I stayed at Monte Sano for several days as I explored Huntsville. This is a very, very nice campground, and the state park it sits in is a destination in itself. There are miles of hiking trails on the plateau, as well as a closed down section of Bankhead Parkway NE that anyone with a non-motorized wheeled conveyance should enjoy. I took my kick scooter down this road many, many times. The downhill grade is perfect, and there are just enough pavement wows to keep it interesting. Wish there were more roads like this.
I camped in one of the primitive sites, which are located along a long gravel loop at the back of the campground. The sites all seemed to be nice and large, with plenty of tall trees for shade and shrubs for privacy. These sites are fairly remote, and the closest bathrooms were crowded and dirty when I visited (albeit modern and well appointed). There is another bathroom of identical construction closer to the campground entrance. This was empty and clean. There are also nice single occupancy bathrooms at the campground office.
The main downside to this campground is its water, or lack thereof. Most campgrounds have plenty of water spigots for tent campers, and maybe a few dishwashing sinks. This campground has none of that. Sure, the RV sites have water hookups, and I pirated these when the sites were empty, but when they filled up, where was I supposed to find water? As far as I know, there is only one water spigot in the entire campground, and it took me days to locate (at the picnic shelter near the cleaner, emptier bathroom). This was too far from my campsite to be of much use anyhow. Even at the large picnic shelter down the street from the campground (looked to be CCC-built), there was only a single drinking fountain. At a place supposedly geared for big group picnics. I saw what looked to be old water fixtures that had been decommissioned. What the heck was going on here? It was all very strange, and very frustrating. I'm okay with dry camping, but when a campground has water but makes it hard to access... this is quite annoying. Please fix this, Monte Sano.
