Posts Tagged With: Alabama

Waterfalls of Little River Canyon, AL

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Doug and Jackie

For our first outing of spring 2022 we chose an area of northeastern Alabama that has been on our list for a few years: DeSoto State Park and the Little River Canyon National Preserve. It was about a 2 hour drive from home, so that was a very easy choice to do a shakedown trip for the start of the year; we are only staying 3 nights.

We unwrapped the RV from its winter cover and in preparation we sanitized the water tank, checked tires and had to replace the valve extension again on one set of rear tires in order to get pressurized. Aired out and packed up for a short trip, we had layers of clothes and hiking gear, ready for some hiking in either cool or warm weather. Kodi was in his crate and ready to roll as we connected the Jeep (much easier than the tow dolly) and headed northwest.

The drive took us through Cartersville to Rome and across the hills heading to Ft. Payne, Alabama where we had a pretty steep, steady climb up to the top of Lookout Mountain. It is part of the Cumberland Plateau, the southernmost extension of the Appalachian Plateau. It was another slow climb, but soon we crossed the Little River and caught a glimpse of the falls. A dozen miles further and we were in DeSoto State Park, disconnecting the Jeep and looking for our campsite. Alabama does a nice job with their campgrounds and the site was level gravel, plenty long enough and faced the woods. We went through the arrival routine to level, connect electric and water, run out the slides and set up chairs and tables.

It was still early in the day so we went for a hike around the park with Kodi, leaving the campground and trekking to Azalea Cascade, across some boardwalk and then to Indian Falls. Both were nice waterfalls on a creek that flowed into the Little River below us. Might have been a mile and a half in the cool, sunny afternoon, but the trail is covered with roots and rocks that reach up to grab your toes if you aren’t careful. So you look at the scenery when you stop, not while you walk.

Partridge berry

Indian Falls

Bluets

Azalea Cascade

We made our way along the twisty roller coaster roadway to the Canyon Mouth park at the bottom and stopped for lunch. A narrow trail along the river led to a lovely stream splashing its way to the river’s edge. It is about a week or two before most of the spring wildflowers will bloom, but we did see some of the early bloomers such as foam flower, bluets, violets, dwarf crested iris, mayapples poking up through the leaves, fern fiddleheads uncurling and a few others that I will have to research.

Back in camp we relaxed a bit before dinner, then enjoyed a deliciously grilled steak with a bottle of red wine and sat around the firepit (our easy propane one) until the stars came out and we got chilly.

On day three we were just finishing breakfast at the dinette when “whoosh” a big visitor flew down to the rotting stump next to us. It was a bright red and black pileated woodpecker and he was having a nice breakfast of bugs. Whack, whack into the stump went his beak. Jackie handed me the camera for a quick shot or two and then he flew closer to a tree that was maybe 4 feet away. Ok then, guess I will get the close-up. How wild – even though we have seen the birds on our travels and at home, this one was way cool.

We were set to drive a bit north to see the DeSoto Falls on the West Fork of the Little River so back in the Jeep we went. When we got to the main observation area for the falls and the picnic area it was closed off for dredging and maintenance, so we turned back about a mile to a trailhead for another spot to view the falls. This was another trail of roots, bare and rubble rock, and a few places where you had to definitely watch the edge. But the payoff was a gorgeous view of a waterfall framed by a wide circular canyon wall and a deep plunge pool below. There were also several private residences and cabins along the upper falls that must have spectacular views all year.

Along the trail

Overlook trail

After lunch at camp we trekked our final hike with Kodi to some falls further upstream from the Azalea Cascade in camp. The trail crossed lots of muddy springs and wet seeps across the exposed bedrock and a couple of stream crossings, but Kodi did fine and we found the Laurel Falls spot, with a half-dozen youngsters and dogs splashing in the pools of water below. Yikes, it had to be cold. What fun, though.

Laurel Falls

Categories: Outdoor Adventures | Tags: Alabama, camping, DeSoto State Park, Little River Canyon, motorhome, RV, RV camping, RV travel, waterfalls | 2 Comments

Sweet Spot Alabama

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Doug and Jackie

Georgia has lifted many of the stay-at-home restrictions caused by the corona-virus, but we remain housebound most of the time, researching future adventures. Our deck and backyard serve as our outdoor escape, and what with all the critters, we could almost believe we are at the edge of some wildlife refuge. (Is sleeping in the middle of the glass totems really the best spot?)

If you haven’t seen the videos of our backyard at night or the newborn fawn posing in front of the trail camera, you should take a moment to have a look now.

Fawn’s First Days
What Happens at Night?
More of What Happens at Night

We were supposed to be on a big ship headed to Alaska this week, but as you know, all cruises out of Seattle, Canada and Alaska are cancelled. So we lamented our lost adventure to see Orca, humpback whales, eagles and more, but had our own sail-away party from the upper deck anyway. Gosh, you should grab a drink and join us for the celebration!

Alaska Sail Away

And since the motorhome sitting in the driveway was a strong reminder that we ought to be out camping somewhere, Jackie and her sister Judy got on the computer and searched out a spot that would be halfway between us (she is in Nashville) and a fun spot to meet up for a few days. The result was Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama, just 4 hours away and northwest of Birmingham. It is actually the Clear Creek Recreation Area in the William Bankhead National Forest. They reserved adjoining sites and we headed out for a mid-week get-together.

It was a great choice and the midweek arrival meant we had our half of the campground practically to ourselves. The weather was sunny and cool, the campsites wooded and nicely separated and the water in the clear lake was a perfect temperature. The only downside was that only one restroom/shower building was open and it was not in our loop. We were actually fine, but it did make it inconvenient for anyone who didn’t have onboard facilities.

We played it pretty low-key. We paddled around the lake with our kayak and paddleboards, bobbed in the water of the swimming area and rode bikes along a really nice bike path that followed the lake edge. If you want to get a sense of the lake and the bike path, watch this brief video, but be advised, the biking is a bit disorienting.

Smith Lake Bike and Paddle video

Craig and I were delighted to learn that the nearest town of Jasper, maybe 20 miles off, had not one, but TWO breweries that were open. So of course we all had to trek into town and see what was on tap. Hands down the friendliest brewery was Twisted Barley, with most of the owner’s family helping out. We had flights of some really tasty beers – from IPAs to sours to pilsner and barrel-aged. Nice selection. We also ordered up some pizza and “pig wings” – little riblets that had a bit of a kick to them. Definitely worth a stop if you are in Jasper.

Maybe a block further down the street was the other brewery, Tallulah Brewing, with a really nice outdoor patio. We only stayed for a single beer, but it was a beautiful night out and the town was really quite cute, if a bit deserted.

As the weekend approached, more campers arrived and the boat traffic picked up, but we still had some nice paddles around in the lake. Soon it was time to pack up and head home, having spent a really nice couple of days in the woods.

It wasn’t without a few glitches, however, and this seems pretty typical when you are driving around in an older motorhome.

For some reason the electrical problem with the refrigerator (that I fixed back in the driveway) was back again. It meant that the fridge ran off of propane instead of electric, even when plugged in to shore power. The fix is to replace a 5 amp fuse on the control panel, which is difficult only because you can’t easily reach the screws that secure the cover on the back of the fridge. I replaced the fuse and all is well, so far, but I also replaced some screws with Velcro for easier removal of the panel cover the next time this happens (my knuckles thanked me).

The fridge fuse (on left) and control panel

And I have suspected a leak in the hydraulic system used to push the slides in and out and the leveling jacks down. I had to add a significant amount of fluid on our last trip and learned this trip that, yes indeed, we have a leak. While setting camp, we lowered the jacks to level up and began to move the slides out the sides until we lost pressure and things stopped. Since I was out of the transmission fluid used in the pump, a trip to town and the nearest NAPA dealer was in order. It was there that I also bought extra buss fuses to repair the fridge. Back in camp I added the extra fluid that allowed the slides to fully extend, but I was able to see the spot where we were leaking fluid while it was under pressure.

The area where the hydraulic fluid leaks

Of course I kept wondering if we would be able to fully retract the sides of the motorhome and get out of camp and back home. I discussed the problem with John, Craig and did some online research, but figured I had one shot at holding down the leak and getting back home to make repairs. And … that’s how it worked. I held pressure on the leak, Jackie flipped the switch to bring the slides in, fluid leaked but pressure on the spot kept it to a minimum and now I have to figure out how to make the repair. Not to worry, we won’t be headed out for at least 2 months.

So another adventure ends and a few more await us this fall. Thanks for reading along and stay tuned to learn about our next trip to Florida (St. Andrews SP, Henderson Beach SP and Anastasia State Park) for nearly a month.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Alabama, camping, Clear Creek Recreation Area, Jasper AL, Lewis Smith Lake, motorhome hydraulics, motorhome refrigerator, paddleboard, paddleboarding, RV adventures, RV camping, RV travel, Tallulah Brewing, Twisted Barley Brewing | Leave a comment

The Long Road Back

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Doug and Jackie

Vacations are wonderful, until it is time to head home. That’s the point in our trip for us, making the long drive back east from our fabulous trip to so many great state and national parks …. Glacier, Tetons, Yellowstone, Bighorn, Custer, Badlands … my, it was a lot. This may sound more like the “lightning round” of game shows, with many stops in many states, but we had a lot of ground to cover.

Tetons Last Day

Wyoming

We left those impressive mountains of Grand Tetons while the air was clearing just a bit and we saw them one last time. The drive southeast took us along the Hoback River through a very scenic canyon and then into the cute western town of Pinedale. The streets were wide, the shops all fishing and hunting themed and … woah, was that a brewery we just passed? What luck, it was lunchtime! We eased alongside the sidewalk, parked the van and walked back to Wind River Brewing for a delicious lunch of brats, reuben sandwiches and a flight of beer. One stand-out was their Mango Wheat, which they unfortunately did not have in cans to-go. Darn.

Wind River Brewing

Wind River Flight

On the nice 2-lane road south again we suddenly saw signs that said “pavement ends” .. what?? Well, one of the area road maintenance strategies is to remove the asphalt from the entire road for miles at a time (5 to 7), leaving a gravel washboard. This was one of those instances as “whomp” we left the pavement and rattled more slowly along the gravel. This is no fun in a motorhome towing a car – everything rattles. After several of these no-pavement stretches we hit Interstate 80 at Rock Springs and kept driving east to reach Rawlins, Wyoming, stopping at a KOA to hook into wifi, cable TV and to check on the progress of hurricane Irma.

We were pretty deadly on butterflies it seems …

Rawlins KOA

Rawlins, WY

Nothing remarkable, but clearer skies with the smoke of western wildfires left behind. Next day as we got set to continue east, we noticed that we lost a hubcap on the car somewhere along the washboard gravel roads, dangit!

Depot in Cheyenne

Accomplice Brewing

Checking in at Accomplice

Approaching Cheyenne, we checked online to find a cool brewery was in town, and since it was lunchtime again, we headed downtown to find Accomplice Brewing in the old train depot. What a cool area that is being redeveloped. Cheyenne seems to like their cowboy boots, many of which are decorated around town.

Great way to serve yourself!

Something special at this brewery was a pour your own feature. In the tap area you choose the style of glass you want (pilsner, sampler, snifter, pint) and then choose from 14 beers. You get a plastic magcard to record your samplings, place it against the screen above the tap and it tells you how many ounces you are pouring and what the final cost of your pour is. You settle up when you leave.

Since it was lunch, we ordered a plate of pork nachos (on house kettle chips) that hit the spot, with a couple of pretzels and beer cheese to go with it. Nice bit of heat to accompany the various brews on tap. We liked the sours, saisons and hefeweisen.

Nebraska

Back in the camper again and heading down the road, we crossed into Nebraska, a new state for us, and made it to Ogallala to stop for the night. Driving through southern Wyoming and into Nebraska was pretty much a lot of sagebrush scrub flatlands, becoming a bit more cornfields and crops in Nebraska, but still pretty wide open plains and not a lot of trees. Ogallala’s campground was in the middle of a cornfield and you could smell the corn on that warm night.

Kansas

Salina KOA

From mid-Nebraska we turned south after following the Platte River and stayed the night in Salina, Kansas. Lots more cropland, as the land flattened out and you could see hay, corn and soybeans being harvested. The next day we were approaching Wichita round about lunchtime and lucky for us there were several breweries in town. Well, you could hardly pass up the chance to stop for gas and then have lunch at one of them, so we found ourselves a nice big parking lot near the Old Town section of Wichita and headed for River City Brewing. We were very impressed with this part of town, which had brick-cobbled streets and many old warehouse apartment conversions and plenty of restaurants and shops.

River City Brewing

Ordered a flight of beer at RCB and Jackie got a thin crust pizza that was delicious (she shared some) and Doug ordered mac ‘n cheese with Kansas City sausage and barbecue sauce on top – really good food. Nice spot and easy access for us. Back at the camper, Kodi and Merlin were quite content and off we went to find a spot for the night further south. I found myself humming Glen Campbell songs along the way …

Oklahoma

We crossed into Oklahoma, another new state for us, and found an odd city park along a lake just off Interstate 35 north of Oklahoma City. The city of Perry had this grassy bluff of 10 pull-through campsites, full utilities, on a pay-at-the-box basis. What fun – just four of us there for the night, listening to cows in the distance and looking up into a dark night sky. Oklahoma has very few trees, too. Mostly grasslands and cropland, but you sure can see the horizon easily.

Arkansas

Lake Dardanelle

Ok then, more driving yet to go. Up and out in the morning, we passed around Oklahoma City and drove east into Arkansas, making our way east on Interstate 40 to Russellville and another cool discovery: Lake Dardanelle. It is an impoundment of the Arkansas River and the state park that offered camping was quite nice. Maybe 4 of us in camp that night. Our goal was to make it to Hot Springs National Park the next day to stay in their campground, but it was not reservable, so we wanted to get their early. It was not a long trip, only an hour and a half, but it was a “scenic” route, which we know means curvy, hilly and slow going. But we got there, got a nice spot and unhitched the car (back-in sites) so we could also go into town.

Hot Springs National Park

Hot Springs can give you the impression that it has seen better days, and indeed it has: around the turn of the century. The hot baths that sprung up because of the hot mineral springs are all now part of the national park as bathhouse row and you can tour a few of them.

A few still operate as bathhouses and spas, and one, to our delight, was a brewery. I think maybe we have the strangest luck, finding these beer joints nearly everywhere. We had to patronize Superior Brewing, ordering a flight of 4 beers each and texting family about it, when Alex hit us back to say they had been there last Christmas. Nearly the same seats at the bar, too.

Superior Brewing inside the bathhouse

A flight from Superior

So we walked around town, noticing that the downtown businesses were trying for a turnaround, several of them pretty decent shops and such. We stopped to splash our hands in one of the open spring pools, only to learn that “ouch” that water is hot! Unlike Yellowstone’s steam vents, geysers and hot springs, nearly all of the hot springs in the park and town were capped off years ago by the government. But a few are free spigots for you to fill your jug – just be aware it is HOT spring water.

Louisiana and Mississippi

Still more miles to go, so we set off again the next day toward our destination of Grayton Beach, Florida. We were still a couple days off, so our next stopping point was south through Arkansas, into Louisiana and over to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Arkansas really flattens out as you go south and east toward the Mississippi River, with lots of cropland that was being harvested. The overnight at Vicksburg was a Good Sam campground connected to the riverside casino. Basic spot with utilities, but we did avail ourselves of the free shuttle to the casino to get something to eat (unfortunately, a less than average meal) and watch the sun set over the river. That was worth it, not so much the smoky casino.

Alabama

This next day we drove around Jackson toward Hattiesburg and further south around Mobile and Mobile Bay to camp at a spot off Interstate 10 just west of Pensacola, Florida.. It was so hot and humid as we pulled in, all we wanted was to connect to electricity and get the AC going. It seems that the engine AC lost charge and was only spewing warm air out of the dash for the past two days, and we were now definitely back in the humid south. As Jackie is trying to connect the electric, a whopper of a thunderstorm was brewing and crackling around us. All connected, but nothing happened. Seems the circuit breaker in camp was not working. Asked the owner to move us, he had to check it out for 10 minutes (uhh, not working, right?) and then we got the ok to move sites. BAM! The thunder struck, Jackie quickly connected, we leveled up and huddled inside while the rain came down and the temperature inside dropped, finally.

Florida

Still wet and humid the next day, we made our final drive along I-10 into the Florida panhandle and Grayton Beach State Park. Quick as we could, we disconnected the car, made camp and headed to the beach for a swim. Gorgeous water, beautiful beach — we cooled off and shed the dusty west. Dan and Terri from home were vacationing here this week and the plan was to meet up and revisit some of our favorite breweries here. First night we had a delicious meal at Café 30A, told tales of our bold adventure and watched the sun set over the gulf.

Dan, Terri, Jackie and I at Craft Bar in Grayton Beach

Another night we drove to Grayton Beer company and enjoyed some of their brews while munching on sub sandwiches. Plans for Idyll Hounds the next night were to be followed by a visit to a local music spot for open mic night. Dan and Terri wanted a chance to play a set and have some fun. Well, the AC repairs nixed plans a bit …

Since the AC in the engine section of the RV seemed to quit the moment we hit Mississippi and the hot, humid weather, I called a mechanic to pay a visit and make repairs. Steve, the Mobile Mechanic arrived and pronounced the AC compressor bad, in fact bad enough that we would not have made it home without a breakdown. You may recall that just last October we had that replaced, so I will be arguing the warranty with the shop back home. Two days later we had a new compressor and were ready to roll again. Thanks, Steve.

Idyll Hounds

Our brewery visit plans were almost ruined, but all was not lost. We did manage our Idyll Hounds visit and then went on to Craft Bar to try a few other regional beers and have some good eats. What fun with our really good brew peeps from home!! Thanks, Terri and Dan.

Grayton Beach State Park is beautiful and you can’t beat the white sand beaches and clear water for swimming. This part of the gulf and Florida missed the fury of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey and, combined with the sunny weather, was just delightful.

Soon it was time to make one final hitch connection for the car, pull up the leveling jacks, bring in the slides and head for home. As we drove through Alabama on our way to Georgia, we marveled at this long journey and how far we had come: north from home across the heartland to the Rocky Mountains and nearly over the Canadian border; back down through the central plains along the Mississippi River to the gulf shores. We saw so many special places, spectacular scenery, amazing wildlife and had so many unique experiences that surely we will be thinking of this trip for months to come.

Sixteen states, 5,700 miles, one dented-up Rav-4, one missing hubcap, three grizzly bears, one cracked windshield, seven moose, two bald eagles, six wolves, one AC compressor, three black bears, two weak house batteries, herds of buffalo, several geysers and a lot of hiking … are we the winners of the Amazing Race yet?

Thanks for joining us along the way. I hope it will help you plan your own adventures and bring you as much fun as we had. Let us know what you liked!

Until next time, when the adventure continues …