By Ki – Travel Made Personal
Some travelers chase the big attractions — the ones with lines out the door and souvenirs in every gas station for fifty miles.
But me? Give me the strange, the sacred, the tucked-away corners you won’t find on a billboards.
Dusty and I call these hidden gems — places that surprise you, slow you down, and linger in your mind long after the dust has blown off your boots. They’re the stops you weren’t planning on, the ones Murph didn’t see coming, and the ones that remind you why wandering is a way of life.
This list is alive, just like the road.
And with every mile, it grows.
But what exactly counts as a hidden gem? Well, that’s the fun part.
For us, the list is a little quirky, a little historic, and sometimes a little haunted.
Here’s our ever-growing collection — a list we’ll keep adding to as the road winds on.
💧Springs – The Clear, Cool Heart of the South
Springs are nature’s love letters — cold, blue, and honest. Some shimmer with tourist footprints and gift shops, others hide behind dirt roads and the kind of silence that feels ancient.
- Juliette Ghost Town & Rainbow Springs – where history whispers under Spanish moss and the water sparkles like nowhere else.
🪨Waterfalls – Where Time Slows to a Drip
You can hear them before you see them — that low, steady roar that calls you down the trail. Whether they’re roadside wonders or deep in the woods, waterfalls have a way of making even Murph hush for a minute.
Coming soon!
🌌Caves – The World Beneath Our Feet
Caves aren’t just cool (literally) — they’re a trip back in time, carved out drop by drop. Bring a jacket, a flashlight, and maybe a friend who’s okay with ducking through tight spaces.
- Florida Caverns State Park – glowing formations and a park full of above-ground surprises.
- Jeep Cave – A rugged limestone hollow tucked deep in the Withlacoochee, where roots, rock, and off-trail mystery collide under Florida’s forest canopy.
- Dames & Peace Caves – Ancient limestone caverns in the Withlacoochee Forest, beautiful yet scarred, where Florida’s wild heart echoes beneath layers of time and graffiti.
🧱Ruins – Ghosts in Stone and Steel
Ruins are history without the tidy edges — raw, weathered, and honest. They’re the skeletons of mills, ovens, furnaces, and forgotten homes slowly being reclaimed by the earth.
- West Blocton Coke Ovens Park – A cathedral of brick and kudzu where industry once roared.
- Tannehill Ironworks – The forest grows thick around relics that survived fire, war, and time.
- Brierfield Ironworks – The Confederate forge that armed a war, now softened by moss and quiet.
- Sadler Plantation (1838) – A log home swallowed by time, chimney standing guard like a sentinel.
- Seneca Quarry Ruins (TMP Covert Ops) – Stone cliffs that built the Smithsonian Castle, hiding in plain sight.
More coming — Alabama and Florida are full of ruins that refuse to be forgotten.
🏚️Ghost Towns – Whole Histories, Standing Still
Beneath the leaves and brush of the South lie old roads, old hopes, and the bones of entire towns. Walk slowly — the stories live close to the surface.
- Juliette Ghost Town – history, legend, and a dash of Southern gothic charm.
- Oriole Ghost Town – A cemetery on one ridge, a vanished town on another.
- Mannfield Ghost Town – Sand roads, hidden graves, and a community erased by progress.
- Orleans Ghost Town – Bicycles in the woods, old fences, and a forest reclaiming its streets.
- Croom Ghost Town – A tangle of old logging roads and unexpected remains.
- Stage Pond – Quiet, mossy, and full of clues if you know where to look.
- Newnansville – Once the county seat; now two cemeteries with a story to tell.
- Gaiter – A ghost town swallowed by the Withlacoochee.
- Montague – A place where old Florida blends into new suburbia.
Ghost towns are the heartbeat of TMP — each one a doorway into someone else’s yesterday.
🌲Whimsical Wonders – Art in the Unlikeliest Places
This is where the weird, the wonderful, and the “wait—what?” live. Places where creativity takes root in ways nobody asked for, yet everybody needed.
- Orr Park’s Tinglewood Trail – A storm-ravaged cedar grove reborn as a whimsical forest of dragons, gnomes, and tree spirits carved by a chainsaw-wielding coal miner.
- Museum of Wonder – A drive-through art fever dream where folk magic, welded oddities, and Butch Anthony’s brilliantly bizarre imagination collide in the woods.
- Pasaquan – Six psychedelic acres of neon walls, cosmic symbols, and St. EOM’s technicolor doorway into a universe only he could see.
🏛️Historic Places – Markers, Memories, and Milestones
Sometimes the most powerful stops are the quiet ones — a plaque, a monument, a field where history still hums.
- Armed Forces Memorial – Dothan – Huey helicopter, heroism, and heartfelt tributes.
- Claybank Church & Cemetery – 1800s craftsmanship wrapped in soft pine light.
- River Landing Park & Victory Bridge – Steamboat history along a quiet riverbend.
- Jim Woodruff Lock & Dam – Where engineering, ecology, and forgotten stories meet.
- Olustee Battlefield – Echoes of the USCT and a battle that shaped Florida’s Civil War history.
- Fort Pickens – A Gulf-side fortress charged with centuries of secrets.
- May-Stringer House – Four floors of Victorian memory.
- St. Augustine’s Old Jail – A tourist attraction with a darker historical edge.
- Potter’s Wax Museum – The oldest wax museum in the U.S., tucked into a historic district that feels older than the cobblestones.
🤹♂️The World’s Largest / Smallest – Roadside Oddities Worth a U-Turn
From towering statues to pint-sized curiosities, these are the stops that make you say, “Wait… pull over!”
- World’s Smallest City Block – a quirky slice of Americana right in the middle of Dothan, Alabama.
💬Why Hidden Gems Matter
Hidden gems remind us that history isn’t always polished and beauty isn’t always obvious. Sometimes the best stories are the ones hiding behind a dirt road, a broken chimney, a carved stump, or a forgotten plaque.
This list will grow as we travel — as long as there are backroads to wander and secrets left beneath the moss.
Bookmark this page.
Come back often.
And if Murph hasn’t gotten there first… leave us a few suggestions of your own.
🧭Start Exploring
- 📍 Juliette Ghost Town
- 📍 World’s Smallest City Block
- 📍 Florida Caverns State Park
- 📍Orr Park’s Tinglewood Trail
- 📍West Blocton Coke Ovens Park
- 📍Mannfield Ghost Town
P.S. Got a hidden gem we should see? Drop it in the comments — Dusty’s already got the cooler packed.
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