The other Shoals towns — Sheffield, Muscle Shoals, and Tuscumbia — sit within ten minutes' drive on the south side of the river. Tuscumbia is the birthplace of Helen Keller and worth a half-day for Ivy Green, her childhood home. Huntsville, an hour east, has the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and a much bigger food scene. Inland to the south, Dismals Canyon (Phil Campbell) is a small but striking sandstone gorge with rare glow-worms in the canyon walls at night.
