Monte Sano State Park -Huntsville, Alabama’s Crowning Glory
Monte Sano, Spanish for “Mountain of Health” rises 1650 feet, and its cool, refreshing air once made it the site of a hotel resort and sanatorium in the late 1800’s. The 200-room Queen Anne-style Monte Sano Resort Hotel was a summer retreat for upper to middle class Southerners who wanted to escape the summer heat and diseases which were rampant at the time in surrounding areas, such as cholera.
Today, Monte Sano State Park boasts gorgeous views of the Tennessee Valley and diverse wildlife including numerous migratory songbirds. Geological formations make its excellent twenty mile trail system a popular spot for both hikers and bikers as it runs along the mountain’s Northeast face and over to adjacent Panther’s Knob. Other trails connect to form a circuit around Monte Sano and Round Top Mountains.
The Park has 14 stone cabins available for tourists who want to take in the cliff-top view of the valley below. The Monte Sano Stone Lodge was also reconstructed in February, 2004, and there are 89 campsites nestled among the trees. All members of the family will enjoy the picnic areas, covered pavilions, outdoor amphitheatre, playground, General Store, and the breathtaking views at the numerous “look-outs” along the park’s edge.
A little known feature inside Monte Sano State Park is the Japanese Garden. It was begun in 1989 by Robert Black, who was soon joined by several Japanese businessmen from Nasa, who worked on weekends to develop the garden. It boasts two acres including two red Japanese bridges, numerous Japanese plants, a teahouse, and garden benches. Its peaceful and serene scenery is surrounded by bamboo trees. Each year on the first Sunday in May, a Japanese Festival is held there. The garden is a popular meditation spot for locals and tourists.
Also on the mountain is the Von Braun Planetarium, where one can get a breathtaking look at the stars. It is opened in the evenings at various times throughout the summer months.
Before exiting the mountain, be sure to stop at Burritt’s Museum. Dr. William Burritt, a physician and inventor, built the mansion in 1936 and later donated it to the city of Huntsville for a museum. The home is built in the shape of an “X” which Dr. Burritt said had three advantages. First it offered a gorgeous view of the city below from each room of the mansion. It also allowed cross ventilation of each wing of the home. And because of his ideas as an inventor, the X-shaped mansion also held a cross-grid of antennae to improve radio reception. The museum itself houses two rooms of original furnishings as well as exhibits of regional and local history, including Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee artifacts, rocks and minerals, and 19th century clothing and personal artifacts.
Outside the museum are several reconstructed log structures from the period from 1850 to the early 1900’s. Living history interpreters dressed in period clothing demonstate hands-on activities from that period and also give living history discussions.
Tourists come from all over the country to visit Monte Sano, and it is still a favorite spot of the local Huntsville population on weekends.
To get to the park from Huntsville, take I-565 and exit at Highway 431 (Governors Drive). Follow H431 to the crest of the mountain and turn left on Monte Sano Boulevard. Drive two miles and turn on Nolen Avenue (signs are posted about the park). Drive one mile to the Park entrance.
