Our first stop outside of Florida was at the Neely Henry Lake area in Alabama for a week. This area is conveniently located between the famous Horse Pens 40 bouldering area and the Coldwater Mountain Bike Trails.
If you haven’t been to Florida before, it is extremely flat and sandy. There are next to nothing as far as natural features go. As you may expect, the rock climbing and mountain biking options in Florida are extremely lacking. Climbing in Florida is pretty much limited to man-made structures like climbing gyms, bridges, buildings, etc. and mountain biking is either really flat, or built into areas like old phosphorus mines. Needless to say, I was super eager to get out climbing on real rock and riding some trails with actual hills.
Unfortunately, my intentions far exceeded the number of dry days that Alabama had to offer in the spring… I did make it out to Horse Pens 40 for an afternoon of bouldering after work one day. But, I never did make it to the Coldwater Mountain Bike Trails before we moved on to our next destination.
If you’d like to read more about Horse Pens 40, click here.
Neely Henry Lake was a quiet and relaxed atmosphere, at least while we were there. The campground was inexpensive compared to most of our stops around the country. While we opted to stay here due to it’s proximity to some of the outdoor attractions in the area, it ended up serving as an area for rest and relaxation.