Hiking Alabama

Red Mountain Park. Birmingham, AL Wednesday, April 13, 2016  (Upper section of Park) We heard about Red Mountain from some other folks camped at Oak Mountain State Park.  We had come to Birmingham to see the Body Worlds Exhibition and planned to spend a few days at Oak Mountain.  But since we had hiked most of the trails here decided to check out Red Mountain Park. There is a very nice dog park (Remy Dog Park) within Red Mountain Park and dogs are allowed on all of the trails.  We did not take Bailey since we didn't know how rocky the trails were and because she tends to pull a lot on trails.  Although we did want to explore the trails, we didn't want to do it at a gallop so she went for a long walk before we left and napped while we hiked. The park is built on the site of an old iron mining operation.  The mine was operational from the 1890’s through around the 1920’s, then was put back into operation in 1941 to supplement iron demands dur...

Body Worlds Exhibition, McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL Tuesday, April 12, 2016 One of the reasons for this trip was to visit the Body Worlds exhibition in Birmingham since it was not listed to be anywhere closer to Baton Rouge in the next several years.  The boys and I had seen it several years ago in Orlando but it was fascinating and Lyle had never seen or heard of it. The exhibit is comprised of donated bodies, dissected and preserved by plastination.   The technique was developed by Gunther von Hagens in 1977 and is used to preserve bodies and body parts mainly for use as teaching tools for medical students.  Water and fats in the body are replaced by specific plastics.  The resulting specimens do not smell or decay, and can be touched and posed in various positions.  In addition to skeletal and muscle fibers, the plastinated specimens can be used to demonstrate the various organs and their placement in the body, and even the bl...