Fort Toulouse Nat'l Historic Park, Alabama

November 21, 2023

It was a pretty decent travel day with almost sunny skies as we drove through rural Alabama, passing several cotton fields along the way. Most of them looked to have been recently harvested, and we found a lot of cotton scraps at the sides of the roads. Rick stopped so that Julie could collect some.

Somewhere in Alabama

A bit of cotton scavenged from the side of the road

Fort Toulouse National Historic Site (near Wetumpka) is a small park at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers that contains a re-created 1751 Fort Toulouse (French), Creek Indian houses, and the partially restored 1814 Fort Jackson (American). Lots of different people have lived, farmed, and fought in this area. Here is a good summary of the history: https://fttoulousejackson.org/history/

The campground was mostly empty when we arrived, but it filled up a bit over the weekend. We had a pleasant and pretty low-key stay.

Mostly empty campground

The visitor center was a circa 1820s building that had been relocated from another part of the state

Re-creation of Creek Indian homes

Inside of the French Fort Toulouse (re-creation)

Confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers (Tallapoosa to the left, Coosa to the right)

Still some bits of autumn

You can just barely see the Coosa River through the trees

We walked along the small network of nature trails in the park. It was evident that trail maintenance was not massively funded here.

Most of the boardwalk and bridge sections along the trail were boarded off...

..and it was easy to see why

This bridge was the last remaining one open

Very overgrown cemetery, with only a few headstones visible

As we were leaving to travel to our next location, we were bummed to pass by a sign for the Wetumpka Impact Crater. Did we miss a major attraction? How could Julie allow that to happen? As it turns out, most of the best viewing of the crater (what you can actually see of it--it's all forested for the most part) is on private property anyway. Plus, tours to see the best spots are given in February only. So, we found a picture online: https://alabama.travel/places-to-go/wetumpka-impact-crater 

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