A Decatur, Alabama Scavenger Hunt

Last updated: December 18, 2023

I’ve enjoyed Alabama since moving here in 2019. I’ve hiked Rainbow Mountain and climbed Walls of Jericho. I felt the spray of Welti Falls on my face and the list goes on and on.

The Downtown Turtle Trail in Decatur, Alabama really is truly a hidden gym and made me love Morgan County more than I already do. The sheer adorableness of this charming town got even better one March Saturday afternoon when I did a quick search online for something for me and my mom to do before she headed back to Tennessee.

We threw the dogs in the car and headed down to see if we could complete the challenge of using clues to find 10 turtles hidden throughout the city.

What’s even better is that this was created by a local high school student. Lucy Orr designed and petitioned the cute attraction to the city and designed the hunt using the city’s history as clues. They found a local artist to create the turtles and the rest is history (pun intended).

Why turtles? While doing research, Lucy discovered that the state of Alabama is #1 in the number of different freshwater turtle species, and they are a routine sight in this area. Turtles in the Decatur area often sun on logs near streams that are Tennessee River tributaries.

The clues were just challenging enough to make you stop and work to figure it out, such as:

From Moulton towards Johnston you meander;
The crosswalk requires a good gander;
As a rising attorney, On a post office journey,
Governor Albert would lead with great candor.

It was perfect for the dogs as they got a good walk and really enjoyed their time exploring the city just as much as we did.

This is such a fun adventures for your furry friends. They loved the walk and Decatur is extremely dog friendly! Take them along on this adventure!

We celebrated at the Mellow Mushroom which was also within walking distance and was perfect because they have an outdoor eating area and let the dogs join us.

We snapped the photos of each discovery and then turned them into the local museum for our prize; a foam turtle.

Murals!

Last but not least, check out this mural painted by Kelsey Montague. ##WhatLiftsYou

So what are you waiting for? Head on down to my neck of the woods and get your scavenger hunt on! Be careful, this place has a way of wooing you and you’ll be in love before you know it. ❤️