We took a trip to Mentone, AL in northeast Alabama. It was a cool windy day and was about 10 degrees cooler in the mountain area than it was at home. We were hoping that the leaves had started changing, we’ve heard that this is a beautiful area when they start changing. We knew the ones in our area are starting to change and since we had the day off we thought we’d go and spend the day enjoying the outdoors even if we wouldn’t see all the beautiful colors of fall. We saw mostly green but there were a few yellow and some red. They should start really changing in the coming weeks, but looks like our weekends are going to be busy the rest of the year.

We started with lunch at the Wildflower Cafe. Friends had told us about this place and how much they enjoyed taking a trip up just to eat at this restaurant so we thought we’d give it a try since we were going to be in the area. Jeff had a grilled cheese with bacon with kettle cooked chips. I tried the brunch sampler. The sampler included a slice of tomato pie (what’s that?), spinach quiche, mixed fruit and a crepe with strawberry puree. It was all really good, but what is tomato pie? This is apparently the Wildflower Cafe specialty and what they are most known for. It is tomatoes marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette added to a savory pie crust and topped with cheddar and mozzarella cheese. It was interesting and tasted pretty good, I’d have it again. The seats at our table were upcycled school bus seats.

After lunch we went to Desoto Falls. There was lots of water flowing over the falls. Then we rode to Desoto State Park. Well we found that the park is not very well marked and we apparently didn’t go the right way. We even picked up a map at the general store but we didn’t find it to be of much help. We drove thru the camping area and ended up back on the road to Mentone. We decided to call it a day at that park and go along on our adventure for the day. Maybe one day we can go back and spend more time finding and checking out the park.

On the way up to Mentone we saw a billboard for Christmas at Eddie’s in Henagar, AL. The billboard said that they had over 200 decorated Christmas trees. We looked it up on Facebook to see where it was located. So we decided to check it out since we were in the area. So we drove over to Henagar to find Christmas at Eddie’s which is at Eddie’s Florist. We got into Henagar at the one traffic light and the GPS had us going on for 6 more miles. But as we went across the intersection Jeff spotted Eddie’s on the right. We had to turn around and go back. There were so many trees in this store and they were all beautifully decorated and each was in a different theme. You could shop from the trees and purchase anything off the trees that they have used to decorate with, the ornaments, picks, etc. If you are in the area between now and Christmas stop by and take a look.

Our last stop of the day was Little River Canyon. It is the only National Preserve in the state of Alabama. I knew we had state parks, but I didn’t know that we had a national park in the state. When I think of national parks I think of places like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone. We stopped by the welcome center and the lady was very informative and gave us a park map and directions on the quickest way to get back to interstate 59 when we were done with the viewing areas. She advised us not to follow the signs to the interstate in Dogtown as they would take us about 20 miles out of the way.

Our first stop was the main falls. It was absolutely gorgeous. She also advised that we should go up to the foot bridge and get a different perspective of the falls. I think she said it was one of the few foot bridges in the state. She was right it was beautiful and offered a different view. After that we drove along the route and stopped at many of the viewing points. The first point still had really good views of the falls. The second was a disappointment. The drive was full of pot holes and mud puddles, when we made our way around and thru them we found a very overgrown area. We didn’t even get out of the car, just turned around and left to go on to the next area. All of the other areas we stopped at were better taken care of. There were several spots that we could hear the water but not see since the leaves are still green and on the trees. The canyon got deeper the further we went. We did not go to the bottom of the canyon where the swimming area is. She told us that the road was pretty winding and we had wanted to head home about an hour after we talked with her.

It was a great day. We were tired and exhausted but had a great day. Can’t wait for our next adventure!