Russell Cave / Cheaha State Park
Russell Cave National Monument | Noccalula Falls | Cheaha State Park, Alabama’s Highest Point | January 2023
On Thursday morning, we packed up our car once again and said goodbye to our last rental house of this trip. We drove North into Tennessee, took I-24 to Kimball, then went South on US-72 into Alabama. Our first stop of the day was at Russell Cave National Monument.
Russell Cave is located off a county road in NE Alabama. It isn’t what we would think of when we compare it to other caves that are in the national park service, where you take tours through underground tunnels. Rather, it’s a cave with an extensive history, where archeologists have unearthed over 2 tons of artifacts from Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian Cultures. The cave is thought to have been occupied by these people groups over the years as a winter shelter, and for some as a permanent home. This area contains one of the most complete records of human occupation in the Southeast US, from prehistoric times until 1650 AD.
The cave itself is actually a cave-in of an underground river tunnel, and it was really cool seeing water bubbling up from the ‘upstream’ side only to flow immediately into the cave mouth and disappear again. Supposedly on wet days the ground water swells to fill the cave quite thoroughly. But today all the water was a pleasant shade of blue-green.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why a place so rich in history ended up with a name like “Russell Cave,” it’s because they named it after the white guy who owned the land in the 1780s.
We followed the boardwalk back to the cave and the viewing platform where we could see the dig site. Then since this was the main spot we were visiting this morning before a longer drive, we went for the mile long loop hike through the woods. We were the only visitors at the park during our entire visit. After our walk, we stopped in the visitor center to chat with the lone ranger working here.
After our hike at the cave, we continued our drive further Southwest into Alabama. We had about 4 hours of driving to reach our intended camping area, and not much planned between here and there. This drive was more about getting new counties, and we were excited to end it on top of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama!
On our way to Cheaha, we knew we’d have to stop for Curtis to take a work call. We arrived in Gadsden around the time of the meeting, so we looked for a park or safe space to park while he took the call. While driving through town, we saw signs for Noccalula Falls Park, and decided to just go there. The park was just a few minutes North of US-431 along Black Creek. As it turns out, the waterfall here is very impressive, and honestly one of the best we’d seen! We even arrived at the perfect time, when the sun was hitting the water just right causing there to be rainbows. It all just goes to show that sometimes you can plan out elaborate itineraries for trips, but somehow some of the best parts are the random last-minute stops you make along the way.
Oh, but after all that, the meeting ended up being cancelled, so after a few minutes here we got back on the road headed for Cheaha. We drove up into the mountains — not as high as we had been earlier in the Appalachians, but higher than we would be for a while since we would soon be heading back to the Midwest. There were some nice looking views along the way, but we kept our eyes on the prize: the high point.
We arrived at the park, and Curtis went to reserve a campsite. He was going to do it in advance, but the website said it charged extra for online reservations. It turns out they also charge extra for reservations in person, so it didn’t really matter. But do you want to hear the real kicker? We had thought about coming here the weekend prior instead of camping in Georgia, but then found out the summit was closed because the service tower had some damage, so we changed our plans. After confirming that it had reopened, we arrived only to find that the summit was closed again because of “ice danger.” It was 50 degrees. Sounds like a typical Southern thing right? It turns out it was because of icicles that could fall off the tower or something. It was only the summit that was closed though, the campground (20 feet away from the summit) was still open. Curtis chose the campsite closest to the summit, and with that squared away we drove to the site and set up for the night.
With an hour of daylight left, we decided to go for a hike in the park. We chose the Pulpit Rock trail which was less than a mile round trip, going down to Pulpit Rock which had a nice view to the South and West. It would have made a great sunset spot, but after sitting here for a while I decided it was too cold (it was definitely not 50 degrees anymore!), so we returned to our car and watched the sunset from the parking lot. Then we returned to our campsite, made dinner and hid from the cold in the tent. I cannot confirm or deny whether or not we walked the 20 feet to the summit, but rest assured we were not impaled by falling ice.
