National parks in Alabama

Alabama's National Park Service units run from the Tennessee Valley in the north down through the Black Belt, a modest collection but one that covers real ground in terms of what each place demands from you. Slow down and they reward you. Natchez Trace Parkway and Horseshoe Bend National Military Park are the best known, well-maintained and well-visited. The others tend to be quieter and more personal. Little River Canyon National Preserve has canyon hiking that surprises most people on their first visit, Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge pulls birdwatchers into a slower kind of attention, and Russell Cave National Monument lets you move through thousands of years of human shelter in a single afternoon. Two national historic trails, the Trail of Tears and Selma to Montgomery, connect the collection and give Alabama its clearest identity as a travel destination: this is a state where landscape and history resist being separated. Travelers who want moderate activity and are willing to sit with what they find will get far more out of it than anyone working through a checklist.