Visiting Alabama In The Winter
When you hear the word Alabama, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? I think a lot of us would have the same initial reaction to hearing “Alabama” due to the mindset and expectation that has been built for us. Though that’s the initial reaction, I was curious to learn more and experience the state for myself.
At the time of my visit, I was living full-time in a 2022 Coachmen Freedom Express travel trailer/RV. Our campground was in north central Alabama, somewhat in between Birmingham and Huntsville. I pictured the state to be pretty flat and spacious with plenty of trees. I was mostly correct, but it certainly had much more elevation than I expected, I wouldn’t say mountains, but foothills and bluffs for sure.
It may have been a not-so-common time of year for us to visit, but we like to avoid hot weather, so we visited from January 22nd to February 5th of 2023. While we would have loved to enjoy the snow and winter season, the winter is about the only time we could visit the south. Luckily for us, there was no snow here because the roads from the interstate to the campground—mostly highways and county roads—were not ideal for towing an RV.
The campground itself was actually pretty nice, well the majority of it at least. We were able to snag a campsite in the new section of the campground that has fresh new gravel and a brand spanking new bathhouse with a laundry room. The older sections of the campground weren’t necessarily awful, but many of the roads and sites were very unmaintained and unlevel. The downside is that a private home, not associated with the campground, was right at the edge of the campground. This home had a few large dogs that the homeowner would allow to roam off-leash, which meant they would enter the campground and poop in the campsites. Since the homeowner wasn’t a camper, they wouldn’t bother with cleaning up the dog waste which made for some frustrating moments.
Probably the biggest benefit of the campground was that it was on a large lake with just a stunning landscape. The campground sits right on the shore of Smith Lake, which actually looking at a map of the lake, looks more like a network of small rivers, but it was beautiful all the same. The area of the lake where the campground sat was called Hidden Cove and the campground shared the name.
From this campground, we were able to access both Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama. The drives weren’t bad once we finally made it to the interstate, but the drive to the interstate seemed to drag on quite a bit. I was actually somewhat excited to experience Huntsville because I had heard that the city had a pretty good hockey community. Sadly, Huntsville was quite disappointing…in my opinion. We did get the chance to attend a hockey game in Huntsville (they have a semi-pro hockey team called the Huntsville Havoc that plays in the SPHL).
As far as the city of Huntsville, I can’t say that I was all that impressed either. It wasn’t exactly the worst, but I definitely preferred our time in Birmingham. This city surprised me quite a bit. You don’t really hear much about Alabama having mountains or any sort of elevation, but Birmingham definitely has it. Atop the main bluff or mountains—honestly, I’m not sure what it truly is—sits a really cool statue. I’m not sure how the locals feel about it, but I thought it was awesome.
The statue in question is called the Vulcan and it overlooks the city in a truly beautiful way. The Vulcan is a statue that is meant to remind residents of the city’s roots. Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and forge which relates to the city’s iron origins (information from the visitvulcan.com website). Visitors are given the opportunity to look upon the city from just below the feet of the statue and see all of Birmingham.
Birmingham also has a hockey team that plays in the same semi-pro league as the Huntsville Havoc, but we were unable to get tickets to one of their games. This was really the only thing I feel as though Bailey and I missed out on during our time in Birmingham. The team is called the Birmingham Bulls, just for reference if you decide you want to attempt to go to a game.
From this campground though, we were able to make the three and a half hour drive to Nashville, Tennessee to watch our favorite team of the Winnipeg Jets play the Nashville Predators. Bailey and I both really love the city of Nashville, the Predators, and the fans we’ve interacted with while at the games and in the streets of Nashville. Normally, we wouldn’t have made this drive, but for the Jets…it was worth it.
