Glynn Wilson

This is the view of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama, in the Cheaha State Park from our campsite in Campground No. 2. There are the beginnings of autumn color here, mainly some reds in the dogwoods.

The winds were gusting so hard this morning there was no way to put the boat in the lake, so we found a more secluded site down lower and we’re checking the map for more photo opportunities this afternoon. The yellow-jackets are all over the place up here, so if you are allergic to bee stings, stay away. Otherwise, it is a nice fall day here on the mountaintop.

This foothill of the Appalachian Mountains rises 2,407 feet above sea level and is surrounded by the Talladega National Forest. The local Creek Indians named this place “Chaha,” meaning high place.

We have dubbed the ridge we are camping on, “Yellow-Jacket Ridge.” They really should do something about the bees. Too many to count.

Glynn Wilson

Click here or on the image for a photo essay.

by Glynn Wilson

CLOUDLAND CANYON – It now seems like nearly an eternity ago, at least in technology time, but about 12 years ago I came up with this idea for a magazine feature called Secret Vistas. Here is how I explained it then.

The Southland is rich in secret vistas — little-known places that touch the heart and stir the spirit. Secluded Gulf of Mexico beaches in the off season. Quiet Appalachian hiking trails and glistening streams thick with trout. Hidden forests with trees dating back to the time of Christopher Columbus. Pools and caves alive with the spirit of Cherokee medicine. Little-known views as stunning as anything in the North or West.

Sometimes it’s not just the setting, but the time or season making a scene special. Wild flowers in a meadow in spring. An albino fawn feeding streamside, spotted through the mists of a summer dawn. The Monarch butterfly migration on the Gulf Coast in late fall. A camp site in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a winter morning, with just a light dusting of snow, the clouds hanging low in the spruce fir.

You don’t go out looking for vistas that will haunt you forever, but sometimes you find them. Especially if you live or spend time in the South.

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Glynn Wilson

For a sneak preview of a work in progress, hit this: Secret Vistas: The Waterfalls of Cloudland Canyon State Park

Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains on the western edge of Lookout Mountain in the northwest corner of Georgia, just across the Alabama and Tennessee lines near the town of Rising Fawn, there is an incredibly scenic camping spot in the Cloudland Canyon State Park. We chose this site for the first fall camping outing of 2011 because it is only a short drive from Birmingham.

Showing off some rugged mountain geology from 800 to 1,980 feet above sea level with exceptional hiking, the park straddles a deep gorge cut into the mountain by Sitton Gulch Creek. Visitors come to see the twin waterfalls cascade over layers of sandstone and shale into the creek below.

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“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”
- Paul Newman as Luke, in Cool Hand Luke

“Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
- John Muir

The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

LITTLE RIVER CANYON – Sitting as quietly and patently as could be expected on such a quick, short trip to the mountain waterfalls around Mentone, Alabama over the weekend, I gazed until I knew the sun would soon disappear from view behind the treetops at one of the Littler River Falls overlooks.

In this preserved idyllic setting, I thought about my Cherokee ancestors who lived here for hundreds of years before the United States of America was a gleam in Ben Franklin’s eye. I thought of the men who killed the Cherokee too, and connected the dots in my mind to understand the modern descendants of those killers.

Is it possible that a grudge could linger from a human gene, and not just pass down from one generation to another through the culture?

I thought about the social and political problems in the world today, chiefly focusing on this country — and my native state.

There in that muted fall beauty, as muddled as the world has become today, my thoughts also turned to the Scotsman John Muir, an early American botanist, one of the first American naturalists and nature writers to roam from the hills of Scotland to New England, through Appalachia to the Gulf of Mexico and ultimately California by way of South America.

Glynn Wilson

Click on the image for a larger view…

Muir never saw this exact spot, and for that he missed one. But he passed through these mountains on the Georgia side as surely as DeSoto. (See map below).

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Glynn Wilson

Fall color is starting to pop out on the Tallapoosa River in Horseshoe Bend National Park
Click on the images for a larger view…

by Glynn Wilson

HORSESHOE BEND – If you squint your eyes and listen close, you can almost hear the battle cries here where United States General Andrew Jackson slaughtered the last of the Creek Warriors in 1814. They say the river here ran red with the blood of 800 Creek natives, otherwise known as the Red Stick Indians, who valiantly stood up for the last time to the white men of European descent who invaded this land and committed genocide on a mass scale against the indigenous population.

According to the official history, in the spring of 1814, Jackson and an Army of 3,300 U.S. soldiers attacked 1,000 Upper Creek warriors on the Tallapoosa River. More than 800 Upper Creeks, a.k.a Red Sticks, died defending their homeland.

Never before or since in the history of this country have so many American Indians lost their lives in a single battle.

The 2,040-acre Horseshoe Bend National Park preserves the site of the battle.

Glynn Wilson

Fall color is starting to pop out on the Tallapoosa River in Horseshoe Bend National Park

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But Don’t Expose Yourself to the Air and Water on the Gulf Coast

Glynn Wilson

by Glynn Wilson

FISH RIVER – On the way north from the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, I just had to risk a little river exploration to get the canoe wet and try out a new kayak paddle. It was fun, but I’m not sure it was worth the risk (see below).

The dock on the Bon Secour River at Captain’s Galley, like the restaurant itself, was closed. Signs had it posted as private property, so I continued north to check out the Magnolia River, where they may still run the last U.S. mail route in the country by boat.

I stopped for lunch at Jesse’s in Magnolia Springs and braved the first seafood of the trip. Scrumptious shrimp and grits, and down home friendly service.

They even had a decent WiFi connection in the country store style market, a surprise. Much of Baldwin County still appears to be in the dark ages when it comes to the Internet. Maybe it’s the escapist tendencies of a beach resort perched at the end of a long stretch of Alabama country farmland.

Out behind the restaurant, there is a trail to a spot on the river where a canoe could be launched, and just down the street there is another public access point, but no real boat launch.

Glynn Wilson

Jesse’s Restaurant, also home to The Cold Hole bar and Jesse’s on the Side Market

The next stop heading east was Weeks Bay, where the docks are deserted since the BP oil disaster in April. Last time I was by here in July, it looked polluted with oil sheen and chemical dispersants, but there were sea gulls — and one lone pelican.

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Plus Indian Shell Mound Park

Glynn Wilson

A brown pelican heading home to Gaillard Island in Mobile Bay for the night, taken from the beach in the Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary, with a gas rig in the background. That’s Sand Island Lighthouse too.

[Click on the image for a larger view]

by Glynn Wilson

Acting on a tip from a group of bird experts, who say there was a major fallout of birds on Dauphin Island Monday on their annual trans-Gulf migration from South America, I trekked all through the Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary this afternoon, as well as Indian Shell Mound Park, a wild bird refuge located on the northern shore of Dauphin Island, a barrier island in Mobile County, Alabama.

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Glynn Wilson

After we checked out of Falling Waters Thursday morning, we skirted over the Georgia line to Kolomoki Mounds State Park for the night, totally off the grid. No cell phone service or Internet. There’s more to talk about here and more photos to search through before selecting the final cut for the slide show. So for tonight, suffice it to say we got the boats in the water Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning in the fog.

There’s a beautiful cypress cove, lilly pads, purple martins and red-wing black birds to show, maybe even a close up of a turkey vulture, plus the native American mound itself. But it’s getting pretty chilly out here in the press field set up for the Old 280 Boogie, and everybody else has crawled into their tents for the night. With any luck I’ll be ready to post the slide show over coffee in the a.m. before the fun starts across the street. [Click on the image for a photo essay.]

This is Florida’s tallest waterfall at the Falling Waters State Park…

Glynn Wilson

Click on the image for a photo essay…