landscapes, I think that you’ll find a campsite just right for you. I hope that you’ll find a good cross section of camping experiences so that you can visit the landscapes and people that make camping in Alabama so special.
But the campgrounds you read about here are just the beginning. There are hundreds more for you to visit, all equally impressive. I hope that this book inspires you to go out and find your own special campground in Alabama where you’ll make memories for yourself and your family.
INTRODUCTION
How to Use This Guidebook
The publishers of Menasha Ridge Press welcome you to Best Tent Camping: Alabama. Whether you’re new to this activity or you’ve been sleeping in your portable outdoor shelter over decades of outdoor adventures, please review the following information. It explains how we have worked with the author to organize this book and how you can make the best use of it.
Some passages in this introduction are applicable to all of the books in the Best Tent Camping guidebook series. Where this isn’t the case, such as in the descriptions of weather, wildlife, and plants, the author has provided information specific to your state.
THE RATINGS & RATING CATEGORIES
As with all of the state-by-state books in the publisher’s Best Tent Camping series, this guidebook’s author personally experienced dozens of campgrounds and campsites to select the top 50 locations in this state. Within that universe of 50 sites, the author then ranked each one in the six categories described below. As a tough grader, the author awarded few five-star ratings, but each campground in this guidebook is superlative in its own way. For example, a site may be rated only one star in one category but perhaps five stars in another category. This rating system allows you to choose your destination based on the attributes that are most important to you.
Beauty
Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but panoramic views or proximity to a lake or river earn especially high marks. A campground that blends in well with the environment scores well, as do areas with remarkable wildlife or geology. Well-kept vegetation and nicely laid-out sites also up the ratings.
Privacy
The number of sites in a campground, the amount of screening between them, and physical distance from one another are decisive factors for the privacy ratings. Other considerations include the presence of nearby trails or day-use areas, as well as proximity to a town or city that would invite regular day-use traffic and perhaps compromise privacy.
Spaciousness
The size of the tent spot, its proximity to other tent spots, and whether or not it is defined or bordered from activity areas are the key consideration. The highest ratings go to sites that allow the tent-camper to comfortably spread out without overlapping neighboring sites, or picnic, cooking, or parking areas.
Quiet
Criteria for this rating include several touchstones: the author’s experience at the site, the nearness of roads, the proximity of towns and cities, the probable number of RVs, the likelihood of noisy ATVs or boats, and whether a campground host is available or willing to enforce the quiet hours. Of course, one set of noisy neighbors can deflate a five-star rating into a one-star (or no-star), so the latter criterion—campground enforcement—was particularly important in the author’s evaluation of this category.
Security
How you determine a campground’s security will depend on who you view as the greater risk: other people or the wilderness. The more remote the campground, the less likely you are to run into opportunistic crime, but the more remote the campground, the harder it is to get help in case of an accident or dangerous wildlife confrontation. Ratings in this category take into consideration whether there was a campground host or resident park ranger, proximity of other campers’ sites, how much day traffic the campground received, how close the campground was to a town or city, and whether there was cell-phone reception or some type of pay phone or emergency call button.
Cleanliness
A campground’s appearance often depends on who was there right before you and how your visit coincides with the maintenance schedule. In general, higher marks went to those campgrounds with hosts who cleaned up regularly. The rare case of odor-free toilets also gleaned high marks. At campgrounds without a host, criteria included trash receptacles and evidence that sites were cleared and that signs and buildings were kept repaired. Markdowns for the campground were not given for a single visitor’s garbage left at a site, but old trash in the shrubbery and along trails, indicating infrequent cleaning, did secure low ratings.
THE OVERVIEW MAP & KEY
Use the overview map on the inside front cover to pinpoint the location of each campground. The campground’s number follows it throughout this guidebook: from the overview map, to the map key facing the overview map, to the table of contents, and to the profile’s first page. A map legend that details the symbols found on the campground-layout maps appears on the inside back cover.
CAMPGROUND-LAYOUT MAPS
Each profile contains a detailed map of campground sites, internal roads, facilities, and other key items.
CAMPGROUND ENTRANCE GPS COORDINATES
All 50 of the profiles in this guidebook include a box showing the GPS coordinates for each site entrance. The intersection of the latitude (north) and longitude (west) coordinates orients you to the entrance. Please note that this guidebook uses the degree–decimal minute format for presenting the GPS coordinates. Example:
GPS COORDINATES N32° 58.693' W85° 13.272'
To convert GPS coordinates from degrees, minutes, and seconds to the above degrees–decimal minutes format, the seconds are divided by 60. For more on GPS technology, visit usgs.gov.
WEATHER
The weather in Alabama is as distinctive as its environment. Along the Gulf Coast you’ll experience a subtropical climate, while to the north cold and snowy winters are common. But of course, weather isn’t that cut-and-dried.
Average temperatures in the north range from 46°F in January to 80°F in July. On the coast the temperatures range from 52°F in the winter to 85°F in summer. Yes, the coast does experience cold snaps of below 30°F in the winter, sometimes even below zero, but they’re usually short-lived and last only a day or two.
Overall the weather across the state makes it a pleasure to camp out any time of the year, but there are a few caveats. Being in a subtropical environment you can expect extended days of high heat and humidity throughout the summer. This makes for a deadly combination and a heat index that easily soars over 100° many days throughout the summer.
Alabama is particularly prone to a couple of big weather issues in the summer. Because of the heat and humidity, the state experiences extremely dangerous pop-up summertime thunderstorms. These squalls can drop 2 or more inches of rain in less than an hour and be accompanied by dangerous lightning and, in the north, tornadoes.
The
