Transcript:
Melea Hames: [00:00:01] You're listening to the Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama Podcast, part of the Destination Marketing Podcast Network.
Welcome to this week's episode of Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama and thank you for listening. Today I'm excited to be joined by one of our North Alabama ambassadors, Miranda Watson who is also the founder of the Girls Who Hike group. Miranda thank you for joining me.
Miranda Watson: [00:00:32] It's good to be here Melea. Thanks for having me.
Melea Hames: [00:00:34] Absolutely. Well, I'm so excited to chat with you about Cherokee Rock Village. This is one of those episodes where I wish our listeners could see what we're talking about because the view from Cherokee Rock Village, the top is amazing.
Miranda Watson: [00:00:50] Yes, it is.
Melea Hames: [00:00:51] Yeah, it's breathtaking. Yeah. To get us started Miranda, will you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you became interested in hiking?
Miranda Watson: [00:00:59] Sure Melea. Thank you for asking. I grew up in the area where Cherokee Rock Village is located, a little town called Sand Rock Alabama. We grew up in the outdoors, camping and fishing and bows and arrows, all that fun stuff but I didn't really get into hiking until I was an adult. Back when my boys were little and back around 2006, I had a car accident. It left me with some injuries. After the car accident, it was kind of a time for me to just need a little bit of extra time to myself, a little bit of anxiety and depression that goes along with life events like that.
A friend was a geocacher and she took my boys and my husband and I along with her family out to hike at Lake Guntersville State Park. We geocache it a little bit. After I was done, it just left me with a sense of peace and calm. I was tired, but it was very fulfilling. I just started walking. One of my injuries during my car accident was an injury to my foot, but I found that being able to walk and get out and just that peace and quiet and time to reflect helped my mental health as well as my physical health. I've been doing it ever since.
Melea Hames: [00:02:15] Wow that is quite a story. I'm so glad you mentioned that about your mental health. Hiking is so good for not just your physical health but also your mental health, I know. Background 2020, I got out and walked a whole lot more and it's really good. It's hard to explain to people who haven't done it, but it's so good for your mind just to move and be outdoors in the fresh air. Glad you added that part.
Miranda Watson: [00:02:42] Yes, it is. We've seen an influx in Girls Who Hike Alabama members and people, women coming out on our hikes because of 2020. A lot of teachers, a lot of nurses, a lot of people who are moms have been couped up with their kids just ready to get out. Yes.
Melea Hames: [00:03:02] Just please just let us go outside for a little.
Miranda Watson: [00:03:04] Absolutely.
Melea Hames: [00:03:07] Oh my goodness. We are going to talk about the Girls Who Hike group here in just a second. Can you tell us the history behind Cherokee Rock Village?
Miranda Watson: [00:03:18] Yeah. Cherokee Rock Village actually has been around, of course, a long time. The Cherokee Rock Village was home to Native Americans in this area from around 8000 BC until the removal of the Cherokee. Around 1838, it was when they kind of left the area. It's got a really deep history with Cherokee and Creek Indians in our area. It was also believed to be a religious and ceremonial site for them but actually, Cherokee Rock Village back in about the 1980s was when it was transferred the title of the land to the Cherokee County Commission. It's basically now owned by the Cherokee County Commission. It is run by the Cherokee County Park board.
Melea Hames: [00:04:04] Okay. I had no idea about the history of the Native Americans and the Cherokee Indians. We did an Oakville episode and we talked to Anna Mullican at the Oakville Indian Mound Park. She was telling us all about the history out there. That's so cool that it's just vast.
Miranda Watson: [00:04:23] Yes. There are about 200 acres of sandstone boulders there too. It's beautiful.
Melea Hames: [00:04:31] Yeah. Okay well, tell us what we could expect to see and do at Cherokee Rock Village.
Miranda Watson: [00:04:38] Okay. Like I said there are about 200 acres of sandstone boulders. Some of them reach highs of 200 ft. A lot of people come there to climb. There are hiking trails that are good for just regular hiking, horse riding, and mountain biking trails. Also, we are on the Alabama Birding Trail. Cherokee Rock Village is on the Alabama Birding Trail. It's good for bird watching as well. There's actually a sign-up there at one of the look-offs to show you what you can see to help you with your bird ID.
There are also 15 RV dry campsites and we have a hundred primitive camping sites. Camping is a big deal up there at Cherokee Rock Village with the beautiful views that you can see of Weiss Lake. A lot of people will just drive up for the sunset. Some people will come for a picnic. There's a pavilion for weddings and reunions. There is a new observation deck too that you can see the beautiful sunrise and sunset up there. It's been used for weddings as well.
Melea Hames: [00:05:45] Oh wow. Yeah, that's on my list of things to do, it is to see a sunset at Cherokee Rock Village. Maybe not a sunrise because I'm not really a morning person but a sunset, I'm down for.
Miranda Watson: [00:05:57] Yes.
Melea Hames: [00:05:58] Yes. Some of the pictures that some of our ambassadors have taken I mean wow it is amazing. So beautiful.
Miranda Watson: [00:06:06] Yes it is beautiful.
Melea Hames: [00:06:07] Yeah. Have you done any rock climbing and rappelling at Cherokee Rock Village?
Miranda Watson: [00:06:14] I am not a rock climber or a rappeler but there's a lot of people who do.
Melea Hames: [00:06:20] Yeah.
Miranda Watson: [00:06:21] We have the Southeastern Climbers Coalition who comes up. They do rock climbing there as well as restoration and conservation work with us to community service.
Melea Hames: [00:06:33] Okay.
Miranda Watson: [00:06:34] There are a lot of rock climbers up there and that's actually kind of where we get our fame. Sometimes when you look up Cherokee Rock Village, sometimes people just call it sand rock. Sometimes that's two words and sometimes it's one. That's where most of our popularity is from. It is from bouldering or rock climbing. No, I'm not a rock climber.
Melea Hames: [00:06:57] A fun fact is the movie Failure to Launch that was released back in the 90s. I can't remember exactly what year but Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker did a rock-climbing scene there. That's kind of a little fun fact that not everybody knows. That's how well known it is for rock climbing that it caught the attention of Hollywood there.
Miranda Watson: [00:07:21] Yes. It was in 2006 it's when that came out. I actually got to meet Matthew McConaughey during that time.
Melea Hames: [00:07:29] So jealous.
Miranda Watson: [00:07:31] He's very handsome.
Melea Hames: [00:07:34] That is so awesome. Tell us then what is your favorite part at Cherokee Rock Village?
Miranda Watson: [00:07:41] My favorite part of Cherokee Rock Village, I like to hike the green trail which kind of goes along the ridge and then like I said the observation deck. I like to go up there and watch sunsets. I'm not a very morning person either. Yeah, I like to watch the sunsets up there too. We have other educational programs up there from time to time. One of my other hats is as a 4-H Agent for Cherokee County, for the Alabama 4-H at Auburn University. I do some programs up there with kids because it's important to teach them about what's in their very own backyard.
Melea Hames: [00:08:22] Yeah.
Miranda Watson: [00:08:23] I would say hiking the green trail and the observation deck would be my two favorite things.
Melea Hames: [00:08:28] Okay. As the green trail for someone who maybe is getting started at hiking is it a hard trail or is it a pretty easy trail to hike?
Miranda Watson: [00:08:38] It's only about 0.7 miles from beginning to end but on the trail there are parts where there are rocks and roots. I would say stop by the store as you come in, get a map and get some pointers as to how to go in if you're not familiar with the area. If you generally take a hiking stick take one with you otherwise just go slow.
Melea Hames: [00:09:01] Okay.
Miranda Watson: [00:09:02] They're working on the signage there to make sure in the trail system they're working on re-vegetation of some of the spider trails and things like that. Just to make sure that we control erosion and so just pay attention to those signs but go slow and its beautiful views. The green trail offers a lot of beautiful views.
Melea Hames: [00:09:23] Okay. Are there harder trails than to hike?
Miranda Watson: [00:09:27] There are harder trails. There is a trail that goes down to a private lake area. As you walk down that trail, that is the red trail that goes down to the orange trail, which is next to the lake that borders private hunting clubland. Around this time of year, we have our deer hunters out there. If you did do that one, I would say carry your day pack with some water and some snacks because it is a trudge back up. You go downhill on the way down but then you got to come back uphill. I would also say during this time of year just make sure you wear some safety orange just to let the hunters know you're out there and that you're not a deer.
Melea Hames: [00:10:08] Okay. That's very important.
Miranda Watson: [00:10:10] Yes.
Melea Hames: [00:10:11] We are orange on the orange trail. Got it.
Miranda Watson: [00:10:14] You are orange on the orange trail. There you go. Yeah.
Melea Hames: [00:10:18] Okay. Awesome. Well, tell us then a little bit about the Girls Who Hike group that you've started.
Miranda Watson: [00:10:25] Okay. Girls Who Hike was an international group up until about 2019. About 2019, they disbanded and the ambassadors for each state organization were essentially given if they wanted to continue. I don't know about you Melea, but when I started looking for groups to hike with, I saw a lot of stuff out in California. I saw a lot of stuff up in Washington State or North in Maine. There was nothing for us here in Alabama. The Girls Who Hike Alabama group was fairly active before Monica and I took it over in 2019. It still wasn't as active as I would've liked to see it. When it was given to us, COVID hit. After that, we stopped doing hikes until we were following the state parks because that's where we do all of our hikes.
We were following what they were doing and once they opened that back up in the fall of 2020 we started in full force. We've just been going ever since. We keep adding more people. It is free to join our group and for the most part free to attend our hikes. Basically the motto of Girls Who Hike Alabama, we basically want to provide an opportunity for women of all ages, of all backgrounds and all skill levels, the opportunity to get outdoors to learn about environmental education and environmental stewardship, which are very important. We want to be able to increase their skill level. We are going to do this through and have been doing this through responsible and sustainable outdoor adventure and environmental education programs.
That's kind of what sets us apart between us and just your average, you know, a bunch of friends getting together to go high. We are heavy in environmental education and skill-building. We know that these folks probably won't be with us forever. They may just need a little nudge to get outside, but we want them to do it in a responsible manner and no leave no trace standards and know-how to keep themselves safe so that when they go forth and spread that knowledge and spread the joy, spread their expertise that they're doing it in a correct way. That's what we strive to do.
Melea Hames: [00:12:46] Yeah, I love that because we've talked about Leave No Trace principles before and we're actually working on an episode about Leave No Trace. We had partnered with them after 2020 because we have found that while it was great that people were getting outside when they were quarantined, getting outdoors and everything is that a lot of people really weren't educated about what to really do once they were out there. It became even more important to kind of educate those people. I love that your group is doing that and not just like, “Hey, this is great to get exercise.” We also have to be good stewards of the land that we've been given.
Miranda Watson: [00:13:28] That's what we're seeing too Melea. We are seeing a lot of folks that want to get out that they may have never done this before. It's not that they're being malicious.
Melea Hames: [00:13:37] Right.
Miranda Watson: [00:13:38] Or they don't want to follow these principles, they just don't know. I'm a firm believer that you can teach people the rules, but if you let them know why the rules are there, they're more likely to follow those rules and pass those along.
Melea Hames: [00:13:52] Yeah, that's important too is kind of why. I guess we never grow out of that as kids. When our parents tell us not to do something, “But why? We want to know. Why do you not do that?”
Miranda Watson: [00:14:04] Exactly.
Melea Hames: [00:14:07] I'm sure you dealt with that quite a bit with your boys.
Miranda Watson: [00:14:09] Absolutely. Exactly.
Melea Hames: [00:14:14] Have you had the opportunity then to lead a hike and to teach the Girls Who Hike group at Cherokee Rock Village?
Miranda Watson: [00:14:22] Yeah. We actually have had a couple of hikes up at Cherokee Rock Village. One of the most recent, we had back in December. It was a cold, chilly night, but it was during the full moon and it was actually during the solstice, the winter solstice. What we did was we started with a gathering. There's a pavilion up there with a really good place to use the restroom and when people travel, that's one of the first things they need to do when they get there. We met up there. We did go over Leave No Trace standards really quickly, just what to expect, safety things.
Everybody had headlamps, but we started out before sunset. The way that the ridge runs up at Cherokee Rock Village, you're able to see Weiss Lake. You can see the lots from the Leesburg Area all the way to Gaston. You can actually look north to roam Georgia but the sun was setting. As we were walking, we were able to follow along and see the sunset. Along the way, of course, we did talk about, there's some graffiti and there are some people who leave trash. We were able to pick up trash as we went. We were also able to talk about Leave No Trace because they're beautiful. There are sandstone and limestone. Rocks were defaced by so and so low so and so.
We talked about how hard that is to actually get it off the rocks and the people who take it off for us actually volunteered to do that and they use what's called elephant’s snot. It actually degrades, yeah, that's what it's called. It actually degrades the rock. Before the Cherokee County Park board took over the park, locals and not-so-locals would go up and with their can of spray paint. It became a party spot and things like that. We did talk about that and the fact that now that the Cherokee County Park Board and since they've had it, we've been able to cut down on a lot of that.
Afterward, we had a campfire. We talked about some of the Cherokee folklore as it pertains to stars and don't ask me to say any of that because I don't remember the story. We sat around the campfire and we told small little campfire stories about that. We roasted some marshmallows and then we put out our campfire like you're supposed to do when you're completely done. My husband had made the campfire for us because you know what kind of Girls Who Hike Alabama independent group would we be if my husband didn't help us do the campfire? He did that while we hiked so I wouldn't have to do that. He stayed there with it while we hiked. That's responsible.
When we returned it was really hot. We had to make sure we started a couple of times and dump some more water on it. Those are just some things you don't think and making sure that you leave the site better when you're done. We did that and made sure before we left.
Melea Hames: [00:17:26] Yeah because the park used to be free to go to and now there's a small admission fee. Correct?
Miranda Watson: [00:17:32] It is $7 per car.
Melea Hames: [00:17:34] Okay.
Miranda Watson: [00:17:39] It's $18 for camping. If you want to do an annual pass, it's only $45.
Melea Hames: [00:17:42] Okay.
Miranda Watson: [00:017:40] That's really for your car. A car camping for your car is $18 if you're coming in by car. It's more than for passenger vans and all of that. We do have commercial permits too.
Melea Hames: [00:17:53] Okay.
Miranda Watson: [00:17:54] If someone wanted to come in, our photographers or local outfitters to do events where they charge, there is a commercial fee as well.
Melea Hames: [00:18:04] Okay. That’s cool. How would someone be able to participate in the Girls Who Hike group? Tell us how we can get involved in this.
Miranda Watson: [00:08:13] Girls Who Hike Alabama is for women over the age of 18. We do want adults only. We are online. We do have a Facebook group called Girls Who Hike Alabama. We are on Instagram as well and that is @girlswhohikealabama. We do have a forward-facing Facebook group. We put that up, that is just for the public to see what we're doing. We don't post our hikes or events on the public page or on Instagram. The reason why is just for safety measures, but we will post pictures of things we've done afterward there to let everybody know what we're doing.
Melea Hames: [00:18:58] Great. That's awesome.
Miranda Watson: [00:18:57] Yeah. If you want to participate in any of our events, ask to join the group and make sure to answer all the questions because there are some screening questions. There is an events tab on our Girls Who Hike Alabama Facebook group. If you go to that events tab, you can see all the events that we have planned and make sure to read the what-to-expect section so you know what kind of hike it is. Some hikes are for beginners and some are for more advanced hikers. We sometimes allow husbands and sometimes allow kids that are really up to the hike leader. They will post that information there.
Melea Hames: [00:19:34] Okay. Cool. Well, this is so awesome. I'm so excited to go see a sunset at Cherokee Rock Village and go on a hike with Girls Who Hike. I'm putting that on my list as well.
Miranda Watson: [00:19:46] Yes.
Melea Hames: [00:19:47] Thank you so much for being with me today. Can you tell us where to find Cherokee Rock Village on social media?
Miranda Watson: [00:19:55] Yes. We do have a Cherokee Rock Village Facebook page. They have a new website. If you would like to go visit the website and see all the fun things that they offer and the process and how to reserve your site and all it is at www.cherokeerockvillage.com.
Melea Hames: [00:20:14] Okay. Cool. All right. Now you know how to look up Girls Who Hike Alabama and Cherokee Rock Village. Make sure to give each one of those a follow and alike. Also don't forget to follow Visit North Alabama on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest, all of them like I say every week. Thank you so much for joining us. We will be back next time with more about North Alabama's Unexpected adventures.
This has been another episode of the Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama podcast, part of the Destination Marketing Podcast Network, hosted by Melea Hames and produced by Relic.
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