North ALABAMA is BEAUTIFUL! 😍 Stephens Gap Cave, Walls of Jericho, waterfalls, & MORE!

Who knew that Alabama had epic stuff like this? We're officially back on the road with the goal of visiting our final seven states over the next few months and after a couple days of driving from Texas with some stops in Louisiana and Mississippi we have made it to our 44th state, Alabama. Over the next few days we're going to be exploring some of North Alabama's beautiful nature spots and first we're heading to the Bankhead National Forest, one of Alabama's four North Alabama is home to tons of waterfalls in fact the Sipsi Wilderness which is located in the Bankhead National Forest is nicknamed the land of 1,000 waterfalls and y'all know we love chasing waterfalls so our plan over the next few days is to try to visit some of the best ones in this part of the state and first we're heading to Holmes Chapel Falls. The parking here is a little iffy it's basically just a muddy turnaround but we were able to squeeze in on the side of the road and thankfully the falls are just a short walk away wow this waterfall is so cool you can also go behind the waterfall ah i'm getting tripped on. I just cannot get over this scene with the huge rock overhang and the water just pouring off the edge and crashing on the rocks below Alabama you're off to a good start well we've had a slight change of plans for today we had planned to go hike to another waterfall and then go check out another really cool looking nature spot but while we were on this hike we noticed that Kona was peeing a lot she's peeing very very small amounts each time so we looked at it and we noticed there was blood in her urine which has happened to her before she's had a UTI before so that's what we suspect it is but we need to now go get her to a vet so she can get some help and hopefully feel better problem is we have no cell service so our first plan is to go just drive until we get cell service research some vets call them hopefully they can get her in today and then hopefully she'll feel better soon living on the road doctor appointments and vet visits are a little tricky we try to take care of that stuff when we're back in Texas but we have had to take Kona to the vet a couple times across the U.S. during our travels and we're always able to find someone who can take a look at her awesome we'll head there right now thank you so much we got one Tennessee Valley Animal Clinic coming through we got Kona some medicine so hopefully she'll be feeling better really soon as Kona's getting older just anytime she has a health issue it just freaks us out and scares us a bit so this kind of just threw us for a loop and kind of knocked the wind out of our sails a bit but we're gonna try to enjoy the little bit of the day that we have left we headed over to Florence Alabama which is part of the Shoals a region made up of four towns along the Tennessee River this region is especially known for its music history with fame music opening in 1959 and then the Muscle Shoals sound studio following in 1969 both of these studios became famous after having many talented artists recorded them like Bob Dylan the Rolling Stones Willie Nelson Aretha Franklin and a bunch of others I was supposed to remember to mention both studios offer studio tours but unfortunately the timing's not going to work out so we're going to wander around Florence instead they have a graffiti alley here which I was not expecting at all and if you've been following along for a while you know we love us a good graffiti alley this is a really good graffiti alley too they have a lot of cool murals they even have a Betty White mural Queen of America not only does this area have a lot of music history but it also has the oldest ice cream shop in Alabama we're at Trow Bridges which has been around since 1918 and it has this old school ice cream parlor vibe and it feels like you're just stepping back in time they are known for their orange pineapple ice cream which they created back when they opened and it's not normally a flavor I would choose first but one in Florence oh I feel like there was a chunk of pineapple or orange or something in there yeah there's chunks in here there are fruity chunks that tastes just like a creamsicle with a little pineapple flair in there I dig that I used to eat a lot of sherbet growing up this kind of takes me back it doesn't feel fair that we got to enjoy some ice cream and Kona who wasn't feeling well today and had to go to the vet gets nothing so now we're on the hunt to find Kona a little treat Kona we got you an ice cream cone tonight we're camping at Brush Creek Park which is about 30 minutes west of Florence and it is a free campground right here on the Tennessee River how amazing is this tonight we're having a glow bowl which is quinoa veggies and a curry dressing and we add mixed greens and chicken and it is super delicious today may not have gone a hundred percent according to plan but this is not a bad way to end the day and tomorrow is a new day and we're going to be continuing our northern Alabama road trip and we still have a bunch of cool spots that we're going to check out assuming no one else gets sick while we could have stayed at the campground for days we had a three-hour drive ahead crossing rivers going through cities and farmland and winding past rolling hills to our big adventure for the day the walls of Jericho trail the walls of Jericho trail is about eight miles round trip and gains almost 1600 feet of elevation and it is listed as the number one trail in Alabama on all trails so we obviously had to come and check it out so far the hike has been a mostly downhill walk through the woods and one thing we've noticed since being here in northern Alabama is just how green it is everywhere we're here in late spring so that definitely contributes but just driving around and hiking on the trails you just see green as far as the eye can see this trail is mostly in Alabama but it actually ends in Tennessee and we are about to cross the state line into Tennessee how cool is that wow check this out this is amazing as we approach the end of the trail the scenery has really begun to change we entered into this kind of canyon or channel with these high rock walls above us and now we've entered into like it looks like a wilderness oasis there's this gorgeous pool here with a rock overhang and water is like cascading down into the beautiful blue pool tons of waterfalls this is a spot we still have more to see on this trail but we thought this would be the perfect spot to just take a break eat some lunch and just soak it all in this just keeps getting better and better pouring out of this hole this cave oh no the water isn't running who turned it off well there's supposed to be a really cool waterfall right here just tucked in this rock cove and i looked at all trails photos recent ones and it looked like it was flowing but i guess it's not it's only a trickle as i mentioned earlier the hike out to the waterfall was mostly downhill so that means the hike back to the van it's going to be all uphill we made it back and one big perk about this hike is that we can camp in the parking lot so after that uphill climb we can just plop right into bed if you caught our vietnam series you saw that we visited a bunch of caves including on a multi-day caving adventure so we're on a bit of a cave kick right now and alabama actually has over 4200 caves and this morning we're visiting stephens gap cave this cave is managed by the southeastern cave conservancy and they manage a bunch of different caves in the area there are a few very important things to know before you decide to visit this cave the first one being that you have to get a permit to visit the permit is free but they only allow 12 people to visit per day on the hiking permit they also have a vertical caving permit but that is completely out of our skill set you also have to have a headlamp and a backup good hiking shoes and you have to wear a helmet with a chin strap this almost deterred us from doing this because we did not own helmets and we didn't want to spend a ton of money on caving helmets so we just got these cheap biking skateboarding helmets off amazon it's a pretty short hike to the cave we think it's just under a mile holy smokes this is so awesome just this huge hole in the ground with a waterfall just dripping right through it that's not something you see every day thankfully this is not how we get down into the cave i believe those with a vertical caving permit enter this way but they have a walk-in entrance over there which looks to be a lot less sketchy we're going down there we ready oh whoa oh my gosh oh heck yeah oh my gosh that is epic who knew that alabama had epic stuff like this oh my god waterfall right here and there's another one right over there there's one of my favorite things about the cave is the light beam that's coming through the hole in the ceiling we thought we'd be here too early for there to be one but there is definitely one here and you see all these little water molecules floating through the light there it just looks like outer space that was easily one of the most magical experiences that we have had in the lower 48 we got our permit about two weeks ago for a weekday in may but i do hear that summer weekends especially fill up further in advance and i don't know if today was full or not i don't know if all the permits were taken but we saw zero people the entire two hours that we were in that cave we have a bit of driving left to do today but along the way we're going to make a quick stop at de soto falls there is an overlook just up the road that you can drive to which overlooks the top of the falls but we hear that the best view of the falls is to go down to the bottom of them which is under a one mile hike each way we can't quite see the falls yet but we know we're getting close because we can hear its thundering roar unlike yesterday's waterfall this one is not dry this one is gushing it is 104 feet tall which makes it one of alabama's tallest waterfalls and it is just surrounded by this sheer rock cliff now we have to book it back up the trail which is all uphill on the way back because we still have a two-hour drive to our final stop here in alabama chiha state park this park is a bit south from all the other places we have been to but we couldn't pass up the chance to visit because it holds a very special title it is the highest point in alabama at 2413 feet although this sign says 2407 feet so i'm not sure who's lying google or this sign this is our seventh state high point we've been to texas new mexico colorado south dakota new york and vermont's high points but this is the first one we haven't had to hike to and the high point is marked with this rock tower that you can go to the top to see the view the view from the top was beautiful but there were a lot of power lines and radio towers obstructing the view so we're actually going to head a little bit down the mountain to a spot called pulpit rock for sunset wow it's just trees and hills and mountains as far as the eye can see the way the light's hitting the trees are just lighting up this bright green color all these textures of from the hills and all the trees and everything spectacular this is a gorgeous spot this sunset was the perfect way to end a beautiful few days in alabama we feel like we say this after every state we visit but alabama was such a great surprise the forests waterfalls cave adventures and views fulfilled a huge craving we have had to be back out in nature we'll definitely be back someday to see more of its beauty but for now it's off to state number 45