Sipsey Wilderness Trail, Alabama October 2022

[steady123]

Just finished a 30ish mile trail in the Sipsey Wilderness, Alabama, part of the Bankhead National Forest. The trail is about an hour and a half south of Huntsville, Alabama. There are a number of "loops" you can hike. We took a slightly shorter loop. Sipsey is composed of a series of trails, numbered 200, 201, 204, etc. etc. We parked at the Randolph Trailhead and hiked the 201, 206, 208, 207, 200, 209, and 202 back to the parking trailhead. Takeaways from the hike.

1. Do NOT THINK of hiking this area without a trail map AND downloading the GPS coordinates into the GAIA phone app. The intersection of trails can be EXTREMELY confusing as to what direction to traverse the next section. There are NO markers along the way. The trail frequently looks good only to peter out into bare woods. Guess what? You went off trail. You almost need to keep the app open to prevent vering off into the wilderness. We had to backtrack numerous times to regain the trail. There are several creek/river crossings. Not too bad with low rainfall. We were lucky that there were come weekend campers to direct us across the water as the signage was confusing.

2. The actual hike is easy. A few hills but basically level. Easy Peasy. Gaia shows some camp sites. We had to walk a couple of time late in the eventing before stumbling upon suitable camping. A lot of the hike is along a river/creek. Plenty of water and pleasant.

3. Sections 206 and 208 was DRY. We obtained water from a spring seep. I forget what section.... We were hiking along the river and encountered a rock face preventing us from hiking further. We backtracked back and forth looking for where we left the river trail. Suddenly we encountered a young family on the way back to the dead end. It turns out that what we thought was a dead end break in the rock face was a tunnel leading to the trail. Take off the pack. Walk a bit in the dark. Squeeze through. Back on the trail How cool!

4. In spite of the navigation problems (big) , the trail has some REALLY IMPRESSIVE CLIFFS, GROTTOS, CAVES, WATERFALLS. I would definitely go back to explore those caves and crevices. REALLY COOL. Some of the best were off trail when we were trying to figure out how to get back on track.

5. On the 209 section there are some wonderful campsites. On this trip taken up by weekenders.

6. We encountered hikers who were hiking the "outer loop". That might have been a less challenging route. We picked the inner loop as we had a newbie hiker and we were unsure as to his capabilities. Turned out the trail is so easy to walk that we were needlessly worried.

[Slugg]

Thanks for the trip report on this area! I’ve had my eye in this area for a couple years now, looks like a great winter destination if you’re up for the water crossings. I may wait to hit this area until I can attempt to red-line it..

Did you use any paper maps or just rely on the phone? I’ll probably pick up the Nat Geo for it..

[steady123]

Got the online map. downloaded the gps coords.

[Last Call]

Sipsey is very dry right now, most all the waterfalls will be dry, best to do the Sipsey after a good rain ....

[OwenM]

Thanks for the trip report on this area! I’ve had my eye in this area for a couple years now, looks like a great winter destination if you’re up for the water crossings. I may wait to hit this area until I can attempt to red-line it..

Did you use any paper maps or just rely on the phone? I’ll probably pick up the Nat Geo for it..

I don't know that there's a NatGeo map for Sipsey.
I've got a big Carto-Craft Maps one called "Sipsey Wilderness & The Black Warrior Wildlife Management Area of the William B. Bankhead National Forest, Alabama" that's nice to have, but unnecessary, IMO.
Mine is pretty old, but they might still sell them.
https://www.cartocraft.com/index.html


The simple ones you can google up and screenshot are probably enough if you're competent, and I think you can put a free one of those on your phone with the Avenza app that'll show where you are and stuff.
Most of the trails, even some unofficial ones, are heavily trafficked and easy to follow.
It's not a place I go very often, but I've never had a problem getting around there, and the hiking is easy.

Winter or early spring, for sure. Yeah, you might have to put on sandals and wade in some cold water for a minute coming or going, but it beats going when the waterfalls are dry and the bugs are out.
The bugs can be straight up horrific there...