Oak Mountain and Space Rockets

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From Auburn, we have a beautiful day for a drive up towards Birmingham Alabama. We have reserved a spot in Oak Mountain State Park about 20 miles or so southeast of town. We have camped here for a week once before back in March 2015 and had loved it. It is definitely our kind of place. At just under 10,000 acres, it is the largest state park in Alabama. It is about eight miles long and a mile and a half wide. There are over 50 miles of multi use trails, a nice campground and well over 300 geocaches hidden in the park! And while I wouldn’t call them mountains, it is a very hilly park with many of the trails either along the ridge lines or the valleys. The last time we were here, we had entered from the south entrance but from Auburn, it would be closer to come in from the north since the campground is on the north end of the park as well. We called to confirm this entrance was accessible for a big rig and were told no problem. 

As we made the turn into the park, we questioned whether this was a good idea or not. The road is fairly narrow with just enough room for us and an oncoming car. We pray we don’t come upon another rig or large truck heading out of the park. The road winds up and over one of the many hills. As we approach the entrance booth, the attendant tells us the left hand turn is really tough for rigs our size and we should have gone around the wrong side of the booth to make it easier. Now he tells us! We don’t have any real problems but I suspect on future visits, we will come in from the south. 

We check in for our five day stay. We would have liked to stay here longer, but we couldn’t get a spot over the weekend so Sunday to Friday will have to do. Our site was big enough for our rig but at first glance, it looked quite sloped. Before backing in, I determine that the site was crowned front to back and if I position the rig properly, it shouldn’t be a problem. This is where having a gizmo called the LevelMatePRO comes in real handy. It connects to my phone via Bluetooth and shows me, in inches, how unlevel the rig is at each wheel. I just back in until I’m good front to back.

On our first day, we head to the Alabama Wildlife Center. For some reason we had not checked this place out on our last visit but it sounded interesting. It is a nonprofit that takes care of birds from all over the state. There are several buildings and enclosures for birds. We wander around the facility to see what they have. At one point we see one of the volunteers walking around with a young barn owl perched on a glove. She tells us it’s okay to approach. This owl and his siblings were brought to the center after the mother was accidentally killed. The others were nursed along and were able to be released but this one had some sort of spine defect and would need to spend its life at the center. It was definitely alert to all the activity in the surrounding trees. I think it really wanted to go after one of the nearby squirrels.

Barn Owl

Looking Around

Alabama Wildlife Center

Hawk is Watching Us

After our visit, we headed back to the car for lunch and then went on a 5 mile hike on some of the trails near the center. Having spent so much time in flat Florida, we found the hills here to be a good workout. The park definitely reminds me of some of the hiking back in western New York. Many of the trees and other plants at Oak Mountain are the same as we would find back home. The next morning we get in another 5 mile hike but this time one right out of the campground. The nice thing about the geocaching here in this park is that the caches aren’t all the same style of hide. We even found some creative ones along our morning hike.

Creative Cache Hide in Woods

Lonely Fireplace

Pretty Wild Iris

Some friends that used to live in the Birmingham area had told us of a few things to see in the area. We weren’t sure we would even get outside of Oak Mountain since there are always more hikes to tackle, but we aren’t in good enough shape to hike from dawn to dusk, so we head into town to check out Vulcan Park and Museum. Most people might think we are heading to some sort of Star Trek attraction dedicated to Mr Spock, but it is actually something quite different. Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and forge. Birmingham has a rich iron history and back in the early 1900’s, the town decided to commission a statue of Vulcan to be shown at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis to highlight its industry. The statue itself is 56 feet tall and weighs in at just shy of 51 tons. It sits atop a 124 foot tower that is on Red Mountain overlooking downtown Birmingham. 

Vulcan Tower

Entrance to Tower

From Behind Elevator Tower

The park itself is open to the public but admission to the museum and tower will cost you $6. Well worth the price. The museum shows the history of the iron industry in Birmingham and explains how the ore is processed to make the iron used in many other industries. The refurbished tower and statue has an elevation off to the side that most people take to the top but we decide to climb the stairs since we need to know how many steps there are in order to answer a question for a virtual geocache at the tower. There really isn’t a spot within the park to get a good picture of Vulcan. Even up on the catwalk that goes around the outside of the tower, the only really view of the statue is his bare butt! Not sure if Vulcan was known to go commando or if they ran out of time or iron to fashion him some pants. This was a neat place to stop while in the area.

View of Birmingham

Big Foot

Bun Shot

Visitor Center from Tower

The following morning was a bike ride around Double Oak Lake within Oak Mountain. We start on the tame sounding Family Trail and then turn onto Rattlesnake Ridge which dumps us onto the Lake Trail which comes around the dammed end of the lake and then back to the park road to the car. It was a nice 7 mile ride and not too technical.

The Only Challenging Part of Bike Trail

Beach Area at Double Oak Lake

Path Over Dam

Colorful Boats

Butterflies Like Mud

Two Posing

In the afternoon we head back into town to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens which isn’t all that far from Vulcan Park. The gardens are adjacent to the zoo as well but we didn’t have the time to check out both. The gardens have the added benefit of being free to the public. It turned out to be a much bigger place that we imagined - 67 acres - and has miles of walking paths through all sort of different types of gardens. The place was developed back in the 1960’s and is quite nicely maintained. We spent the better part of the afternoon there and had many areas we only passed by. They have such a wide variety of plants and so many of them were in bloom.

Mini Vulcan at Botanical Garden

Bubbling Fountain

Clock in Front of Conservancy

Unique Clock

The One O'Clock Position

Flower Looks Like Fireworks

Japanese Garden Entrance

Heron Looks Over Pond

Red Bridge in Japanese Garden

On our last full day, rain was forecast for the afternoon so we got out after breakfast for another hike that started just up from the campground. It would be possible to just walk from the campground to the North Lakes Connector Trail but with the rain on its way, we figured we could save a mile or two by driving to the trailhead. This was a very pleasant trail. Had we known, we might have opted to ride the bikes instead since the terrain and conditions were relatively easy. Oh well, maybe next trip. At the far end of the trail is another parking area for the two lakes on the north end of the park - Oak Mountain and Lunker Lakes. There was a nicely done geocaching “hotel” for travel bugs right next to the parking lot and trailhead. There were a series of geocaches just in the woods along the opposite side of the main park road heading back to camp. We had assumed a trail was over there, but we never found one. Once we heard the approaching thunder, we skipped the remaining caches and hustled back to the car to avoid getting soaked. Even with us staying at Oak Mountain for a total of 12 nights, our map below shows we still have a lot more geocaching to do in order to “clear out” this park.

Travel Bug Hotel

Our Geocaching Map at Oak Mountain

Our Site at Oak Mountain

Fortunately the rain that came through was gone for our travel day. It’s never fun packing up in the rain. Our next drive was a bit further north in Alabama. We wanted to go to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. We had scoped out an Elks Lodge in nearby Decatur when we were figuring out our route a month or so ago. Before we left Birmingham, I was checking out the area around the rocket center only to realize they actually have a well reviewed campground on the property. Of course we were coming in on a Friday and when Chris called to see if they had availability for the weekend, we got the anticipated response so it was off to the Elks Lodge. 

The lodge has five 50 amp pedestals back behind the building. There is even a large concrete pad that appears to have been the floor of some former building but that was nice and flat and worked out well for us. We had arrived before the lodge was open so we headed to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge which we had passed just on the outskirts of Decatur on our drive into town. There is a nice visitor center with all sorts of displays. Apparently this is the place to be to see all sorts of birds as they migrate through the area. We aren’t here at the right time of year. In early January, they get over 20,000 sand hill cranes in the refuge! We headed out to an observation building and are impressed to find quite an elaborate building with a full glass wall overlooking of the marshes. There were only a couple birds spotted in the water but we may need to put this place on our list of things to do. On our way out, we stopped to talk with the refuge volunteers. They are fellow full time travelers in a motorhome but they tend to do a lot of these types of volunteer gigs where they get a free campsite for putting in so many hours per week. Maybe someday, we will slow down enough to give something like this a try?

Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

View Thru Window of Observation Building

Back at the lodge, we go in to register and pay. Each lodge tends to be different in how they handle traveling Elks. This lodge was very casual about it. No paperwork to fill out. I only needed to show my valid Elks card. Our first beers were free and while we were chatting to the bartender, we asked about Friday dinner. After seeing the menu, we decided to go back out to the rig and finish setting up before coming back over for some good shrimp and chicken fingers. When I went to the bar to get a couple more beers to go with dinner, it came to $3 for 2 beers! I don’t recall beer this cheap even back on my college days. 

The following day we drive over to Huntsville. The US Space and Rocket Center is easy to spot with several large rockets on display and visible for miles. We opt for the museum and movie package at $30 per person. We had several movie choices and times so we pick one just after lunch figuring it will feel good to sit down by then. We have been to our fair share of this type of museum. The National Museum of the US Air Force near Dayton Ohio; the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC; and the White Sands Missile Range Museum in Alamogordo NM to name a few. There are several buildings to explore as well as the outside grounds. It is a pretty big place with lots to see and do.

Astronaut Chris

Rockets

International Space Station Toilet

Being there on a Saturday meant it was pretty crowded. Plus there were a couple bus loads of Girl Scouts there for the day. Let’s just say there weren’t many quiet spots and any type of gizmo to play with or sit in always seemed to be busy. The cool thing about this place is something called Space Camp. It is intended for children to come for various number of days where they get to actually do all sorts of space related activities. At least one of the current astronauts participated in the program years ago as a kid. They also have adult programs. At one of the displays, we saw a couple of adults dressed in space suits and hoisted in the air by a lift to allow them to pretend they were doing work during a space walk. 

Space Camp Participants on Far Left

We covered a lot of ground during the morning and then headed to the Mars Grill for some lunch. We just beat one of the large groups of kids so the line wasn’t too bad and the food was edible and not exorbitantly priced. From here we headed over to the last building that we needed to checkout which also is the location of the theater. The movie we we saw was called “Space Next” and was in 3D. It basically gave a history of space exploration with a fair amount of forward looking thinking as to what’s next. It was pretty good and it did feel good to sit in a comfortable chair for a bit. 

Moon Rock

Not Sure Why, But the Word GEOCACHE in Display

After the movie we explored the rest of this rather large building. There were tons of displays and interactive demos. There must have been some large dinner event that evening since the one end of the room was being setup with scores of tables and a few hundred chairs. So what was our bottom line impression of this museum. I would say it was okay but the other three I mentioned were better and all those were free. The outdoor displays were in need of some painting. This is where the dry desert air of New Mexico is a benefit versus the humidity of Alabama. If you are in the area, it’s worth the stop.