Cameron Ferry

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) runs the Cameron Ferry directly across the Calcasieu Ship Channel, linking Marshall Street in Cameron with LA 27/LA 82 on the Holly Beach side. Without it, drivers on the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road face a detour of well over a hundred miles around the channel to reach Interstate 10, so the half-kilometer crossing is the only practical link for local traffic, oilfield and shrimping-industry trucks, and visitors touring the Gulf coast marshes. DOTD lists Cameron as one of only a handful of ferries it still operates statewide, and it is the only one of them that has historically run around the clock. That round-the-clock reputation comes with an asterisk right now. DOTD moved the ferry to a reduced weekly schedule in April 2026, and Cameron Parish has since been through a mechanical-issue closure (late August to early September 2026) that reopened with a 50-foot vehicle length limit still posted. A new hybrid diesel-electric vessel, the Holly Beach, arrived from the Lockport shipyard in mid-September 2026 as part of a multi-year, roughly $57 million replacement program, but it still needs several weeks of crew training and Coast Guard certification before it can carry traffic. DOTD is also negotiating a contract with a private operator, LabMar Ferry Services, to take over day-to-day operations. None of that is final, so the state runs the crossing for now. Tolls are charged in only one direction: crossing westbound from Cameron to Holly Beach costs $1 per car and 50 cents per walk-on passenger, while the eastbound return to Cameron is free. There's no online booking or ticket counter -- you pay when you board. Given how often this crossing has changed hands and hours in 2026, the safest plan is to call DOTD's ferry line at 1-888-613-3779, check 511la.org, or look at DOTD's live ferry-status page before driving out, especially with a long vehicle or during storm season in this hurricane-exposed parish.