7 Unique Experiences That Should Be On Everyone’s Alabama Bucket List

Explore every known corner of the US space program and learn how essential the people of Alabama have been in its success. The massive U.S. Space & Rocket Center opened in 1970, less than a year after the Apollo 11 moon landing and in between the Apollo 12 and 13 missions. It has continually modernized on pace with the program and has given around 17 million visitors a viewport into the latest technologies, spacecraft, artifacts, and simulations. Pro tip: To see other regional attractions and get big savings, buy a Huntsville and North Alabama Multi-Attraction Pass, which covers admission to the space center plus admission to nine other awesome attractions that include Ave Maria Grotto, Burritt on the Mountain, Cathedral Caverns State Park, Cook Museum of Natural Science, Earlyworks Children’s Museum, Huntsville Botanical Garden, Jesse Owens Museum, Rickwood Caverns State Park, and Tigers for Tomorrow.

In 1969, a little over three months before we first put men on the moon, stars of a different sort aligned an hour’s drive west of Huntsville. Four accomplished session musicians known as The Swampers left the established FAME studio after nearly a decade. The men struck out on their own and opened Muscle Shoals Sound Studio on April Fools Day. The hits that ensued were no laughing matter. Think Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman,” Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird,” and The Staples Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” to name just a few. Take the studio tour to hear stories of these songs and more, like how The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards scribbled out the final parts of “Wild Horses” in the studio’s tiny bathroom.

Many know of Selma for its voting rights marches in 1965 that were so critical in the civil rights movement. While there are several options for touring key sites around town related to these events, the F.D. Reese Historical Tour is deeply personal. The tour guides, Alan and Marvin Reese, are grandsons of the late pastor, teacher, and civil rights activist who had a leading role in the marches. Tour stops include the F.D. Reese home, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Brown Chapel AME Church, the Dallas County Courthouse, and Clark Elementary School. late F.D. Reese who invited Dr. Martin Luther King to Selma and lead the 1st ever World's Teacher's March. You will also be able to view original artifacts from the F.D. Reese Archives.

Rewind a couple of years before the events at Selma to 1963 in Birmingham, which by then had become ground zero for the civil rights movement. In September of that year, the city made national news because of the horrific 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young girls. Storyteller and guide Wilhelmina Thomas, who grew up in Birmingham during the era, leads the 1963 Birmingham Civil Rights Experience - Black History Matters Walking Tour and shares unique perspectives. Stops include the A.G. Gaston Motel, public art at Kelly Ingram Park, the Lyric Theatre, (Temptations founder) Eddie Kendricks Memorial Park, Carver Theater, and the Civil Rights National Historic Monument.

Founded in 1933, Cheaha State Park in Delta is the oldest continually operating state park in Alabama. Civilian Conservation Corps workers completed the park over six years to finally welcome the public in the summer of 1939. The experience you’ll get here is a genuinely top-down perspective: Mount Cheaha is the highest point in Alabama and near the southernmost part of the Appalachian Mountains. The fee to visit the park is only $5, you should consider an Anniston and East Central Alabama Multi-Attraction Pass. The pass will cover the park fee as well as other attractions in the area, including Annison Museum of Natural History, International Motorsports Hall of Fame adjacent to Talladega Superspeedway, Berman Museum of World History, and the Mustang Museum of America.

Next, go back more than 300 years to 1703 when French settlers held the first Mardi Gras in the New World in what is now modern Mobile. You will learn how it came to pass and has artfully evolved over the many years since at the Mobile Carnival Museum. Housed within an ornate, historic mansion, the museum has 14 gallery spaces. The galleries contain artfully arranged jewels, vintage gowns, scepters, crowns, and the most spectacularly adorned robes. Families of carnival royalty over the years offered these items and many other mementos for display in the highly-rated museum.

While we know settlers began to establish Orange Beach in the 1860s, the water’s inhabitants have been around for millions of years. That’s given the dolphins plenty of generations to become the “dogs of the sea,” entertaining people with their playful antics on the Alabama Gulf Coast Dolphin Cruise. You can enjoy the beauty of being out on Gulf Coast waters while keeping your eyes peeled for pods of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins.