DigitalRoadtrip: April Roadtrip, Day 2, Columbus to Montgomery

Day 2

Thursday, April, 2, 2026

Sunrise over Columbus...

A direct drive to Montgomery, Alabama from Columbus should take a little under and hour and a half. But, where's the fun in that. Instead, I added a state park and a community park, all a few miles off the main route.

After a typical breakfast at the Waffle House across the street, it was time to pack up and head into Alabama. The first stop was just across the river in Phenix City.

When I heard Lakewood Park had its own waterfall, I had to visit.

Second stop, Chewacla State Park. There were allegedly trails to two different waterfalls. The first started with a steep decline, necessitating quite a few handholds.

At the bottom of the hill, go right for a lake trail.

The lake at the top of the dam...

Waterfall number two for the morning...

From here, there are a bunch of options back to the car.

I chose to keep going. I got excited when I heard an unexpected sound of another waterfall. Disappointed when the water was coming out of a pipe.

I finished the loop and worked my way back to the car.

In a different section of the park, there was supposed to be a trail to Hidden Falls.

Note the park road forming a "Y." The actual end is a round parking area. There's no mention of Hidden Falls on the park map. Nor is there one on the AllTrails app.

In hindsight, I shouldn't be surprised. I've had this happen before.

Since I was in the area of the mysterious trail, I simply picked one that started circling the lake.

It would eventually bring me back to the other side of the previous waterfall.

I kept going for a bit just for the exercise.

Leaving the park, it was less than an hour drive to Montgomery.

First stop the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Opened in 2018, it's dedicated to the 4,400 blacks who were lynched between 1877 and 1950.

Inside, there are these big metal blocks. Each represents a county with a confirmed lynching.

Some, like Carrol County Mississippi had so many, they needed two columns.

My own county...

Along the outer wall, some of the reasons given.

Outside, there's a second block of each, with the names far easier to read.

My home for the night was the Capital Inn and Suites. I got a couch, I guess that counts as a suite. It's one of those places where I read a whole lot of reviews before booking. It turned out to be perfectly respectable.