Exploring the Clarkson Covered Bridge

Well, I told y'all in the last post that I was going to split our Friday the 13th 'family fun' into three separate posts, so today I'm sharing our adventures to the Clarkson Covered Bridge in Cullman, Alabama. 

The last time we went to the Steel Apple Orchard we had the lovely privilege of touring with a preschool class full of amazing mamas who graciously welcomed our family into their close-knit group. They so kindly invited our family to picnic with them at the Clarkson Covered Bridge (which I had never even heard of before). Since we had so much fun picnicking there during that little adventure, I knew we had to visit there again this year. We're big fans of picnicking and rarely eat out when we go on our little road trips. Feeding this crew via dining out could get quite expensive pretty fast; and to me, picnic food just tastes better in nature anyways.

There aren't any trails at the Clarkson Covered Bridge (that I know of), but there is plenty to explore; especially with the creek and large rocks blanketing the area.

I love when the children go searching through nature to see what they can find. One of my boys turned over a rock to discover this little frog. Another one is convinced he saw a snake head! {{YIKES!}}

During our last visit to the Clarkson Covered Bridge, there was plenty of water flowing, turning the giant water wheel. This year we are experiencing a major drought so the water wheel was not moving. My middle boys thought it was a prime opportunity to see if they could make the wheel move. And yes, y'all they could make the wheel move, lol!

So much to touch and feel and discover! Even though it was hot and I had cranky littles, we still had fun exploring the area. I was kind of sad to see that in the two years that have past since our last visit, the park seems to have been neglected. There was quite a bit of trash and debris littering the scenery. But, on a positive note, the bathrooms were maintained and in working order ~ a major bonus when you're in the middle of nowhere, have a bunch of littles, and are pregnant!

The last picture of my kiddos did not go as planned, especially since we had to wait for two other families to finish taking photos on the bridge. The little bitty ones were in dire need of a nap while the rest were just done taking pictures! One of these days I'll learn to take my "must-take" pictures at the start of our adventures and not at the end. (sigh)

I love this picture, even if we were being silly. My three little photo bombers in the background give y'all an idea of how long the bridge really is!

Here's a little clip showcasing the profile of the covered bridge. Quite amazing for something that was built in the early 1900s! Yes, it has been restored, but still, men originally built a similar bridge with very limited tools and resources in the exact same spot ~ I'm totally impressed!

We really didn't stay long at the Clarkson Covered Bridge, just long enough to eat and stretch our legs before we headed back home. I love traditions, and visiting the Steel Apple Orchard and Clarkson Covered Bridge is a perfect back to school tradition for our family (even if the drive is LONG). While the day didn't go exactly as planned and none of us really felt 100% well, it was absolutely worth the effort to stick to our plans and immerse ourselves in nature for a short time. Thankfully the drive home was relatively uneventful. We made it home with just an hour to spare before we kicked off our final family fun event on Friday the 13th of September; which I will share all about in my next post!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Adventures at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve

This week we had to take our three year old for his bimonthly craniopathic chiropractic adjustment. Since it's on the other side of the big city (typically over an hour away) I always try to plan an outing with the kiddos. We've explored much of the greater Birmingham, Alabama area in the realm of free nature explorations and even some that were not so free; so I've had to broaden our circle of travel destinations. It doesn't help that a huge chunk of downtown Birmingham is under major road reconstruction including massive detours, which means some major navigating finessing for this non-geographically inclined ol' girl, lol.

While searching for a new place to explore, I came across Turkey Creek Nature Preserve which is about 30 minutes outside of Birmingham via the interstate. Unfortunately, that part of the interstate is closed so to get there you have to travel highways and backroads, doubling how long it takes to reach the preserve. I had planned to go the last time we went to my sons appointment, but then realized (at his appointment) it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, argh. So I went ahead and scheduled his next appointment for a Wednesday so we could finally head out to explore Turkey Creek Nature Preserve despite it being further away than I would prefer.

Well, folks we finally made it to Turkey Creek Nature Preserve and it did not disappoint! It was a super neat, donation only, outdoor place to explore. There was some amazing watering holes to swim in and there were even folks tubing. We ended up hiking along the creek which to me was more of a river, but hey if they want to call it a creek so be it. The trail was not really maintained well, but I did see plenty of trails that appeared to be better maintained when we were driving through the preserve.

I was quite impressed with my children's ability to scramble over the rocky terrain. There was only a couple incidents where my kiddos slipped and fell. Which I found to be a miracle because the rocks along the creek were covered in slippery algae. Thankfully, they were all good sports and even disappointed when we had to turn around on the trail due to a fallen tree.

I prefer exploring nature spots that aren't so heavily populated; that was not the case with Turkey Creek Nature Preserve. There were people everywhere! We passed a good many folks on the trail as well as dozens swimming/tubing in the creek. It's not that I'm anti-people, but it takes a lot for my children to decompress and actually immerse themselves in God's creation. I love to see them truly become one with nature and be intentional with their time 'outside the box'.  I'm not saying they didn't enjoy themselves, but all the people around were definitely a distraction.

Several of my children were severely crushed that we didn't bring our swimsuits and floats. I must admit it would have been nice to cool off from the intense heat and humidity, but with the long drive I just didn't think it would be wise to add 'exploring the watering hole' to our itinerary. Perhaps I should have planned differently, but now we just have all the more reason to go back.

Part of the adventure for me is getting to take dozens of pictures ~ my kids typically know this is just part of the trip, but I didn't get too many pictures during this outing. Sadly, even one of my pictures was accidentally deleted, which happened to be the only one I captured of my 16 year old {{sigh}} Sometimes that's just the way things happen, unfortunately. I know life isn't about the pictures, but it helps me to remember those special little memories that mean so much to me. Much of life is hard and not so pretty so when we're in the beauty of God's creation I want to savor it for everything it's worth and my pictures help me do that in a long term fashion.

Yes men can (and do) wear babies 😍

Yes, we're the crazy parents who take eight children into the woods for an adventure, because you know 'every-day life' isn't adventure enough, lol!!

Hiking with children is not an easy feat especially when you've got a large family with lots of little ones, but I never regret the effort when we go exploring nature. I spent many years making excuses why not to go hiking, boy am I glad I quit making excuses. Hiking is one of my most loved past times as a child and while many of my children are not big fans of hiking, they usually admit to having a good time once I drag them out there.

Sometimes doing the not-so-easy thing doesn't reap massive rewards but the subtle ones do exist ~ even if you have to look a tad bit harder to see them. Besides, we all know a little change of scenery is good for regrouping and refocusing. Our midweek adventure certainly helped to break up our rough start back to homeschooling. I'm beyond grateful we had the much needed distraction and that the Lord brought us to visit Turkey Creek Nature Preserve. It was definitely worth the extra drive and energy to experience it with my family.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer