Birmingham’s robust trail system beckons urban outdoor adventurers

Pulling into downtown Birmingham for a late Friday afternoon check-in at the Tutwiler Hotel, the realization hit that — for the first time in my life — I was a tourist in my own hometown. Born in a hospital two miles away from the historic building that’s now a Hampton Inn and Suites property, I had never set foot in the place, though, I’d driven past it all of my life before moving to Georgia in the 1990s.

Growing up, downtown was a ghost town after business hours. On this evening, I walked three short blocks north of the hotel to Uptown, an entertainment district adjacent to the new City Walk — a one-mile linear park underneath the I-20 overpass, its undergirding lit up brilliantly in multihued colors.

People were all around, walking their dogs, riding bikes, skateboarding, strolling, even teeing off at a nearby Topgolf location. As a teen and 20-something, I never would have set foot in this area after dark unless a major concert or sporting event was occurring at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, which has received a makeover and now serves as the anchor for the Uptown district.

The skyline of downtown Birmingham as seen from the sixth floor of the Tutwiler Hotel. (Courtesy of Blake Guthrie)

The Five Mile Creek Greenway in a suburban area of Birmingham runs for much longer than five miles. (Courtesy of Rails to Trails Conservancy)

The in-town portion of the ride ended at Sloss Furnaces, home to the massive blast furnaces from Birmingham’s heyday as a steel town, now a National Historic Landmark. A visit to the hulking, haunted ruins of Sloss is a must for any first-time visitor to Birmingham — festivals and concerts are held on the grounds year round.

After the downtown tour, the group headed to the Five Mile Creek Greenway in a suburban area for a wholly different experience in a woodsy landscape, a stark contrast to the urban environment we had been pedaling through. The bucolic greenway parallels Five Mile Creek, which flows for much longer than five miles, as does the greenway. Our ride crossed a couple of roadways with light traffic, otherwise, it was a level, uninterrupted path shaded by trees.

Another don’t-miss spot for trail hounds is Red Mountain Park. This 1,500-acre park straddles the ridge of Red Mountain with 18 miles of trails for hikers and mountain bikers, a large dog park, lots of relics from the city’s iron-ore mining past and panoramic views of the city.

During the downtown portion of the ride we stopped at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI). An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, it sits in the heart of the Civil Rights District across from Kelly Ingram Park and the 16th Street Baptist Church where so much history happened during the Civil Rights Movement. The institute’s galleries provide a comprehensive overview of the entire history of the city through the lens of civil and human rights.

16th Street Baptist Church, where a bombing in September 1963 killed four girls preparing for a worship service. (Courtesy of Blake Guthrie)

“What took place here fundamentally changed our country,” said BCRI tour guide Barry McNealy during a walking tour of the district. He was referring to the historic events of 1963 when Public Safety Commissioner Bull Conner ordered fire hoses and K-9 units of German Shepherds to be used against peaceful protesters and when a bomb planted outside the 16th Street Baptist Church by members of the Ku Klux Klan killed four girls who were preparing for a worship service. The church bombing shocked the nation and within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law.

McNealy began his tour at a memorial sculpture in Ingram Park called Four Spirits that captures the four girls — Cynthia Wesley, Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson — in an innocent moment preparing for church. He then pointed out a statue of Fred Shuttlesworth across the street in front of the BCRI, calling him “the person most responsible for all of this,” meaning the Birmingham campaign that challenged the status quo and changed the course of history.

It was Shuttlesworth, a civil rights activist and pastor at Bethel Baptist Church, who convinced Martin Luther King Jr. to come to Birmingham. He co-founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights after the state outlawed the NAACP in 1956, as well as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King and others in 1957.

Shuttlesworth once said, “I aim to kill segregation or be killed by it,” and he almost was numerous times in violent attacks by the Klan. Also inside Ingram Park, there’s a small monument to Anne Frank, incongruent with local history. McNealy made a point of stopping there to expound on the bigger picture of basic human rights, tying it in to what happened in Birmingham.

A mural honoring Fred Shuttlesworth outside of Historic Bethel Baptist Church where he served as pastor. The church and its parsonage were bombed three times during the Civil Rights Movement. (Courtesy of Blake Guthrie)

There are no monuments to Bull Conner in Birmingham that I know of, but there are plenty honoring Fred Shuttlesworth — statues, plaques and murals. And today, anyone flying on a major airline in and out of the city travels through Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.

IF YOU GO

Birmingham is a 2.5-hour drive west of Atlanta on I-20.

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