Of all the highpoints I've visited or read about, this is one of the most enjoyable to visit. We stayed at the Cheaha State Park Resort. From there, you can stay in nice hotel rooms, chalets or cabins, swim in the pool, eat at a pretty good restaurant. All this about a quarter mile from the highpoint.
The highpoint tower here is currently under renovation, but it was unlocked due to construction, so I went up. Nice 360 view. Officially it's not opening until January 2003.
Driving here from Columbus, MS was great. A short drive and we arrived and made the summit very easily. We were kinda unimpressed by the views the overly elaborate tower offered but we got our picture. Also, we found a curious marker set in a large rock between the tower building and the radio towers to the left. We took a picture there of it. We then proceeded to find a place to camp for the night. We stayed at the campground just down the road from the summit after discovering that the primitive campground below, really mean primitive. We went for a nice bike ride about 8 miles round trip starting from 4 miles down the road from the summit. It was great to actually ride up a Mountain (and we did it again 2 days later in TN). Plus the ride down to the car was totally sweet. The park is a great place to hike and boulder around. We will return sometime and spend more than a night in Cheaha State Park.
After a long day it was with great relief to find at Alabama's highpoint a hotel, a resturant, and a little store. Before sunset I was able to check into the hotel, buy some beer at the store, go to the highpoint tower, and sit for dinner while watching the sun lower over Alabama. Sometimes the views make up for the food quality, which was the case here. In the morning during breakfast I watched Alabama DOC uniformed men go in and out of the kitchen. Just an interesting note. There were very few people at this extremely pleasant highpoint. It was about 200 miles from Georgia, my previous highpoint. After a restful evening and convenient breakfast at the resturant across the parking lot from my room, it was off to Florida's highpoint.
Cheaha was a nice spot. Getting there was more fun though I came in from the west on backroads and got a little lost so I stopped in a country store and met an interesting fellow that gave me directions and a great deal to talk to my wife about the rest of the way. Also coming from Woodall Mt. I passed the Coon Dog cemetery just west of Mississippi and they have a website so Google it and check it out.
There was a lot of fog at Cheaha so no good views but we did walked down the boardwalk trail to Bald Knob to stretch our legs before we headed to Florida.
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