Horse Pens 40, Park and tourist attraction in Alabama, US
Horse Pens 40 is a park on Chandler Mountain in Alabama, near the town of Steele, known for its old sandstone rock formations with named features like Mushroom Rock, Dinosaur Rock, and Big Elephant Rock. The park includes hiking trails, bouldering areas, campsites, cabins, and an open-air concert space.
The rock formations were used by Native American groups including the Creek and Cherokee for thousands of years, and local accounts say a peace treaty between the two groups was signed on the site. In the 1950s, Warren Musgrove began hosting bluegrass festivals here, making the park nationally known before it was later reimagined as a climbing destination in 2002.
The park sits on top of Chandler Mountain and is open year-round, though checking the weather beforehand is a good idea since wet rocks make climbing and hiking more difficult. Drivers should follow the road signs to the park and avoid GPS routes that lead up the steep side of the mountain.
Although the park is now best known for bouldering, it earned its national reputation through bluegrass music, hosting one of the largest bluegrass festivals in the world during the 1970s. Legends like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs performed in the natural open-air space formed by the rocks.
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