Monte Sano State Park, Huntsville, AL

HIKING ALABAMA - HUNTSVILLE

Monte Sano State Park, Huntsville, AL

Day 1  Friday, October 10, 2014

We drove in from Brusly to Monte Sano State Park last night.  Left home about 6 am and got here around 5:30.  Long day but uneventful.  Bailey slept most of the way.  She’s a great traveler.  Once we pulled in I remembered it from a trip I took Evan and Eric on back in 2007 (I think 2007).  Anyway we went up to Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee and stopped here on the way back to visit the Rocket Center in Huntsville.  Going back there in a couple of days so more about that later.

After breakfast this morning started out on the North Plateau Loop.  The trail guide lists it as a 1.2 mile loop but we were tracking it on both our phones and it measured about 2.5 miles.  It was a very scenic trail, mostly level with no major elevation changes, but enough ups and downs to make it interesting.

We started out on the Tea Garden path, a short extension trail leading where else – to the Japanese Tea House.

Then back up to the North Loop.  The trail passed behind the park lodge, which can be reserved for group events.  It is built of stone, like many of the buildings in the park.  The park was constructed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) after WW2

Here is a picture of the trail itself.  Like many of the trails here, it is a hike/bike trail.  We saw several mountain bikers throughout the day.  Most of the trails today looked very similar.  It was very quiet most of the time, except for the acorns falling all around us.  I’m very surprised that we never got hit with one.

Lyle and Bailey stopped at one of the overlooks.  I think Bailey would have jumped over if she had a chance.

For the first 4-5 miles we were averaging 17 minutes per mile.  This is about 3.5 miles per hour.  That doesn’t sound that fast, but try it sometime on a treadmill.  Then factor in rocks and tree roots, and let’s not even mention the 70 pound dog that’s dragging you along because she wants to go about 6 miles an hour.  It wears you out fast.  Luckily she slowed down a little for the last 6 miles.

Part of the North Plateau Loop takes you past the Van Allen Observatory, which is actually located either in or just adjacent to the park.  They apparently have a planetarium that is open on Sat nights, when they also do stargazing through their telescope (weather permitting).  Unfortunately, while we were here, weather did not permit, as it was rainy most nights.

At the end of that loop, we veered onto the South Plateau Loop, which was much the same.  Here is a view from one of the overlooks on that trail.

You can’t really see it in the picture, but there is just a hint of fall colors starting to come in on the mountain sides.  Lyle took the point most of the day, and thus endured the majority of the “Bailey Factor”  but I did swap off with him for a while.

We had lunch in one of the rest shelters along the trail.  There are really spots to picnic or to hide out in case of a surprise rain shower

The park is really well built and well maintained.  After lunch we continued along the trail almost to the end, then switched over the to the Bucca Family trail.  Near the junction, we saw the camping cabins along the road.

Bailey found a box turtle and was quite fascinated by it.  Here is a picture of her investigating the turtle.  She was very surprised when it moved.  The turtle is almost hidden by a leaf, but its right at the tip of her nose and is black with yellow markings

There were several large rocks along the trail, but this was one of the biggest.

This trail made a big loop inside the South Plateau Loop.  As we walked back into camp, we reached our total of 11 miles today.  Guess we can eat that pulled pork for supper with no guilty feelings!

Day 2, Saturday, October 11, 2014

We woke up to rain this morning.  It had rained pretty hard during the night and still drizzling when morning came.  But after breakfast it as only a slight misty rain and we took Bailey for a walk around the campground.  I mentioned that some of the trees are beginning to show fall colors.  Since we don’t get much of that in Louisiana, it was a treat to see yellow and red.  There is one particular type of tree (don’t know what it is) that currently has green, yellow, and red leaves all on the same tree.  It’s very pretty.

The park is large and spacious, as most older state parks are, with the campsites pretty well spaced out.  So we had a nice walk, all through the campsites, then past the CCC Museum (which was still closed) and down a little road that was blocked off to traffic.  After that we walked back to the Observatory.  All in all we probably made about 3 miles along the various roads. 

When we got back from out walk we spent a few minutes talking with one of the campers parked a few sites down from us.  He and his grandson were camping in a tiny little teardrop shaped camper set up under a pop up canopy.  He had built it himself on a 5x8 ft utility trailer frame that he had purchased.  It was 5 ft wide and 8 ft long, and only about 3 1;2 ft tall from floor to ceiling.  There was just enough room for two people to sleep inside.  The was a little overhead shelf for lighting and a shelf over the feet for storing clothes, etc. 

Each door had a window that tilted out and there was a vent in the ceiling with a fan.  This gave a continuous draft, which, along with the canopy that provided shade, made it quite livable even in hot weather – according to the owner.  The canopy also gave them room to sit outside in all weather, and to cook.  The back end of the camper opened up like a car trunk, and there was room for a cook stove, small ice chest, battery, and more storage.  Also a small storage trunk was mounted up front.  The entire unit was faced with sheet aluminum.  It was really a marvel of design and construction.  Unfortunately, he left soon after, before we thought to take pictures.

We had thought about walking up to the Burritt Mountain Museum which they told us is just outside the park.  But the rain turned us back since we didn’t have umbrellas with us.  This turned out to be a good thing since we found out that the museum is about 3 miles away.  That wouldn’t have been a problem, but we didn’t want to be caught halfway in the rain. 

Since our trip would have been incomplete if we hadn’t, we drove over to the local Wal-Mart.  Again a fortunate decision since we realized that we had very little fuel left in the truck.  We were looking for a piece of lightweight indoor-outdoor carpet to put in front of the camper but didn’t find the type that we needed, so just picked up a few things for the pantry and dinner tonight.

After a late lunch, we set out on the McKay Hollow Trail about 3 pm.  This trail was listed as “very difficult” and it lived up to that reputation.  It was very steep and rocky, and with the added wetness from the rain, it was slow going.  It wasn’t muddy though since the ground is that type of red sand you find in Mississippi.  The plan was to meet up with the Natural Wells Trail and take it on down to what was promised to be a unique and amazing natural rock formation.

But that will have to wait for another day (if ever) because we descended about 500 feet over about a mile to get to the trail intersection, and there was another 300 ft descent and then a 600 foot climb to reach it.  This is what the trail looked like on some of the nicer portions.

This makes it look pretty good, but most of it was much steeper, almost all rocks, and about 18” wide.  It would have been a fun and challenging trail, if it weren’t the first part of what would have been an 8 mile hike.

We opted to stay on the McKay Hollow trail and if finally leveled out for a good little ways, making the walking much easier and allowing us to look around at something besides just where we were planting our feet.  Also it would have probably been easier to negotiate the steep climb without the dog trying to drag you down the slope,

Unfortunately, what goes down must again go up, and we had to reclaim the entire 500 feet of elevation, although this time it wasn’t straight up and down, just a long winding path that led inevitably uphill.  It finally joined the South Plateau Loop that we took yesterday and we followed that trail until it joined the Fire Tower Trail.  Since this was a trail we hadn’t walked yet and most importantly, since it was the shortest path back to camp, we turned and followed it back to the campground.  It was rocky, but wider and fairly level.  There were several historic markers on the trail marking sites of old homesteads.  It looked like there were paths leading to some of them, but we didn’t have time to explore because it was getting close to dark.  Maybe before we leave we can get back there. 

Lucky for us we made it home before the creepy-crawlies got us.  Lyle and Bailey led the way all day today, mostly because Bailey insists on being in the lead.  We didn’t see anyone else on the trail today but were fairly sure that deer had been on the trail since Bailey was all fired up.

Day 3 Sunday, October 12                                                                   US Space and Rocket Center

After taking Bailey on about a 3 mile walk along all the park roads, we set off to Huntsville to visit the US Space and Rocket Center.  This is where much of the research and engineering for the US space program was conducted under the leadership of Dr Werner von Broun.  The weather was threatening rain when we arrived but we would be inside for most of the museum visit.

There were several very nice exhibits showing the history of the US aviation and space exploration, and replicas of some of the latest exploratory satellites.  Outside there were several different early rockets, including a Saturn I and a Saturn V rocket.  

Below are the Saturn V which was used in the Apollo missions, and a picture of the Saturn V engine.  Lyle is standing next to the engine so you can see the scale.  There were 5 of these engines on the Saturn V.

You could actually walk around under the Saturn V but we didn’t get any pictures there because it was starting to rain, and we were soon forced back inside.

Here is a picture of the Apollo command module and Skylab space station replicas

This is also the place where Space Camp is held.  Young teens from all over the world come here to live for a week or two and conduct mock space missions, learning engineering, science, and leadership skills.  Part of the training involves underwater construction to simulate weightlessness.  There is also centrifuge training and mock aviation training in actual fighter pilot simulators. 

College students and recent college graduates can serve as camp counselors.  Several Space Camp graduates have gone on to work in aeronautics or with NASA.  Some have even become astronauts.

All of the Space Camp areas were off limits to tourists, but there was one place where we could get a peek.

As we walked through the Gift Shop on our way out (it was pouring by this time), we came across a giant dinosaur made of Kinects building blocks.  The sign below it said that it was the largest Kinects sculpture even made.  It was 34 feet long, 12 feet tall, and 5 feet wide and is in the Guiness Book of World Records.  It was built by one of the Space Camp Counselors groups.

Day 4   Monday, October 13, 2014

It absolutely poured last night but by morning the rain had stopped although it looked as though it might start again any minute.  The forecast for tonight is more rain, but for now its damp but no water is actually falling.

We decided that Bailey needed a rest today so we took her around the roads again.  After about a 3 and a half mile walk with her, we geared up and set out to walk the Mountain Mist Trail.  To get there we had to do half of the South Loop so walked that then picked up the Mountain Mist Trail at O’Shaughnessy Point.

This trail was a little more challenging than the Plateau Loops, but not nearly as rocky and steep as the McKay Hollow trail.  The scenery was very pretty and a cool breeze blew throughout the day, making the hiking very pleasant.  At one spot the trail was marked with cairns, something we hadn’t seen since our desert hikes.

There were several little benches placed along the trail.  One was under a nice overhang. We had lunch at one of the little benches, then continued on along the trail.

We did see a deer on this trail.  Lyle has seen several in the evenings and early mornings when he takes Bailey out.  They were in the front of the Campground Host site.  This morning it was a doe, yearling and two fawns.  This one was a full grown doe who came bounding across the trail.

At the end of the Mountain Mist trail, we picked up the Cold Spring Trail, which would lead us back to the campground.  This one was steeper and rockier, but fun to hike.  You can see the trail here going up the ridge.  It led us back to the North Loop, which we took on a big circle around the campground and back to the store.

The trails measured 6.8 miles.  With the walk this morning with Bailey, we covered almost 10 and a half miles today.

I picked up some yellow and red leaves for Piper and Alice to bring to school.

We were planning to do wash this evening, but the rain just started coming down in buckets.  They are predicting high winds tonight and maybe even hail.  Hope we don’t get that, but the rain is just pouring off the canopy.  Need to take it in so it doesn’t become a sail in the wind and carry us off.  That’s going to be a very wet job!