THE GREAT OUTDOORS: The Huntsville Adventurer recommends summer trails for locals
STORY BY KADIE VICK | LIVING 50 PLUS
The Huntsville Adventurer is a social media account and website run by David Parham that covers local hiking trails and outdoor spaces for community members to explore. The Huntsville Adventurer Instagram account now has around 150,000 followers and began because Parham saw a need for an online space with information on local hikes.
“I had people asking me where hikes were, and I got tired of answering the questions over and over. So, I started a website to help people find the hikes on their own,” Parham said. “I realized I needed social media accounts to help direct people to my website. Then the social media kind of blew up on its own.”
As the Huntsville Adventurer accounts grew more popular, Parham saw that community members were very interested in going outside, and his accounts empowered them to do so.
“The more that I do this, the more I find people looking for the outdoors, and I realize how little people really know about vacationing in their own city, in their own state,” Parham said. “These platforms have also been helpful for raising awareness for organizations like the Land Trust in North Alabama that are looking to preserve land for future generations.”
Parham has pages with accessible and kid-friendly hikes and outdoor activities as well as information on camping, fishing, waterfalls, means of travel and more. It is important to Parham that anyone who wants to go outside can easily find information on places they can go regardless of age or ability.
“My blog is actually designed to be fairly short, because I want people to be able to go to it, find the information they need and go outside,” Parham said. “I’ve read too many recipes where they talked about on and on, and I don’t want to do that.”
With summer quickly approaching and many families looking for ways to spend kids’ break from school together, Parham has hike recommendations for beginner, intermediate, and advanced hikers. For beginner hikers, the Alum Hollow Trail on Green Mountain is a great option. The trail is well-maintained, slightly less than five miles total, and is free to enter.
“It’s so flat and easy, it’s a good hike. You pass several streams on the way there, and it ends in a waterfall and a shelter as well. It’s one of my favorite hikes,” Parham said.
A shorter and very family-friendly beginner hike is the Wildflower Trail in the Blossomwood neighborhood, close to Five Points. The trail is a little over one mile and has no cost to enter.
“On the trail, you follow a beautiful creek that kids can play in, I take my kids to play in the creek all of the time, they like to just go and splash around. The creek does dry up, especially in late summer, but in early summer, it’s a great place to go.
Parham recommends two intermediate hikes, Bethel Springs Trail and Lost Sinks Trail, both free and located on Keel Mountain. Bethel Springs Trail is one and a half miles, and Lost Sinks Trail is three miles.
“Those are amazing hikes for intermediates, and both end in a waterfall. So, you get to walk up to the waterfall and navigate the mountain on the way. They’re both really fun and really pretty,” Parham said.
To anyone who is looking for a longer and more difficult trail, the Huntsville Adventurer has a recommendation. “If you’re going to go for a more advanced hike, go to Walls of Jericho; it’s a difficult hike, and it is a little bit longer, about seven miles. But all the hard work is worth it, it is a great time,” Parham said.
If all these hikes sound too difficult, but going outside and exploring sounds interesting, Parham recommends getting outside in the easiest way available, with any sort of walk, and wants to remind everyone to always bring water.
“Even if it’s just walking around your neighborhood, just get outside. Go do something, choose something easy to start with, easy to navigate, easy to do and just work your way up. Don’t feel like you must go and conquer Walls of Jericho for your first hike, this isn’t a race,” said Parham.
Knowing that he is making a difference in local families’ lives and increasing people’s love for the outdoors makes all the work that comes with managing multiple social media accounts and a website worth it.
Parham said, “I had someone send me a picture at one of the swimming holes I posted today, and that really made me happy. The lady took out her little child, who was maybe one year old, to play in the water; it was great to see.”
While it might seem like Parham spends all his time outside hiking and exploring, in reality, he works full time as an engineer. “I’m just busy all the time, so I squeeze in hiking. And sometimes it looks like I’ve got an hour, so I go do something local with my family. A lot of the time, we go play on the wildflower trail. Sometimes, if I have a full weekend, we go camping,” he said.
The journey to successful social media accounts was unexpected for Parham and revealed to him how much the community wants to see what is available locally.
Parham said, “I had never, ever envisioned myself being a social media person. It just kind of happened. But it has been awesome being able to help people get out and explore our area, and I have even seen people come in from out of state to see of the places I have posted, and that’s really cool.”
To explore Parham’s website, visit www.huntsvilleadventurer.com or search Huntsville Adventurer on social media.