Quick stop in Northwest Alabama
Our next stop in our 2023 Travels was Noccalula Falls Park and Campground in Gadsden, Alabama, a beautiful city at the southern end of Lookout Mountain and on the banks of the Coosa River. It is located in the foothills of the Appalachians with mountains, lakes, the Coosa River and Noccalula Falls.
The point of interest that brought us to this beautiful part of the county was the famed Greenway Trails; Chief Ladiga and the Silver Comet. These two well designed trails link together on the borders of Georgia and Alabama and form nearly 100 miles of blissful countryside peddling.
The Chief Ladiga Trail
From the Georgia state line to Anniston, the Chief Ladiga Trail winds through 33 miles of scenic Alabama countryside.
We picked a late afternoon hoping to outsmart some rain clouds to begin our adventures. We drove the 45-minutes from Gadsden to Piedmont and parked at the trailhead behind the police department. We headed east toward the Georgia border for a 15-mile ride. It was here that the rain clouds drizzled on us but really didn’t dampen our spirits.
The Silver Comet Trail
The Silver Comet Trail runs 62 miles, from Smyrna on the outskirts of Atlanta, to the Georgia/Alabama state line. There it connects to the Chief Ladiga Trail.
We picked a sunny, mild temperature spectacular Saturday morning to head the 1-hour drive to the Dallas, Georgia trailhead. We set off heading east with Rockmart and the Brushy Mountain Tunnel as our end point. We had an amazing 16-miles of riding to reach the tunnel. After riding through and back we detoured to check out the town of Rockmart and then we were back on our bikes.
Of all of the greenway trails we have ridden, this was by far one of our favorites. We hope to be able to come back to the area and ride the entire 100’ish mile trail with an overnight or two in one of the lovely small towns.
Noccalula Falls
At the entrance to the Campground is this natural wonder, Noccalula Falls. A 90-foot waterfall named for Noccalula, a young Cherokee maiden who plunged to her untimely death rather than forsake her true love. She is memorialized by a statue and the engraved story of her fate.
The location of our campsite and the falls was ideal for Mike. He was able to take a 5-minute stroll to the falls to try different lighting to capture the essence of it’s beauty.
The Park
Next door to the campground, connected together with trails you can visit the Park for a low admission price. The park offers all sorts of family friendly activities from viewing the beautiful rocks and gardens from the paved walking trails, take a ride on the authentic Huntington miniature train, get up-close to the animals in the petting zoo like llamas, goats and even a baby kangaroo. If you are more adventurous, you can hike one of the trails down to the base of the falls, take a swinging bridge over the river or bike/hike the Black Creek Trails. Enjoy a picnic lunch at one the pavilions while the kids work off their energy on the playground, shop the souvenir shop with local crafted items and even hone your golf skills at the Miniature Golf Course.
We chose a Sunday, our last day in Gadsden, to visit the Park. It happened to coincide with a semi-annual event called Arts on the Rocks. We were welcomed by local artists selling their crafts like pottery, woodwork, candles, soaps, lotions, sweets and so much more. I have to add that all of them were exuding Southern Hospitality and were so welcoming.
We met a baby Kangaroo, being walked around by Park Staff. She will be a new addition to the petting zoo.
The Campground
The campground offers over 120 sites from primitive tent camping to pull-through with complete hook-ups. A swimming pool, laundry facility, picnic pavilions, rec room, playground, and rental cabins are available. The campground sits along Black Creek Gorge and offers awesome views of the falls, the gorge, and the creek below.
Admittingly, the campground is outdated and in rough shape with lots of areas of washout and uneven sites, broken concrete slabs in extremely tight knit quarters. When we first arrived, our concrete slab was cracked and broken and we had to be careful where to park our 44′ rig on it as we were afraid of cracking the slab even more. Then it was very uneven and we had to work with our toolbox of leveling devices to achieve level. The arrangement of the utilities was odd as the electric and sewer was on the correct side (road side) but the water was on the curb side. We were fortunate that we had extra hose to enable us to pull the water hose under our rig and hook up to the water line. Cable was provided but it was not very good and we had better luck with our antenna. Internet was not available and our Verizon cell service was aggravating at best.
The issue of crowding didn’t occur until the weekend crowds rolled in when we found ourselves holding hands with the next door neighbors. I’m sure it was as unpleasant for them as it was for us.
Having said all of that, we understand they are going through a face lift in early 2024 so we would definitely consider returning to see other sights that we missed on this stay.
Local Brews:
One highlight for us on almost every stop is to find a brewery (or two) to enjoy a cold local brew. After reading through the flyer on the North Alabama Craft Beer Trail we settled on Back Forty Beer Company local to the town of Gadsden.
After our biking excursion on The Silver Comet Trail and cleaning up we headed to get a cold one and dine on some of the highly recommend grub that was on their menu.
We arrived around 4’ish in the afternoon and found the outside space lovely with green grass, outdoor games, covered seating and even a stage for live entertainment. We found a couple of different brews that we settled on and ordered two different sandwiches. The brews and the food was tasty and the staff was pleasant and friendly.
The one downer was the amount of kids running around like an unsupervised daycare and eventually the constant yelling and screaming got to us so we left before enjoying the live entertainment that was about to start.
With all that being said, if back in the area, we’d give it another shot but before ordering we’d do a diligent scanning of the area to see what the kid situation was.
In Closing
We enjoyed our visit to Northwest Alabama and hope to be back to experience more of the area.
Stay tuned for lots of posts and more importantly….. photographs by James Frazier (aka Mike).
Dream Big….Travel Far….Live Well
Photography
Many of these highlighted photographs can be purchased through our website and made into wall art, tapestries, t-shirts and more. If you see something you like without a link, please go here to our Alabama Photography website page Nspired Eye Photography
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