Best Cabin Camping near Bankhead National Forest

This is a great little campground tucked away on the edge of Bankhead National Forest. The location of the campground makes it an excellent location to enjoy the numerous waterfall hikes in the area. The campground was laid out well with spacious gravel sites and full hookups. Sites 2-4 had good views of the pond/field, sites 10-15 backed up to the tree line to provide a little shade all other sites had full sun. The camp host was super friendly and helpful. They have a general store, laundry, bathhouse, and small dog park. The campground has hiking trails on the property if you don’t have time to visit Bankhead NF. If you’re in the area or wanting to spend time in Bankhead NF I’d recommend checking this campground out.

I really enjoy Smith lake campground it has a lot of great sites. There are plenty of shades sites for summer camping. They have primitive and powered sites with most having picnic tables and some with shared water. It is very affordable and quiet with lots to do. They have canoe rentals, mini golf, pool, and a beach area by the lake. The bathhouses are close by to the powered sites which is really nice. The only drawbacks are the bathhouses at least for the mens side is they need to have a place to hang your shower bag with clothes and toiletries instead of having to sit them on the floor. (Tip now that I've been a couple of times go buy a suction cup hook to hang your bag or towel on). I'll definitely be going back! Note you'll have to check with front office about pool and canoe rentals due to the covid-19. 403 Co Rd 386, Cullman, AL 35057

(256)-739-2916 http://www.cullmancountyparks.com/smithlake.html

Nice quiet park out on the lake. We were in loop C at the end of the improved sites. The site was level, but the power, water, and sewer were all closer to the center or front of the site than the rear. That wasn’t a dealbreaker, but the sewer was a good bit higher than the paved pad. This made dumping the black tank a little iffy at best. That aside, the park is full of deer, squirrels, birds, all kinds of stuff for the kids to look at. The playground is a bit dated, and the bathhouse could use renovation, but was functioning and relatively clean. The sites are too close together which was nice. It looked as though all of the improved sites had a fire ring and picnic table. There was a dumpster at the end of our loop where the road to the primitive campsites started, so it was only about a minute walk away. The camp store at the front had all the essentials and some souvenirs, as well as the laundry facility. Everyone we met there, including the staff and volunteers, were all great. The kids loved it, and we will definitely be back to the park again.

This RV park is right on a lake, but a bit away from anything else. If you have any sort of boat, kayak, paddle board, bring it! There is hiking about an hour away at the Bankhead National Forest.

You can pick your spot when you arrive. I like that.

A and B sections are the original sections. C section is brand new with 50 amps hookup. All the big rigs there.

I was on C74 with a great backyard overlooking the hills.

Bathhouse is brand new and squeaky clean. You can see that almost no-one uses the campground shower because one of them doesn’t have a curtain to separate your dry clothes from the water. And neither of them have a caddy or any spot where you can put your soap.

Pool was not open when I was here in April which was a shame. It was hot enough. I would have enjoyed a swim, especially so we there is not much else to do. I don’t have a boat yet. 🙁

A decent Thousand Trails campground.

I had no reception with Verizon but my AT&T hotspot had good reception.

We stayed at two cabins at Elliot Branch in August with some friends.  It is a short drive to Bear Creek if you want to kayak or canoe, but the cabins are on lakefront property and you can just jump in!  

The cabins are clean and quiet.  They have a full kitchen, bathroom, and ours slept two in a double bed, but there is room in the living area for cots or sleeping on the couch if you wanted.  The couches are huge, and the cabins have cable.  WiFi is also available, though it is slow.

The campsites are also nice.  We drove through the area, scouting out where we want to tent camp in the future.

We stayed in early August for 2 nights in the Sleeping Waters campground.

We got there pretty late (after dark) for setting up camp, and I do not recommend doing that. It's about a quarter of a mile walk to the campsite, but the site is absolutely gorgeous! Very secluded and very roomy! The waterfall at the campsite is not large, but it still makes noise.

After we got everything set up and got all the lights out, we noticed the glowing dismalites along the Canyon wall behind our tent!! It was super cool. We also had a creek flowing with crawdads, minnows, and bull frogs. Plenty of wildlife!!

The canyon was pretty cool! The waterfalls were awesome and I loved all the spur trails. Disclaimer: be prepared to get your feet wet!!

The Canyon and campsite were pet friendly. Dogs were even welcome in the country store!! Just not in the seating area for the Soda Fountain.

I have few, minor complaints.. 1) I booked this campsite earlier in the year (early spring, I believe). I specifically wanted a night tour. They did not tell me that they wouldn't have night tours at that time of year. I wish I would've known, as I would've planned the trip for spring or fall. 2) the gate to get into the Canyon after hours for the bath house was difficult to operate. I'd pinch the code in and it wouldn't open. It would take several tries. The gate for the campsite area worked great! 3) The gate leading to the campsites was not marked. At night, it was challenging to determine where to park. 4) In the Canyon itself, not all of the landmarks were marked!! We had a map, but we had never been there before, so we weren't able to find everything easily.