Alabama

History was made in Alabama that changed the entire country: the Montgomery Bus Boycott began here in 1955 with Rosa Parks, and in 1965 demonstrators marched from Selma for the right to vote. If you're planning a trip to Alabama, you'll also find rockets in Huntsville, white sand beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, and college football that takes on an almost religious significance here.

Landscape and Location

Alabama stretches from the southern foothills of the Appalachians in the northeast all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. In the north, the Tennessee River flows through a broad valley, home to Huntsville; reservoirs such as Lake Guntersville are popular fishing spots. In Little River Canyon and Cheaha State Park, home to the state's highest point, Alabama turns hilly and forested. Through the middle runs the Black Belt, named for its dark, fertile soil and once the heart of the cotton plantations. In the south, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, one of the most biodiverse river deltas in North America, branches out before the short but lovely coastline begins at Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

Huntsville, Birmingham, and Mobile

Huntsville is now Alabama's largest city and goes by the nickname "Rocket City." After World War II, Wernher von Braun and his team developed the Saturn V rocket here, which carried humans to the moon. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center displays an original Saturn V and is home to Space Camp. Birmingham grew up as a steel town; a giant iron statue of Vulcan watches over it, and the Sloss Furnaces blast furnace is now an industrial monument. Mobile on the Gulf Coast is older than New Orleans and has celebrated Mardi Gras since the early 18th century, claiming to be the first city in the U.S. to do so. The battleship USS Alabama sits in the harbor as a museum. Tuscaloosa is home to the University of Alabama, whose football team, the Crimson Tide, is among the most successful in the country; its great rival plays in Auburn. Hoover and Dothan, which calls itself the peanut capital, round out the list.

Sights in Alabama: The Civil Rights Trail

Many of the most important sights in Alabama are sites of the civil rights movement. In Montgomery, you'll find Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, the Rosa Parks Museum, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which commemorates more than 4,000 victims of racist lynchings, along with the Legacy Museum. In Birmingham, the Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, and the 16th Street Baptist Church, where four girls died in a 1963 bombing, recall the violent confrontations. In Selma, you can cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police beat peaceful demonstrators on "Bloody Sunday." These sites are moving and well presented.

Music and Culture

In the small town of Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, and many others recorded legendary albums at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound studios. Hank Williams was from Alabama, as were Nat King Cole, Helen Keller, whose birthplace in Tuscumbia is open to visitors, and Harper Lee, whose hometown of Monroeville stages "To Kill a Mockingbird" every year.

Food and Drink

The cuisine is hearty and Southern: fried chicken, grits, collard greens, and cornbread. One specialty is the white barbecue sauce made with a mayonnaise base, invented in Decatur. On the coast, you'll find Gulf shrimp, oysters, and West Indies salad, a crab salad from Mobile. The drink of choice is sweet iced tea, and dessert is pecan pie or Lane cake.

Best Time to Visit and Getting There

Spring and fall are ideal; summers are very hot and humid, though the coast sees its peak season then anyway. Hurricane season runs from June to November, and tornadoes can occur in spring. Birmingham (BHM) and Huntsville (HSV) are the largest airports, and you can also reach the Gulf Coast via Pensacola, Florida. Without a car, you'll be stuck in Alabama; distances between cities are often two to three hours.