PELHAM, Ala. (AP) - Right about now, most of us feel the need for an escape from our everyday – especially when it involves getting back to nature without traveling too far.
The perfect escape is waiting in Pelham, just 20 minutes from downtown Birmingham, at Oak Mountain State Park. The largest state park in Alabama with 9,940 acres, Oak Mountain offers more than 50 miles of hiking and mountain-biking trails, several lakes for fishing and swimming and one of its most popular attractions: Peavine Falls.
Named for the flowering plant that grows along the road to the falls – built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps – Peavine Falls is a 65-foot-high, spring-fed waterfall that will remind you how soul-soothing it is to be outside in such a beautiful place.
One caveat for those who haven’t been to this waterfall before: Now isn’t exactly prime time for Peavine Falls. The torrential waterfall you see in photos is more likely to occur in the rainier winter months. Depending on how much it’s rained lately, the waterfall might be more like a trickle during the hot summer months.
But it’s still a destination worth the hike for the peaceful setting and lush greenery surrounding it.
Lauren Muncher, a Birmingham native who grew up visiting Oak Mountain State Park, has worked there as the park naturalist since November of 2018. Her main job is educating visitors at the interpretive center, but her daily duties run the gamut. “That’s why I love it,” she says. “I’m not a desk job person.”
In a recent phone interview from the ranger station, she talked about Peavine Falls, one of the most popular spots in the park. While there are specific routes to get there, she says all trails eventually lead to the waterfall. Still, “people can get really lost,” she says, so be sure to follow signs and exercise caution on the way.
She recommends going to the Peavine Falls Trailhead and following the White or Blue trails, which are about the same distance – a two-mile-ish hike from the parking lot for Peavine Falls. More advanced hikers like the Green Trail, which is the most difficult way to get there.
Hikers should beware that it’s a steep walk to the bottom of the falls. “It’s not for beginners,” Muncher says. “You have to wear the right shoes and be prepared for the hike.”
But the payoff is the pool of water below the falls – a great place to cool off in the summertime after a tough hike.
“It’s beautiful after a really good rain,” Muncher says. During the summer months, it’s more like a “leaky faucet,” she says. “But it’s so pretty through there. The terrain is really neat at the top of the falls.”
Once below the falls, if you follow the Peavine Branch downstream, you’ll encounter large boulders and smaller falls along the way. Families enjoy having picnics there. The falls are also popular with college students who “hammock and hang out,” as well as extreme hikers – many train for the Appalachian Trail here – and photographers.
Among the treasures that have been found near the falls are Native American arrowheads and Prohibition-era remnants of moonshine stills – both part of the “weird history” of the place that helps make it so unique, says Muncher.
With 10 cabins and 176 campsites, the park even includes some backcountry sites in the woods that you have to hike to. “You can drive 20 minutes (to the park) and literally get lost,” Muncher says. “But it’s not so big that if you get lost, it’s a week-long search.”
If you do get lost, fear not. One of her jobs is to help find you in what she calls the “wilderness in the city.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.