Walls of Jericho

“I just talked to some folks at the state. Maps will be posted on the 'net today. It's outdooralabama.com then public lands then forever wild and then walls of jericho.

Basically, it's a 3.5 mile hike to the camping area. There is an 8 mile horse route to the same campsite. 11.5 mile loop is possible. Off trail exploring IS allowed. The future is for up to 50 miles of hiking trails.

It's similar to Sipsey but different. The ridges are oak and hickory. No pines. The bottoms are other hard woods. No hemlock. There is lots more limestone in the area. Lots of caves and falls.

I was planning a Savage Gulf trip in Dec. I'm going to change it to an off trail exploring trip to this area. If anyone is interested, just email me.”

“I understand hunting is allowed in the area. May want to wait til January for off trail explorations. I'd be interested in going then.”

“The east side of the area has roads open to ATV's. The west doesn't. We'll be on the west side where the walls are. I'll be wearing lots of orange, as hard as it is for me to do. They have hunting in Sipsey, but folks tend to stay close to roads.”

“From what I've heard, even if hunting wasn't allowed, the people in that area would hunt there anyway. I'd be interested in a trip sometime, but I imagine I'll bring my blaze orange.”

“What Quad is that dayhiker?
I think I just may order it.
I'm interested.”

“I'll go, but only if I can wear my panda bear halloween costume”

“I'm not sure what the Quad is. If you type "Walls of Jericho" at topozone.com it will list it.

What I have in mind is a full court press on backcountry exploration. The leaves will be down.

This is possibly a dry county. My last two public trips turned into drunk fest. This is not what this trip will become which is why I haven't posted it on the trips page.”

“It's in Jackson Co., which is definitely dry.”

“It looks like this will be almost a 3 hr drive for me due to the backroads. Heck, I can be in Sispey in 2 or Savage in 3.

I'm looking forward to this. I love off trail trips.”

“Hytop quad...you may also need the one just north of it as well.”

“Maybe we can stick up a sign saying 'drunk fest over here ---->' down the wrong trail? ;-)”

“Their directions need some work. They say take 72 north from Huntsville, but US72 is an east/west highway. Also, they've mis-spelled "Hytop" as "Hightop".”

“I was told that state 79 splits the land. Jericho on the west and other land on the east. For travel planner I just picked a spot on 79 up near the state line.

Most of the info on the site I mentioned was just added today. I did a bit of searching yesterday and none of that was there. They're trying to get it posted before the weekend.”

“Here's where you can download a Quad for free: http://www.gsa.state.al.us/gsa/GIS/himaplist.html”

“I've printed out the quad. This seems like it could be a Savage Gulf without pine trees and where you can explore anywhere you want. Win-win?”

“Finialy got that dang quad to print out. My puter doesn't handle .tif files very well at all.

So what are the borders of the new park?”

“When you come across a copper pot with a coiled copper line coming out of the top and a clear substance dripping out that into a jug, complete with a toothless grandpa toting an ancient double-barrelled shotgun, asking if you're a "revenoor", you're out of the park.”

“You thinking early Decemer?
In any event I am very interested.”

“This looks like a 5-6 hour drive for me. Put me down as a maybe, depending on my work schedule. Please keep me posted if you send out any emails. skuiicap@yahoo.com”

“The map is up now here...”

“Dec 3-5.”

“skully, I have trouble emailing with yahoo sometimes. I'll send you and HPM the email I sent to my local friends that were planning on the Savage Gulf trip.”

“I still have my hotmail account, you could try that. sklukaz@hotmail.com”

“I'll do both, just in case.”

“Wow! Big area, too bad the horses go to the same campsite.”

“Mail sent.”

“I agree about the horses. It looks super flat in that area so we might want to sneak upstream a bit.”

“We'll be lucky if we find a flat spot that isn't hip-deep in horse crap.”

“There appears to be a huge flat area. We can just get out in the woods in that bottom and spread out.”

“December... just when the weather starts to get "Just Right" for hiking in Alabama! Depending if I goto Montana in Dec I could be a Maybe.”

“Did y'all take a good look at that trail? 1000' elevation change...”

“I didn't really look at it. I've done 1000' in 0.9 miles at Cheaha, can't be worse than that. I'm not looking for an easy stroll. I plan on doing some hardcore exploring and bouldering.”

“Thanks for the heads up on the elev though.”

“It looks like a toughy...but hell, it's only a couple miles.”

“1000'???
Nothing to it!”

“if the old timer says there's nothing to it.. then durn it there is nothing to it!”

“Groovy”

“Dang it DeoreDX!
It's not nice to talk about bit that way. ;-)”

“Yeah, 1000' doesn't sound too bad. Most of my Smokies trips involve 4000' days with up and down in the same day. This'll be a peace of cake by comparision.”

“1000' feet really isn't that bad at all. Unfortunately that's one of my weekends to work so I'm out. All y'all have fun and I'll catch ya another time.”

“Dang it, I've only talked to you for 3 years or so. I was looking forward to meeting the famous skullcap and goose.”

“Where is Walls of Jericho? I've never heard of it before.”

“It's on the TN/Bama line just north of Scottsboro Alabama. On the TN side it's roughly SSW of S. Pittsburgh.”

“It is due south of Winchester, TN. about 3-4 quads.”

“Dude...it's not far from my house. I've been there a lot...but not in several years. Yeah, it's north of Scottsboro, AL. I'm looking forward to going back now that it's being preserved. I'll meet you guys there when a trip gets together.

Like I was telling dayhiker in an email...that area has been raped over the years by the locals and anyone else who didn't mind running rampant on the property. Jeeps, dirt bikes, ATV's...you name it. A property like that is so large that it's almost impossible for a single owner (company) to patrol it and keep people off. Hopefully, that area will now have a good organization to care for it. It is an amazing area and there aren't many of them left in AL. I've been very disappointed in AL over the years for not investing in it's wild areas. I'm looking forward to this area having a bright future.”

“Unless something unexpected comes up I'm a definate yes.”

“I use to live on the creek that flows though the walls, only I was 8 miles upstream. This area is a nice area. I just hope the public takes care of it. Lots of really neat areas to explore other than the wall's also. The place is a kayak'ers heaven when it rains alot. The place is wild then. Maybe this coming week would be a great time to ride. A few caves are nearby, and afar. If you like to climb, and multi/pitch it is there also. I go in several times a year, Nov. is the next trip. But I go in a different way than the public access and it is alittle longer hike.”

“waterdog - any tips for this trip we're doing? I expect we'll setup camp Friday morning and explore the rest of the day. We'll wait and do the walls sometime on Sat so that folks who come in Fri night or Sat morning can be sure and see it. We'll probably explore more on Sat. Sun those that live close can do some more and those that want to hit the road can.

I'm planning on picking out a few canyons beforehand and just seeing what's there. The map looks impressive.

HPM - Did you download the Quad? It looks NICE.”

“There's lots to explore back there, that's for sure. It oughta be a good time.”