After our adventure through the Unclaimed Baggage Center — and leaving with some great deals — we ventured from Scottsboro to Woodville, home to Cathedral Caverns. This guided tour is 90 minutes one way and on your way out, you can take your time with your camera, admiring the beauty of this natural wonder. In 1953, Jay Gurley began exploring this unknown cave. He explored each room of the cavern, which is more than two miles long. The entrance is 25 feet high and 126 feet wide; this massive entrance is the perfect start to what you will see when you step inside.
When Gurley’s wife viewed the cave for the first time she said it looked like a grand cathedral, and the name stuck. Even as someone who has traveled to several caverns, this is without question the most beautiful cavern I’ve been to. The formations are huge and most of the stalagmites and stalactites in the back of the cave are still growing. One of the largest stalagmite formations in the world is in Cathedral Caverns, Goliath. Goliath measures 45 feet tall and 243 feet in circumference. The state bought Cathedral Caverns in 1987 and spent 13 years and over $5 million adding lights, concrete walkways and other amenities to the caverns before opening it as a state park in 2000. Although the tour concludes at the concrete walkway, the cave does continue on to a second stalagmite forest. Only experienced cavers are allowed into the other passages.
We were all in agreement that this was the coolest cavern we had seen. My mom, my sister and I then headed to the campground to prepare for dinner and bed. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any electricity for us to plug into — just a 30-amp hook up; we needed a 110-volt plug. Bad news: no fan tonight, and we were already feeling the heat and humidity. We cooked spaghetti, green beans and garlic bread for dinner that night. Call me crazy, but I think the fact that we cooked a great meal on a propane stove while camping made the food taste even better.
We were a little uncomfortable in the heat, but we set up the tent and headed to bed not knowing what was to come the next morning …
A little before 5 a.m., I found myself having to truck to the bathhouse to use the restroom. As if that wasn’t enough, I laid down awake for several minutes and heard some “ticks” on the outside of the tent. I waited a few more seconds and noticed the noise became more frequent and the noise was what I was hoping to avoid this trip: rain. I jumped out of the tent to find the rain guard. We’d left the cover off the tent to keep it well ventilated. After we tied the rain guard on the tent, I couldn’t go to sleep. I laid awake paranoid that the rain would come in the tent and I was ready to dry it up with a towel at the first sight of a leak. I think I eventually drifted off a little before 7 a.m. and woke up not long after to bug bites. Biting gnats had made their way into our tent. When Mom and Chloé woke up, which wasn’t long after, we were hot, tired and itching all over. It was time to pack up and leave.

Mom had the idea to just get breakfast on the way to our next stop. Personally, I think we deserved it, because well, we survived the hot, humid night, didn’t lose our tempers and stayed dry.
I didn’t think we should arrive at Lake Guntersville before noon, so we decided to visit Buck’s Pocket, a day-use only park close by. Driving to Buck’s Pocket, it reminded me eerily of a few of the parks I visited in October. Traveling to this park was no happenstance. You had to be on a mission to get there; it was in the middle of nowhere and the only signs were about a mile outside the park. Knowing this park was only for day use, I was excited about all the trails. I’d seen several trails advertised on the Alabama State Parks website and thought it would be great to spend a day walking and maybe eating lunch there. Unfortunately, what looked like the main area of the park was gated off — not to mention, to get to that part there was a “bridge out” sign that was a little frightening. We drove around to see what the park once was and stopped at an overlook outside the gated area. It was an amazing view looking over a canyon. Across the canyon, you could see homes we had passed to get to the park. I believe this site was restricted to day-use only last year when five parks were closed in October. Buck’s Pocket looked like it had been in disarray for much longer than several months. I think just a little TLC — like cleaning the moss off the picnic tables, cleaning up trash and a drive through from a ranger — would do wonders for this park. The view it offered is absolutely incredible — not something you see everywhere.
Deciding we wouldn’t have lunch at Buck’s Pocket, we headed to Lake Guntersville State Park in Guntersville. Boy, were we in for a surprise! I can say without a doubt, Lake Guntersville was my favorite park.
The first thing I noticed about Lake Guntersville was all of the children outside. So many kids were on bicycles riding around the campground, playing basketball down from our campsite and fishing and swimming in the lake. No one was stuck to their phones or iPads. People were camping — one with nature. All of this activity is the reason these parks need to stay open. This activity is why I’ve made it my mission to travel to all the parks and let people know what they offer and if they’re in disrepair, what we can do to help them. Some people may not understand my point of view but I grew up camping in a travel trailer and RV; if our parks aren’t saved, no child will ever have the chance to experience Alabama’s state parks. You don’t have to travel out of Alabama to see natural wonders, my great uncle actually said that to me when I was showing him pictures of these parks. He couldn’t believe so much was offered in our own state!
We set up our tent and ate lunch under some shade trees. After a trip to the top of the mountain, viewing the lodge — tucked in the side of the mountain — and an overlook that hovered over the campground and lake, we packed up our bag chairs and decided to walk to the lake and spend the afternoon. Now, I love my beaches and Gulf air, but I can understand why people travel so far for this view. We watched children swim, fish and boats putter by on Alabama’s largest lake for hours. Canadian geese swam in formation up to the shore to feed, reminding us we needed to get back to make dinner as the sun started the set. When we arrived back at our campsite, we had at least five new neighbors that had pitched their tents around us. We ate some leftover spaghetti and garlic bread and slept like rocks that night.
The following morning, we all woke up in a great mood from a wonderful night of sleep. What made the morning even better was that Chloé grilled us turkey and cheese sandwiches for breakfast on the propane stove! We stayed a little longer this particular morning, maybe until 10 a.m. or so, but we were off by checkout time at 11 a.m. to DeSoto State Park in Fort Payne.
We wound our way down (or maybe around, I’m not really sure) the mountain to our next stop.
We stayed at DeSoto State Park for next two nights because it was a weekend. The park was gorgeous and well taken care of; there were several activities in and around the park, and it would be nice to stay in one place without packing up the very next day. Before we checked in, we went to Mentone and DeSoto Falls. Mentone is known to be a touristy area; it had handmade crafts, soaps, antiques and incense, among other items. I had the best fudge from Aunt Fanny’s Fudge, key lime flavored. Chloé also bought some dynamite ice cream from a local cart in Mentone.
We wound around Mentone and followed the brown signs to DeSoto Falls. Above the falls is the historic A.A. Miller Dam that creates a lake for swimmers, kayakers, paddleboarders or people to spend the day with their four-legged friend or a sack lunch. This time of year, the water level is low, so the falls weren’t as full as they are in the fall and winter, but it was still a magnificent sight. We stood on the side, overlooking DeSoto Falls and we could hear voices from below. People were swimming underneath the waterfalls and others were spending the day on the bank around the lake.
After checking into DeSoto, we set up our tent and cooking area and ate lunch. The hours between lunch and dinner were spent relaxing and reading, enjoying the environment around us, other families cooking out, kids riding their bikes around the campground and wandering through the wooded areas behind the campsites.
We grilled chicken we bought earlier that day, baked potatoes wrapped in foil in the open coals and ate corn and bread with it, too. As night began to fall, we noticed a little bit of thunder. It started to get closer and closer, so we took extra caution and packed everything up at the campsite in case it did begin to rain overnight. We also put the rain guard on top of the tent as well. As we crawled into the tent, I began to read and Mom watched the radar like a hawk for until she was sure the storm had passed. If the thunder and lightning seemed to come closer to us, it was time to jump in the car. We were all counting “Mississippis” in between claps of thunder. It eventually subsided and no rain ever fell. I think God put a bubble over Mentone and Fort Payne. We kept an eye on the radar the next day; any storms or rain predicted to come our way either suddenly turned and went another direction or dissipated before it was supposed to arrive.
After a good night’s sleep, we woke up and finished several of our foodstuffs and emptied coolers to (hopefully) make more room in the car. It was the weirdest feeling to wake up and not feel rushed to pack everything up and head to a new destination. We could eat breakfast at our leisure and take our next adventure when we felt like it.
We only had two items on our to-do list that day: Little River Canyon National Preserve and dinner at the lodge at DeSoto. We drove 23 miles from Little River Canyon Falls to the canyon mouth. I was just fine driving and winding through all the trees and roads until we came to the canyon mouth. Roads were so steep I had to stretch my neck to look over the dash to see where I was going or the road was turning. At one point, I think we were going slower than 10 miles per hour because the uphill and downhill turns were so steep. But, good news — no smelly brakes! There were about nine spots to pull off to view different areas of the canyon. We pulled over at the first sight, closest to the falls, to have lunch. Because it was summer, the water level was low at the falls, but it didn’t diminish the spectacular view. We drove back to the campground and decided to take a tour through DeSoto to see what all was there. Driving past the lodge and motel we saw a beaver, an animal I’d never seen in person before! We spent our last day of a fun-filled week relaxing; Mom and Chloé took a nap and I read outside. Instead of cooking over a stove or grill on our last night, Mom treated us to dinner at the DeSoto State Park Mountain Inn Restaurant. The food was great and the service was fast and friendly. We browsed the gift shop and headed back to the campsite for a bit of reading and our last night in a tent for a while.
Mom, Chloé and I were up early ready to head home, mainly because we had a six-hour drive ahead of us. I know we were all ready to be home to sleep in a real bed and have a bathroom attached to our home. After a stop for breakfast in Gadsden, we hit interstate after interstate until we came back to ‘ole I-65 and stopped in Clanton. What’s a trip home through Clanton without fresh peaches?! Needless to say, Peach Park will be on my list anytime I’m on I-65. About two hours later we decided to make our final stop at Priester’s Pecans in Fort Deposit. Like Peach Park, I’ve always passed it, but never stopped. That changed June 27, and it may have been the best mistake. I’m going to stop in there for Christmas gifts, birthday gifts and just because for their delicious candies and gifts. All three of us left the store with handfuls of goodies.
It was the perfect end to a wonderful trip getting to know more of our state parks in the great state of Alabama.
I learned a lot on this trip. Lesson learned: even though it may be cheaper to hit several parks at once, use caution; by the time we hit our last few parks, we were so tired we didn’t want to do much of anything. I would dare say we didn’t take full advantage of the last several parks because we were tired out from the beginning of the trip. Conclusion: plan your trips carefully, but take the trip slowly. Explore beyond the parks, take those impromptu history lessons and lunches at local picnic areas. Take the road that isn’t paved and wind 23 miles from a waterfall to the canyon mouth. You never know what you’ll discover … and you’ll be happy you did.
I’ve got 10 more parks to visit but this trip makes visiting those parks more difficult. Though the remaining 10 parks are first on my list, I’m ready to get back to some of the places I just left.