Although not as interesting as Montgomery in my opinion, Alabama’s largest city is called Birmingham and is located up north. The city is home to a quarter of a million people, and is most famous for its metal works and factories that were the lifeline of manufacturing war machines during world war II. The city remains a major manufacturer of iron and steel today, on the left is a museum dedicated to the subject, with the Iron man statue on top of Vulcan Park. The city photo above I actually took from Vulcan park, on the other side of the city, you can see its just country side.
Above are some photos from within Vulcan Museum, which is named after the roman god of fire and forge. The museum gives an interesting history on Birmingham and begins in its early mining days above and continues on through various wars and depressions to where the city is today. Like I said earlier, the views from here are well worth a visit alone, and the statue is equally impressive. Standing at 17 meters tall, the Vulcan statue which was built in 1938 is the largest cast iron statue in the world and it weighs about 100,000 pounds.
These metal artworks above are also part of the Vulcan Museum. There were maybe about a dozen pieces of art on display, and all were made by local high school students.
I was lucky to be here for a rare occurrence in Alabama, snow! I’m not sure how often it happens here, but with the coldest months having average temperatures in the 50s, I can’t imagine it’s very often. The snow here came in late December, just enough to turn everything white.
I visited Alabama in late December and the snow was unexpected, but as I headed farther south into warmer weather I found myself with jeans and a T-shirt. Even though most trees here shed their leaves, you can see on the left that even in late December some of them have only started changing color. The picture on the right was taken only two days after the winter solstice, and as annoying as the Alabama sun was to drive towards in the winter, I can only imagine how hot and humid it can be here in the heat of the summer.
Also on my drive South, I was unfortunate to come across a big accident on the opposite side of the highway. I’m not sure what happened, but there were several wrecked cars and a medical helicopter that landed on the highway, so it was obviously a serious situation.
With all my wildlife and outdoor photos together, I’ll begin with up north again. The snow provided some rare and attractive scenery in Alabama in the winter time. With most animals hibernating, I didn’t come across any wildlife, but plan to do some backpacking in northern Alabama when I return to the state in some summer. Below are two different trails that I hiked for about an hour into the woodlands.
