Outdoor Adventures INSIDE The Year of Natural WondersThe Year of Natural Wonders From Alabama’s Gulf Coast to its mountainous north, naturalFrom wonders Alabama’s abound. Gulf Coast Someto areits mountainous well known, north, and somenatural are hidden wonders gems. abound. MakeSome 2020 are the well year known, to check and some are hidden gems. eightMake of them 2020 off the yearyour to list check of placeseight to ofvisit. them off your list of places to visit. by Kim Nix by Kim Nix This page: Compass/Chris Granger page: Compass/Chris This www.alabama.travel | 5 near Heflin until the road Northeast Alabama ends at Adams Gap Road and also harbors the Forest Service Road 600. This 5 Little River Canyon, route travels over the summit designated a national preserve and through the Talladega by public law. Eroded by National Forest, passing rural water over millions of years, landscapes dotted with rock the canyon’s rock bluffs drop outcroppings and rolling hills. by more than 600 feet in ALABAMA’S ABUNDANT Stop at Cheaha State Park for some spots. The Little River, WATER, VARIED ECOSYSTEMS, excellent views and to officially which flows atop Lookout DENSE FORESTS AND GEOLOGY note the U.S. Geological Mountain and through the COME TOGETHER TO CREATE Survey’s high point marker in canyon, provides recreation for A LAND THAT IS IMMENSELY front of Bunker Tower, one of hikers, anglers and paddlers. BIODIVERSE. In fact, the several stone buildings built by Little River Falls marks the Yellowhammer State contains President Franklin Roosevelt’s beginning of the canyon and a greater variety of animals and Civilian Conservation Corps is one of the highlights of the plants than any other state east (CCC). On a clear day, you can area, particularly following a of the Mississippi River. Mild see for miles from the top of rainfall. Although not usually weather and regular rainfall the observation tower. Down associated with mountainous a theater, and national park longest natural bridge east result in a longer growing season below, poke around the CCC terrain, a bog exists in the staff can answer questions of the Rocky Mountains. The for plants, which, in turn, supports museum to learn about the canyon and garners interest and recommend hikes and landmark formed as sandstone a more favorable habitat for men who helped establish the for endangered green pitcher observation areas. washed away and left iron ore wildlife. In addition, past geo- state park. plants that grow here. This behind. Due to safety concerns, logical processes have exposed carnivorous plant traps insects Cathedral Caverns has visitors cannot walk across the a mixed terrain of rocks and in its tube-shaped leaves and been open to visitors bridge, but you can observe soil types—layered factors that digests them with enzymes. If OPPOSITE: A FISHERMAN CASTS since 2000, when it its magnificence from below make it easy for more than NEAR CLUMPS OF CAHABA you come across one, consider 6 was declared a state park after after paying a small entrance 4,500 documented species of LILIES ON THE CAHABA RIVER; yourself fortunate, and take it was purchased from a private fee. Take a picnic and hike the flora and fauna to call Alabama THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: only pictures. Learn more owner. Although the above- one-mile loop. While in the home. To celebrate this NATURAL BRIDGE IN NATURAL about the canyon at the Little BRIDGE, DISMALS CANYON ground amenities should not area, keep your eyes open for surprising variety of nature and River Canyon Center. The IN PHIL CAMPBELL be ignored—camping, hiking eastern hemlock. The area natural areas, 2020 is the Year building houses exhibits and of Natural Wonders. Turn this and gem mining—the real draw is one of the few places in year’s vacation into one filled here is underground. Step Alabama where this graceful, with wild treasures. into the caverns’ 126-foot- shade-tolerant conifer grows. wide entrance, accessible to wheelchairs, and embark on About 13 miles south The Yellowhammer State contains a greater a 90-minute, guided tour of of Russellville lies karst topography—sinkholes, 8 Dismals Canyon, variety of animals and plants than any other state underground streams and a privately owned, 85-acre caves etched into area sandstone gorge with large east of the Mississippi River. limestone. The tours, available rock formations and two year-round and multiple times waterfalls. Many years of per day, lead to one of the moving water sculpted the Sugar-white Gulf Just north of Mobile center’s decks, or via exhibits shoals of the Cahaba River largest stalagmite columns in topography into rock shelters, Coast beaches line the Bay spreads the or a nature film. Stop into the provide. While the Cahaba the world. At 45 feet tall and natural rock bridges and a 1 southernmost points 2 260,000-acre Mobile- Cypress Gift Shop to browse River sustains the largest 243 feet in circumference, it is 16-inch-wide rock squeeze of Alabama. The ultra-fine Tensaw Delta, the second- nature-related gifts, unique population, notably in large appropriately named Goliath. known as “Fat Man’s Misery.” particles of quartz were largest wetland of this kind jewelry and wood crafts made stands and smaller clumps, Other formations include a Walk the 1.5-mile trail to see washed down from the in America. Rivers from the by local artisans. the lily also can be found in “frozen waterfall,” a “pipe and feel the formations while Appalachian Mountains and north flow into the flatlands the running shoals of Hatchett organ” and “cave bacon.” also delving into the lush deposited into the Gulf of and creep into lakes, marshes Alabama’s longest Creek and the Tallapoosa River. A stop here is particularly landscape of tulip poplars, Mexico’s turquoise waters and bogs. The twists and turns free-flowing river, the welcome on hot days since beech trees, hemlocks, mosses thousands of years ago. Today, here house cypress swamps 3 Cahaba, features an At the foothills of the caves’ temperature hovers and ferns. Visit on nights in visitors explore 32 miles of and bottomland hardwoods annual spectacle so special it the Appalachian around a cool 60 degrees. May and June when a unique sandy strands, including those teeming with deer, turtles has a festival named after it. 4 Mountains rises element lights up the canyon. shared with nesting sea turtles. and alligators. More than 300 On the third Saturday in May, Alabama’s highest natural For a natural wonder Dismalites, sometimes called Volunteers flag the nests species of birds have been the town of West Blocton point, Mount Cheaha, at 2,407 above ground, visit glowworms, are fly larvae every year to help sunseekers documented in the area. While celebrates the white, graceful feet above sea level. In the fall, 7 Natural Bridge. The (Orfelia fultoni) that emit a avoid crushing the turtles’ much of the delta is remote Cahaba lily with guided tours the mountain’s mix of oak and rock arch that also lends its bluish light to attract prey. eggs. From May to October, and best explored by water, during the Cahaba Lily Festival. hickory trees interspersed with name to the closest town Special guided night tours lucky walkers may witness you don’t have to venture The flower blooms in May and pines puts on a show of fall spans 148 feet across and reveal these dismalites, the a “boil,” when baby turtles into its deepest reaches to June and is found in only three colors to rival those found in 60 feet high to connect two only bioluminescent insect in hatch at the same time from see its natural beauty. At the Southern states. It requires more northern states. Check Above and opposite top: Ken Gables Photography, opposite bottom: ATD/Chris Granger ATD/Chris bottom: opposite Gables Photography, Ken top: and opposite Above land masses, resulting in the North America. an underground nest, emerge Five Rivers Delta Resource a specific habitat of swift- out the spectacle from the from the sand and make their Center in Spanish Fort, you moving water and lots of sun, 26-mile Talladega Scenic way to the water. can view some of it from the which is exactly what the rocky Drive, taking Highway 281 Granger ATD/Chris bottom: opposite Gables Photography, Ken top: and opposite Above www.alabama.travel | 7 6 | 2020 Alabama Vacation Guide & Calendar Hit the CelebrateCelebrate Alabama’s Alabama’s Year Year of Natural of Natural Wonders Wonders by following by following this collectionthis collection of trails,of trails, each each composed composed of hand-selected of hand-selected stops stops that thatshow show off theoff state’sthe state’s treasurestreasures from from the southern the southern Appalachians Appalachians to the to Gulf the Gulfof Mexico. of Mexico. TRAILS 22 HIKING | 26 CAVES | 28 WATERFALLS | 32 BIRDWATCHING | 34 PADDLING Clockwise from top left: Little River Canyon, Chewacla State Park, DeSoto Falls, Rickwood Caverns State Park, birding at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, WildNative Safari in the Mobile- Clockwise from top left: Shutterstock, ATD/Chris Granger, ATD/Dan Brothers, ATD/Chris Granger, courtesy of Wheeler NWR, ATD/Chris Granger NWR, ATD/Chris of Wheeler courtesy Granger, ATD/Chris Brothers, ATD/Dan Granger, ATD/Chris left: Shutterstock, top from Clockwise Tensaw Delta 20 | 2020 Alabama Vacation Guide & Calendar www.alabama.travel | 21 Appalachian 6 miles, or you can hike GET TO Access out and back at a distance KNOW Although not officially designated comfortable to you. Try THE —yet—many hikers consider Sweetwater Lake or RCW the Pinhoti the southernmost Nesting Area.