Tannehill State Park

Originally, the plan was to camp this weekend at Tannehill State Park and enjoy some hiking, history and their trade days. But the forecast for scattered early afternoon thunderstorms ended up being consistent showers from early afternoon into evening. We already expected it to be cold but we decided that cold AND rainy was not a good idea for camping this weekend. So we made a slight adjustment and had a date night in town last night. We enjoyed dinner of Chinese food and went to see Thor 2 in 3D. 

We set out early this morning for Tannehill State Park. It is about an hour and 20 minutes from where we live in Gadsden. 

We parked at the front entrance near the park office. Having never been here before(and I honestly hadn't even looked at a map), we ended up parked no where near the area where they have the trade days booths. We decided to take the mile+ hike rather than move our car.

 Me and my handsome husband

 After making our way through trade days, we took ourselves on a self guided tour of the parks buildings. The Hall Mill is a fully functioning mill that is still used today.

 We bought a bag of white corn meal for $3. The couple who works the mill grow the crops on their property and then use the mill to create the product sold by the state park.

 The pictures do not even do the beautiful colors justice!

 The park also has a "Pioneer Village". It has several old buildings on it but you can only view the exterior. This is the Blacksmith Shop. Apparently Tannehill has a "school of blacksmithery". :)

 The water is a bit brown, and you will have to look past the reflections, but underneath you can see the texture of the base of the river. It's beautiful in person. 

We made the trek back to the other side of the park. After a short stop at the Sweet Shoppe for some ice cream, we went to the Alabama Iron and Steel Museum.

 Words cannot describe how much I love him!

 Inside of the museum. Due to the crazy amount of natural light, and my lack of photography skills, it was hard to get good interior pictures. 

 We weren't sure how far the hike was from the museum to the actual Ironworks but it wasn't too terribly far and definitely worth the extra walk.

We had such a good time and we are looking forward to going back to actually be able to camp and go on one of their many hiking trails.