I love spontaneous trips.  Mini-vacations, if you will.  On Saturday, we drove to Gadsden, Alabama, (it’s about a two hour drive for us) to Noccalula Falls State Park.  For the grand total of $18, we had an entire day of fun, just the five of us.

Admission to the park gives you unlimited rides on the train.  Which is great, because it’s a pretty big park.  In addition to the waterfall, there is an animal habitat with a lion, monkeys, reptiles, and several other creatures.  It’s just like a miniature zoo.  There is also a pioneer village, complete with several homes (and tools and machines) from the early 1800’s.

The girls really enjoyed the “Fat Man Squeeze”–they thought their dad was going to get stuck!!  They made quite a few trips through these passages of rocks.

This photo was taken at the train drop off point for the falls, and they were absolutely stunning. From here, we told the girls the legend of Princess Noccalula and then we started the hike down the gorge to the water.  (We also had to switch Jase back to the Maya sling–he was NOT a fan of this Ergo carrier!)

The hike down was just as gorgeous as the falls itself.  Huge rocks covered us on all sides.

It was definitely a work-out hiking over and across all this while carrying/wearing a baby!  It was very close to 1 mile in over rocks like this–we had to be careful where and how we stepped.  (Before you think this is only a trip for a “fit family”, I need to tell you that there was a Young at Heart group just behind us.  It took them a while, but they made it all the way to the falls and back!)

Being up close to the falls was amazing.  We sat and watched the water fall for a while.  I only wish we were able to get a better picture!

Noccalula Falls State Park is open March – October from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm.  Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children ages 3 and up.  Special group rates are available and can be found on their website.