2018 Great Lakes Trip – Alabama & Georgia
Photo link:
Friday, May 18th – Thursday,
May 31st
Oak Mountain State Park, Birmingham,
Alabama
This was the third time we have
stayed at this state park, and we really love it. Even though there were a
couple of days of some rain, it was not enough to keep us off of the hiking and
biking trails. The mountain biking trails here are excellent and we enjoyed
riding them again. We took Kody and Luca on a great hike to the Eagle’s Nest
Overlook. This is a 3 mile round trip, steep, moderately strenuous hike up to
the top. The weather was great and we all enjoyed the afternoon on the trail.
Each time we hike up there we have never seen an eagles nest, but the hike was still
great. Another day we hiked the Yellow trail to a point called Maggie’s Glen,
then continued around the White trail for a 2.5 mile loop. The dogs always
enjoy stopping at the creek crossings to get in the water and get a big drink.
One afternoon when the weather
was beautiful, so we took snacks, drinks, and the dogs to the smaller lake
(Beaver Lake) to just relax and hang out. At this lake is a watersports park
called “Flip Side”, with cable tow lines for wake boarding. There are obstacles
in the water to maneuver. They teach wake boarding and host competitions. It
was very interesting and unique to see.
Oak Mountain State Park is one of
our “go backs” and we always stop there when traveling through Alabama. After
eight days of fun, we were ready to move north to NW Georgia.
Cloudland Canyon State Park, Rising
Fawn, Georgia
After spending a night at a
Walmart along the way (Saturday night on Memorial Day weekend there were no
campsites available anywhere), we arrived at this state park and got settled in
our site. This is a park where you can pick your site of any that are
available. We found a great one where we were even able to get a satellite
signal though the trees! This park is on the Cumberland Plateau on Lookout
Mountain in northwest Georgia.
One of our main interests in this
park was mountain biking trails, we were so excited to try some new trails. The
first day there was great, we drove around and did some small hikes along the
canyon rim to overlooks. The next day we took the dogs hiking down to the lower
falls. Half way through the hike it began raining and we encountered stairs
down to the canyon that were open metal grates. The dogs were not able to walk
on them because their feet would get caught in the grate. Oh well, we then
headed back to the campground after we were all soaking wet! The next day, Kurt went on his own to hike
down to the two waterfalls in the canyon floor. Despite the rain, he made it
through the hike and got some decent pictures of the falls.
So with the rainy weather, we
were not able to ride the mountain bike trails. We drove to the trail head and
walked back into the trails and found they were too wet and slippery to ride.
We were so disappointed to not be able to ride these trails as they were highly
rated.
During the five days that we were
there, Alberto storms rained on us for four days. We were all getting cabin (RV)
fever and were not able to get out and be active. What a bummer. So we just
decided we will have to come back here another time when it’s not hurricane
season. We did have fun watching the hummingbirds at our feeder, despite the
rain they were still visiting!
So on to our next adventure in
Tennessee at a great state park.
