Isabel Hill, former owner of Lanark, home of the Alabama Nature Center, visited this area often. This is the highest point on the property at approximately 360 feet above sea level.

There are several unique features associated with Isabel’s Lookout. First, you are standing in the Piedmont physiographic region. The Piedmont is a landform dominated by soils that have a high gravel content. As you crossed Beech Bottom bridge on your walk along Hilltop Pass Trail, this gravelly character was very evident by the rocks in the bottom of the stream. Even more unique is that you are within eyesight of another major physiographic region at this very moment. That physiographic region is called the Coastal Plain. The Coastal Plain is the flatter, lower lying areas of Alabama that were once part of, or very near the Gulf of Mexico when sea levels were much higher than they are today. Rather than the gravelly soils of the Piedmont, Coastal Plain soils are sandy in nature.

If you are here in early spring, look around you. If you see small white flowers poking up through the leaf litter under the trees you are looking at the flowers of a plant called bloodroot. Bloodroot is particularly abundant at Isabel’s Lookout, and this is one of the reasons Isabel enjoyed coming here in the spring.

If you are here in the winter, when the leaves have fallen off most of the trees, you might be able to find a unique view to the east. On extremely clear days with no haze, if you stand in just the right spot you can actually see east all the way to Wetumpka and the rim of the meteor crater found there. If you were here at night in the winter, again with all the leaves of the trees having fallen for winter, you could look south and see the lights of the Montgomery skyline. In fact, you would be looking down upon the lights of Montgomery. Isabel enjoyed both of these views as well.

Perhaps the view that Isabel admired the most is the view to the northeast. This view would have you looking towards the Tree Top Walk and the large oak, beech, and poplar trees of this beautiful hillside. Isabel shared this area with many people through the years and we are certain that she would be excited to know that you were able to share in its beauty as well.