Category: Outings

We went hiking this morning on the Natural Well trail in Monte Sano State Park.  The key feature of the trail is the Natural Well, which is a 191.5′ deep pit. I have never been in the pit, but I understand it features domes and a waterfall.

The weather was beautiful this morning with a light breeze and sunny so the light was dappling through the trees on fallen leaves. The fall colors were wonderful to see.

We hiked 1¾ miles to the pit opening. Along the way, we crossed a previous land slide, which was impressive to see the damage that can cause.  Karen spotted a large knocked down wasp nest and collected pieces for a art project. Katie Beth was collecting large leaves along the whole way.

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We went camping with our daughter’s American Heritage Girls troop at Rickwood Cavern State Park.  We got an early start on camping as Katie Beth’s school let out at 1 o’clock on Friday since they were having parent-teacher conferences for the first terms report cards.  (By the way, Katie Beth got all A’s, hoot!) We had our campsite setup hours before everyone else started to arrive.

We should have packed more bedding as it got very cool at night.  One night was as low as 40°F.  But, the weather was great during the day for all of our activities.

The park has a nice playground, a pool with a high dive, a couple trials, and the cavern.  The cavern is small and they have tours 4 times a day.  The cave tour costs: $17.00 for age 13 to adult, $8.00 for age 5 to 12.  In the past, cave was setup as fall out shelter and still holds the remains of the supplies from the Civil Defense.  The park grounds are covered with many aquatic fossils as Alabama was historically a seabed.

On Friday evening, the campers played at the playground.  On Saturday, we did the cave tour and walked Fossil Mountain Hiking Trail.  Everyone enjoyed seeing all of the fossils in the rocks.  On Sunday, we broke camp.  We had to get back to town for a birthday party, but the rest of the group went to the Holy Door of Mercy at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.

We learned more about camping on this trip.  We need better cold weather sleeping gear.  Blankets take too much space so I see better sleep bags in our future.  A burn restriction prevented wood fires so the cooking plans had to be adjusted and people were expecting a large log fire to keep them warm in the evenings.

You can see more photos here.  Remember, the username and password are “Friends” and “Photos”.

We had a long weekend get away to Mammoth Cave National Park.  We checked Katie Beth out early on Thursday, at the chagrin of her teacher, so we could get a head start on the drive.  The weather was great.  Katie Beth thought this was the best cave.  She has gone in Ruby Falls, Cathedral Caverns, and other small caves to compare against.

We took the Grand Avenue tour on Friday, which includes the Frozen Niagara route, Domes and Dripstones route and the Snowball route.  The gypsum flowers were very cool looking.  It is hard to imagine how large the flowers would’ve been before tourism started in the cave and breaking the gypsum off the ceiling.

Our little cabin was nice even if some air conditioning would have been appreciated on some of the nights.  But, Katie Beth met other children staying in nearby cabins, which made it fun for her.

On Saturday, we took the simple Mammoth Passage tour into the main entrance of the cave so Katie Beth could get a better understanding of the size of Mammoth Cave and see the saltpeter production artifacts.  After the short cave tour, we hiked the River Styx Springs, Echo River Springs, Whites Cave, and Mammoth Dome trails. We saw large numbers of various furry caterpillars along our hike including this Spotted Apatelodes moth caterpillar.

You can see more photos here.