Skyway Motorway, Road sections 1 & 2

Note: B and I decided to split this trip into several post based on driving conditions. We have driven on 4 different parts of the old Skyway Motorway so far and intend to finish it all the next time we can both get a day off 😀 From the ones we’ve driven so far the first two road sections were best suited for 4wd/high clearance vehicles. We have an element (low clearance) w/ 4wd so we were okay on when we needed all wheels but scraped bottom constantly and were incredibly lucky not to have to get towed, or damage our vehicle because of how low our Element sits. We would NOT drive the second section listed below without a higher clearance 4wd vehicle again. It was stupid, but we had no idea how bad the road was till we were in the thick of it. So I’m saving you the same problem. I hope this helps other people who want to drive this historic road and soak up the beauty as we did. Get out there and enjoy it… who knows how much longer these roads will be with us. However, I actually think hiking the Skyway Motorway would be pretty cool. It’s entirely on Forest Service land so you’ve got free camping options everywhere you walk 🙂

The next blog post will be on the road sections 3 & 4 which were drivable by anyone anywhere. In fact one of them was paved. Hurray for you non outdoorsy car people! How did we determine where a road section stopped and began? Easy. If we started on a forest service road and crossed a major road or turned off of the Forest Service Road and had to take several turns to get back on the old skyway motorway then we consider that starting a new section.

Panoramic twirl of one of the first places we stopped

The 4 sections we have driven so far listed below in order from South to North:

1. 600-1 &
2. 600-2 before Gunterstown Road {these constitute the 2 road sections blogged about today}
3. 600-2 after Gunterstown road &
4. 281 {both easy to drive in any vehicle}.

Note: Brandon found various references online of people interchanging the Skyway Motorway for Skyline Drive. So be aware of this name switching as you plan your trip.

Part 1:

We both took a day off work to go do something adventurous (for us) and fun. And I might add, without the third wheel of the dog (sorry man). We decided the road would be too bumpy (it was, terribly so) for Whiskey to manage his car sickness. It was the best idea not to bring him. We got bounced all over and when were concentrating on not getting stuck front end side in a ditch or backing off a mountain when correcting a bad choice, the distraction of a bouncing 80lb dog in the backseat would have been too much (not to mention, who wants to clean up puke on a date?)

me showing Brandon the Pinhoti trail. I often found much of the trail blaze on the ground and am showing one piece of it to B in my hand. Hard to follow a trail where the blazes jump ship! I was so glad he got to see where I hiked 😀

So we hit the Talladega Forest area to seek out the remnants of the original CCC built Skyway Motorway. Here’s your history lesson for today: This area was accessible only by horseback or foot. But since it was one of the most beautiful parts of the state, the CCC wanted to change access and allow everyone to view it. Lookout towers and telephone wires were also run to increase safety and contact with the outside world to these remote areas.

“The Cleburne News reported on August 1, 1935, that the Forest Service was to construct a 75 mile scenic road along the crest of the main ridge running through the newly acquired national forest. The scenic road, called the Skyway Motorway, was to connect Sylacauga to Borden Springs. The 1936 annual reported that 17 miles of the “Skyway Motor Way”  had been located, opened and graded. When the road was finished, it would be one of the most beautiful scenic routes in Alabama and the South.”

Quote from The Civiliain Conservation Corps in Alabama, 1933-1942. By Robert Pasquill Jr. Mr. Pasquill provides several primary sources, secondary sources, and websites in his indexes. This book is definitely worth checking out. Currently in the last year I have seen several talks on the CCC at various state parks. It’s hard to find but there is a buzz building out there about these wonderful programs, camps and people in an effort to preserve the past before it’s gone.

I think it is important to note that this historic road was no doubt seen as some as the Blue Ridge Parkway of the Heart of Dixie South. Yet it failed. How? I don’t know. I can only tell you it failed because the Blue Ridge Scenic route is still a major destination, and hardly any one knows about the Skyway Motorway…  it isn’t in good repair, well known about, advertised, or kept up, and to me this means it failed. We must get out and educate ourselves about these relics. These beautiful places. We must Visit, Use, Celebrate, and spread the word. I don’t know how to garner support to restore this road to its once glory and use, but if anyone else has any ideas… I’m all ears. And heart.

Brandon walks back to the car on one of the best parts of the first section of trail. Just looks like a regular road here. No problems! And pretty as heck.

How to get there:

Drivers Note: Your gps, google maps (printed up), the actual road signs, and the Talladega National Forest ((Talladega and Shoal Creek Ranger Districts)) map are often (but not always) different when it comes to road signs. We thought this might be the doom of us. But it wasn’t. We often had all 4 out at the same time to cross reference. We did this- if the Talladega map, and our gps showed we should be turning and the road sign had a different name, but it was in the right spot, we turned. The GPS would show we were on the right path and voila, problem solved- names of things be damned. By the way, that Talladega National Forest map is a goldmine. Get one. Get One. To get a map: http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/alabama/maps-pubs Go here and from the form you can find the title of the one that we used “Talladega National Forest, Talladega and Shoal Creek Ranger Districts.” This map is also the one I use for the Pinhoti hiking/backpacking and is an excellent resource.

So if you plan to go south to north, then here is how you get to what, as best as we could figure, was the beginning. Go down 280 towards Sylacauga, until you see Co Rd 511/Old US 280 on your left. Turn Left. It is well marked. Then after about 2.6 miles take a L onto W 4^th street. I didn’t see the sign say W 4^th street but we ended up on the right road anyway thanks to the gps. Follow that for about 1.2 miles until you come to N Broadway Avenue.

Detour: Here is a great place to turn Left and go about a mile or less to a subway just a ways up on the Left. Grab a foot long and sides and then head back the way you came. Trust me, driving the Skyway will take a while and you’ll enjoy sitting on an overlook with your lunch 😀 Now just a tiny ways down N Broadway Avenue you will see AL 148 on your Left.  Take that and follow it about 11ish miles. The forest service roads are on your left (okay you’ll pass several, just make sure to look for the right signs). There are two in a row where you turn. The 1^st one is some 600#… maybe 607. The one right after that is 600-1 (with a painted A underneath it). That’s your boy. Turn left there. If you pass it there is an easy place to turn around just a bit down the road (we had missed it. They sneak up on you! And the signs are a ways back off of the road so it just looks like a driveway until you fly by and see the forest service road sign.)

Okay, back to it. Now you are on FS Rd 600-1 which google maps kept wanting to call Co. Rd. 6000-1. Goooo figure.

The conditions of what we’ll call the first section of Skyway Mtwy (with 1 being flat gravel no problems and 5 being holy &*^% you need a 4 wheel drive with TONS of clearance…)was  a 3. We had some squealing, we had a few good mud puddles. ONE of which I might add we floored it through only to hit ROCKS. HARD. The undercarriage scraped and moaned as we hit it at a frightening speed. After that we cautiously dipped into mud puddles. I hope this doesn’t happen to you but if you are riding this in a low clearance vehicle like ours (Element) then good luck and be careful of mud puddles hiding tigers. Also, if it’s recently rained- good luck. Those suckers are deep even after not having rain in foooorever.

There were not so rough parts and some nail biting ones. But nothing nearly as bad and frightening as the second section (but we’ll talk about that in a minute).

The leaves also camoflauged the rocks quite a bit. The leaves covered the roads and large rocks got lost. Needless to say we scraped a lot. Again, bigger taller trucks and jeeps should have no problems. Why were boulders sitting in the middle of the road anyway? I asked Brandon at one point if he felt like he was in some video game dodging huge rocks at high speed because that’s what he looked like, concentrating hard, constantly advancing only to spin left or right to avoid a huge rock that just popped up in the road, slinging us everywhere. And we weren’t flying! They just popped up like those gopher heads you beat on at Chucky Cheese. He said “No” that he didnt’ feel like he was playing dodge it in a video game but that he was frantically trying not to get us stuck in real life. Point for Team B. Real life is always better.

There are several good overlooks on this section mostly on the left. But there were several suspiciously pretty places on the right that we didn’t have time to stop for.

Tips: Start early. AM. I wish we had left B’ham as early as 8 or 9. We didn’t get on the trail till 1 and we missed a lot of daylight driving time, especially since the days are shorter now… And we paid for it dearly by rushing by sections in order to get out of the middle section before night fall. The first section took us a few hours.

The three things you definitely want to see in order of arrival:

1. The major power line crossing (on the pinhoti this is at mile marker 40.9). Pull over and get out and walk up the steep hill to your left for spectacular views). You can’t miss this because it’s a straight line in either directions as far as you can see and transformer sized lines running through. It’s huge and it’s one of the few places lines pass like that overhead.
   

   The view goes on in both directions for as far as the eye can see… gorgeous!

2.  Heath’s cross at Heath Cliffs (pinhoti mm 41.8). Again park and get out  and go to your left. You’ll kinda come up close to the cross. You’ll be able to tell from the road that it’s an overlook over cliffs to your left. If you found the powerlines just be on the lookout after that on the left.
   

   Heath’s Cross at Heath Cliffs Overlook

   2.a)want a spectacular view? Looking out over the cliffs find the trail that leads to your right. Follow the pinhoti marked trail for a short few minutes until it breaks open on these set of rocks. I camped here back in September 2012 and it holds a soft spot in my heart. You can make a quick shortcut down to the road to get back to your car because as you head back you’ll see a straight barely noticeable footpath down to the road. The views are better here in my opinion that Heath Cliffs. A great place for lunch.

   

   On top of the world, my favorite lunch spot, the side trail past Heath Cliffs on the Pinhoti. I slept here last month 😉

3. Horn Mountain Fire Tower. (Pinhoti mm 44.1) Pull into the pull off near the gate on your left. You’ll be just tipping down the mountain and the gate and road shoot back up the left hand side. You can’t miss it. Walk about ½ mile up this hill. Be on the look out about half way up on your right for the bamboo forest.
   

   Different shots of the bamboo forest. B wouldn’t go in with me! But I spent quite a bit of time meandering around in there 😀

   You’ll have to walk about 50 feet off the road to get to it. But you can walk thru it up to the tower instead of on the road. The rangers have been clearing it. You should see it before it’s gone. I don’t know if they are intending to just control it or eradicate it. However, it’s beautiful and magical and would be great for photo shoots before it’s gone. Note the rock retaining wall along your left and remains of the steps that lead down into the forrest as you stand inside the bamboo forest… it’s truly magical. Once you make your way up to the tower try to remember how beautiful it was when this stone park was first created by the CCC. Take your time to explore some of the back trails there. There is a very old outhouse, several springs that have been enclosed to tap the water source (I didn’t dare filter any when hiking. It looks yuck and not moving). Also this is a great place to stealth camp if you are hiking the Pinhoti, or heck, driving or mountain biking the Skyway/Skyline route. There are several places off the main park area (bamboo forest to name one) that are flat enough and pretty to camp in.

IMPORTANT FOR HIKERS: There is no Horn Mountain Shelter here as a sign proclaims on the trail. Unfortunately I ran into to two hikers who like me wasted a great deal of time trying to find this place (me because water was allegedly stashed here. It wasn’t. Them because they thought they could sleep at the shelter. There is no shelter. Unless some misguided person means the picnic pavilion). Additionally I’ve read on the Pinhoti Trail Alliance website that the Forest Services frowns on people camping here and you should stealth if you do so. So unless there is some hidden Horn Mountain Shelter none of us could find, they really should remove that sign. Gets people hopeful for something that doesn’t exist.

Fall Color on the Skyway Motorway

Brandon nearly passed the two pinhoti hikers we met on our travels. We backed up when we saw them a ways past the Fire Tower and I asked them a few questions. They asked if we had water. I did, but not enough. I gave them all we had, cursing that we hadn’t packed more. We bitched about how badly the trail was marked (seriously not cool) and how little water there was. They, like me, were not fully prepared for what “There’s no water on the trail” means. When people say this, they usually mean “Theres very little and you’re going to have to pump from one water source or so a day and make it last.” No. These people mean There.Is.NO.WATER.At.All.In.Any.Form.On.The.Trail.Am.I.Making.Myself.Clear.

They mean business. So we gave them our two 32 and 20 or so bottled oz of water we had and they went on their way to make it to Scott’s lake before night fall, which is the same destination I had had when I hiked.

PLEASE if you are reading this and you are considering driving any of the old CCC Skyway roads- put several gallons of water in you truck and a) offer it to any hiker you see to refill their containers, and b) leave them at the uncountable # of pinhoti hiking crossings that go across these forest service roads. Take a marker and write “Trail Magic, free water to fellow hikers” or something on it. Tuck it in just a few feet down the trail out of sight of the road but in clear sight of hikers. Trust me, they will appreciate it more than you can know. I told them I had to get off the trail and leave water drops. They aren’t going as far as I did. I wish I’d had thought to tell them that at Horn Mountain fire tower park area two men just about saved my life by giving me water from their truck (they carried a big water container thing on the back that held a massive amount). They said they did it all the time for hikers. Lovely men who helped me. And oh, if you two guys are reading this! Email me! I am trying hard to get out accurate info about the Pinhoti for future hikers like yourself. I’d love to talk to you about your trip. It was a pleasure to meet you both.

Part 2:

You will come down the hill and hit pavement. You take a Right onto 77, and then almost immediately take a left onto Horns Lake Road. Just a little over a mile you turn Left at a cemetery onto Skyline Drive.  This pretty little stretch of road will pass by what once was the only hostel on the Pinhoti (currently for sale and not in operation for hikers I think…) Looks pretty scary and near abandoned. One time I hiked by it said “Chickens for sale…” I have to say I was tempted. But hiking with a chicken is hard.

You will cross over a bridge over a pretty little stream that I spent quite a time staring at when hiking.

This bridge (pic taken in sept 2012 when hiking not during our drive) is the last little bit of pavement you’re going to enjoy before all hell breaks lose. Appreciate it before it’s gone….

Then you will go straight onto county road 600-2. This road gets a 5 for “gonna scratch your car, and dent your undercarriage and scare the &^%$ out of you.” Seriously. I would NEVER do this section again unless we had a higher vehicle. Brandon thinks you can do about 90% of this road without 4wd but do you really want to chance that 10%? We have 4wd on the element and we used it. A lot.  We also had to back up and change course because you can’t see where the one side of the massive ditch/washout takes you until you are up it. Unless you want to get out a lot and constantly walk forward and pick your path. We should have done that the one time I nearly backed Brandon’s right tires off the mountain trying to back down a scary section to get to the other side, equally as scary, except for the end were we wouldn’t go face first down into a 3 foot ditch we had no hope of crossing with our low clearance. Dammit.  Soo… yeah. This is a rough piece of road for someone like us. You got a high clearance 4wd? Have fun. You are going to Love this. Love love love. I mean, I even had fun despite getting banged up and our car scratched (if you have low clearance you have to hug the left and right sides where the trees are and get badly scratched because the washouts in the middle were so bad you can’t straddle them…)

Brandon trying to get the GPS to behave. Look at the NO clearance we have on that Element. What were we thinking! Well, we did okay until section 2… if your car is this low…don’t go lol. Go on the other sections. Plenty to see on the other ones!

This section ends when it comes down the mountain to a stop sign and crosses Gunterstown Road (or it might have other names…). 602 picks up on the other side but despite having the same name, is a completely different smooth wonderful easy ride. Hurray for that!

All in all, this drive was magnificient. My only regret about road section 2 was that I didn’t get out and stand IN the huge ruts that kept us terrified and squealing each time we scraped or dented soemthing under our car, or every time we hit a tree on the side and had to listen to the agonizing Sccrrreeeeaaaape down the side. I should have taken pictures of the poor shape of much of the road. Sure there were flat nice sections, but you had to go thru hell to get to them.

Till next time. Happy Hiking, Happy driving, and seek out history in the woods whenever you can. If you have driven this and have any info to add please contact us (email form is on the bottom of our About Page) or add the link to your blog/page/resource to the comment area below. We’d appreciate it!

Self portrait in rock and shadow…waving goodbye to my fellow outdoor lovers.