby wall belonging to the Audubon Zoo. If someone's up in the Tree of Life's branches, gleefully exclaiming while pointing towards the zoo, then you might want to clamber up to have a look, too. Giraffe sightings await, aside from an elevated views of the park, itself. Just make sure to be careful so as not to injure yourself.

While a New Orleans zoo might make you think of Bourbon Street after hours (easily evaded by rolling down the music-and-food-filled Frenchman Street, instead), there's actually an honest-to-goodness, family-friendly zoo in New Orleans. Audubon Zoo lives inside Audubon Park and is full of an array of monkeys, lions, bears, snakes, and more, in addition to its two resident giraffes, Maverick and Fennesey. There's no telling which giraffe you'll spot if you climb the adjoining Tree of Life, but we're pretty sure you'll make a strange sight to either one of them.

The Audubon Zoo is actually part of an entire suite of facilities under the Audubon Nature Institute. In addition to the zoo, there's also an aquarium and insectarium,  all three of which are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can get tickets for each site individually, or in a bundle. The Nature Center, meanwhile, is comprised of multiple parks like Riverview Park and Wilderness Park, golf courses, tennis courts, and even a planetarium and theater, the Nature Dome Theater. 

In other words, even if you aren't bold enough to climb the Tree of Life in Audubon Park, there's plenty of other ways to get your nature fix. You can even see the giraffes from ground level in the zoo, anyway. Depending on how much time you've got, you can make a full day or two just of New Orlean's greener face. Otherwise, these sites make the perfect addition to an already full, lively, uniquely cool and weird New Orleans cityscape.