Alabama, Feb 2026

If you're not a beer geek, feel free to skip the sections in blue

We've never been to Alabama and a good friend of ours was telling us how beautiful it is. This trip will only cover part of North and Central Alabama with more planned for the future. It's early February with fairly mild temperatures but some rain is forecasted. As we leave home we're driving through the beautiful Nantahala Gorge in North Carolina for our first stop at a Harvest Host called The Farm on Federal in Ocoee TN. This area is mountainous with deep canyons and beautiful rivers and lakes with lots of rafting, kayaking, swimming and fishing in nearby Parksville Lake. We arrived early and met the host. We had a pull-through slot with hook-ups in the middle of a pine forest. There was only one other camper there and we only saw him briefly once. Although there was a bit of road noise for the highway during the day, it was completely quiet at night.

The South Western tip of NC is a beautiful drive along highway 74 until you get close to Chattanooga. While trying to keep this positive, I'll just say I hope I never have to drive in or around Chattanooga again but we were rewarded with a wonderful stop at the Lodge Foundry in South Pittsburgh, TN. The staff was really friendly, and not that fake friendly you see. It seemed like they really wanted to be there, were proud of the company, and wanted to help customers. They were dog friendly too, both in the store and museum. Their sales items and discount section were incredibly cheap.

On the way to the next campsite, the friend that helped plan the trip suggested a couple of stops along the way once we crossed into Alabama. The first was Mud Creek BBQ right on one of the long arms of Guntersville Lake. The waitress asked what we wanted to drink. Of course, I said "beer", and she said "sorry". Apparently it's a dry country. I didn't realize those still existed. We both had the waitress' favorite, fried catfish. As we were waiting on lunch, she brought out some hot and delicious hushpuppies. The catfish was also excellent as were the baked beans.

Fifteen minutes further down the road was the Unclaimed Baggage Store in Scottsboro, AL. They buy unclaimed baggage from across the country and sell whatever they find really cheap. Jan and I both got a few shirts and a couple of pairs of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones for $25 each.

The next couple of nights were scheduled at Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville. The park sits on 2340 acres that is Monte Sano mountain (1650' elevation) just east of Huntsville. The park was built by the CCC after the depression. After WWII Nasa moved to town and Huntsville started growing toward the park and was eventually annexed into the city of Huntsville in 1956. To get there you have to drive through a maze of residential neighborhoods to end up on a winding mountain road up to the top. The park was beautifully empty. As y'all probably know, we generally prefer empty quiet spaces over busy and noisy ones even if the weather is cold and rainy. Each of the 2+ days we were there, we hiked a different trail around the park. There are many miles of well maintained and marked hiking trails all over Monte Sano mountain. The warm and sunny afternoon we arrived we did a short 3 mile hike along the Fire Tower Trail. The mostly level tail along the top of the plateau included squirrels, deer, and a cute little covered rest area that was built from local timbers and rock back when the park was new in the 30s. Back at camp we had margaritas to cool down from the hike, then grilled some beef sausages to put over a salad with a homemade mustard, sorghum syrup, and vinegar dressing. The night was completely dark and quiet, just as we like it. We hiked many of the trails around the top of the plateau. The map provided was informative, complete and matched the well marked trails perfectly. The staff was friendly and helpful and the park was clean and well maintained. We would definitely stay at Monte Sano State Park again.

While in Huntsville we spent several hours at the US Space & Rocket Center. Dogs aren't allowed inside but they offer free outdoor kennels for your use while visiting. We dropped Mack off at the kennel and toured the facility. The rockets and missiles on display were a little surprising to us. The centerpiece is a replica of the Saturn V moon rocket, which was actually bigger than we expected. The engines were huge! Some of the missiles on display were actually smaller than we expected. The science and engineering focused displays are very informative, educational and definitely worth seeing, although I have to say a lot of the outdoor exhibits could use a bit of TLC. It also appears the site primarily caters to small children. There are large sections with games and rides for grade school children, and there were hundreds there.

We were planning to walk Big Spring Park in the middle of Huntsville, but when we drove by we couldn’t find anywhere to park. I suppose that’s not surprising in the middle of a city when you’re driving a 20’, long bed, extended cab pickup truck. Since that was a bust, we headed for the breweries recommended by locals in the Global FB group All Grain Brewers. Straight to Ale Brewing had a great selection across many different styles. Most were good and I brought home crowlers of Monkeynaut, their West Coast IPA, and Bruce’s Big Ol’ Buzz Bomb, a shockingly good strong lager. It was easy to drink, with no booziness or harshness and a crazy 9% abv. We had lunch here, mine was good but Jan’s Korean Ribs were excellent and went well with her dry cider. We walked across the parking lot to Yellowhammer Brewing for another tasting flight of the styles I like. None were bad, but my favorites were their Rebellion Red Ale and Groovy Don’s IPA. I talked to the assistant brewer about several of their beers. She was surprised I didn’t pick up some of their Doppelbock when I mentioned it was one of my favorite styles. At her request I admitted I thought that the flavors were there, but a little harsh. She said the beer was only 3 months old. She was going to suggest they age some of their next batch for 9-12 months as a special release.

The drive from Huntsville to Birmingham was smooth and uneventful on some great little highways. We stayed off of I-65 as much as possible, preferring the US-31 for the small towns and less traffic. We stopped about half way for lunch at Goat Island Brewing, another suggestion from locals. We missed our first turn but circled back to the brewery. They’re very dog friendly and had a lot of really good beer. I brought home several styles including a barrel aged American Strong Ale,a light and crisp Pilsner, an IPA, and one of the best Witbiers I’ve ever had. In the flight, I had a beer they called Dinkleberg, an American Strong Ale. I brought it back full because I thought the falvors were harsh and not well balanced. The bartender was asking what I didn’t like about it and was overheard by the owner. He brought out the same beer from a year ago and one 2 years old. They were excellent. The American Strong Ale we brought home is this beer barrel aged. I can’t wait to try it. On our way out we were following the lady on the dash (Garmin GPS) but had to turn around twice when we ran into tunnels under a RR track that had height limits far below the top of our travel trailer. We finally went back to the road we came in on. I guess it was good we missed the original turn. Two turn-arounds at the end of small roads can be a little challenging when pulling a trailer.

Birmingham is a large crowded city, but thankfully we skirted around the east side of it to Oak Mountain State Park. The popularity of this place is understandable being close to a large city and almost 12,000 acres and mountains, forests, trails and lakes. The RV spots were full when we made the reservations (holiday weekend) so they suggested a spot in the Equestrian section. This was just inside the SE entrance and not close to the crowds and traffic around the lake which turned out really well for us. The park was nice but in talking to several employees, most of the operation and maintenance of this part is outsourced to various groups. The trail map was poorly written and the hiking trails were poorly marked unless you were a mountain biker. Those trails were well documented and maintained by a local mountain biking club.

This location did however put us within 30 minutes of Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum which we visited the second day in the area. Jan and Mack were going to hike the area around the Museum but when we arrived the manager said they’re not sticklers of the no-dog policy if the dog is nice. We all spent the next few fours wandering through one of the most amazing motorcycle and car museums we’ve seen. As suggested, we took the car-sized elevator to the 5th level and walked the spiraling paths back down. Mack was not a fan of the glass elevator, nor the bridge that crosses the race track there. We were there when they opened on Saturday and it was mostly empty. We all had a good time talking to the employees and seeing some amazing machines. Jan enjoyed some of the crazy motorcycle designs and incredible small and cramped Lotus race cars. Mack got a lot of attention from both the employees and guests.

Our route home was planned to swing through Little River Canyon Natural Preserve, then up through the corner of Georgia, trying to stay far away from the mess that is Chattanooga. After zig-zagging our way through some very rural parts of NE Alabama, we ran into what could have been a little snag. Apparently our GPS hadn’t been updated to include some new roads and re-routing of old ones. We turned where we thought we should and it rerouted us through a small one-lane road that had a sign that said No Trucks. I assumed they meant the big ones, so we continued on. Eventually the road turned to gravel then mostly dirt that had some pretty steep rutted and muddy sections. It was still raining! We persevered by getting a good run up to each of the washboarded muddy hills we had to cross. We got the attention of a few horses and goats and we wove through one farm, but eventually made it back out to the highway we were supposed to be on. Our one-wheel drive truck did pretty well even pulling a 4400 pound travel trailer across the muddy hills.

Little River Canyon was a fantastic stop. The employees were super helpful. They showed us around the center, talked to us about how to see it all in the rain while pulling a travel trailer. They suggested we drive the route along the top of the canyon, after we assured them we’re comfortable with small winding roads. They listed the pull-outs to avoid with no room turn around. The rain mostly stopped during our driving tour of the canyon and a stop for lunch at one of the viewing platforms.

After another few hours of zig-zagging through little rural roads in NE Alabama and NW Georgia through light and heavy rains, we arrived in Blue Ridge Georgia. It’s a really cute town with apparently a lively local crowd. After setting up camp, we headed into town to one of the best rated breweries, Grumpy Old Men Brewing. The place was packed with music and friendly people. We dried off a bench outside (it had finally stopped raining) and sampled some beer and seltzers. The beer was all pretty good, but they had a West Coast Double IPA that was the best example of that style I’ve found outside of the west coast. Jan enjoyed a cranberry seltzer while looking at the menu for one of the best rated restaurants in town. A Japanese food and sushi restaurant called Kurokoi. We picked up dinner and headed back to the travel trailer. We got a selection of Nigiri and one roll. We asked for the chef to be adventurous/creative with the selection. Nigiri included really fresh scallop, salmon, snapper, maguro, toro, chu-toro, mackerel and others.

Our final day was an easy 2+ hour drive home. We hope to go back to Alabama again next winter and maybe include a bit of Mississippi too. Its beautiful country full of nice people and great roads.