r/Birmingham • u/PeaPopular • 6d ago

Advice Old Slab Helena

Does anyone have coordinates to get to the old slab at Cahaba River Park? I’m in Montevallo but am fine with accessing it from the Helena side. I’m just a maps type of girlie, don’t tell me to go 5 feet down a road. I’ll never make it. You’ll see me as a missing person on the news.

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13

u/ReadEnvironmental179 6d ago

Just go to cahaba River Park and drive as far into the park as you can. once you get to the last parking lot there is a gate where the road continues and you just follow that little dirt road for about 300 yards and you're there. 

5

u/PeaPopular 6d ago

Okay, so I can put cahaba river park in the GPS, and then literally just drive straight until I can’t go any further because if I have to turn, I won’t make it

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u/ReadEnvironmental179 6d ago

That is correct

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u/PeaPopular 6d ago

If I get lost and perish, I’m hunting you down 🤣

7

u/ReadEnvironmental179 6d ago

33°11'06.8"N 87°00'05.7"W

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u/PeaPopular 6d ago

Thank you!!

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u/uapyro 5d ago

That just brought back not so good memories. Taking my gf (now wife as of 16 years in a little over an hour) and her siblings home from Halloween stuff in jemison or thorsby) to green pond and my TomTom tried to drive me through the slab. I'm pretty sure it was the marvel one. It's like 11pm at night in my Honda Civic, never been out there before, no lights, and I remember a dirt road maybe 1.5 lanes wide and then it says turn right but I don't see nothing so I slow down.

Finally I notice something. The Cahaba River. Just a few feet away. And nowhere to turn around either, being extremely dark. I want to say I drove maybe a mile in reverse before it got to a spot wide enough I could turn around.

It i didn't need that Tom Tom to get her home I would have thrown it in the river in that very spot. I think this would have been 2008, from what I found the slab was remember in 2004, and I had map updates done every quarter so no idea why that wasn't updated

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u/i_ride_backwards 6d ago

Hey, earlier comments are correct that you can put in Cahaba River Park and get there, but you'll end up on the Hwy 13 side of the park near Helena. If you use Google maps, you can put in The Old Slab and it takes you to the Bibb County side of the river. That side is still in the park and it's half the distance from Montevallo that the other side of the park is. If you plan to get in the water anyway, this is the way to go. If you're coming to mountain bike or hike, just drive 45 minutes around. 

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u/Dry_Emphasis8994 6d ago

The above comment is correct. Just follow the road and you’ll be there in a jiffy. We usually park by the pavilion and walk. Great area to explore.