Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Clio, AL

Arrived at guard gate and was welcomed by friendly staff. Quiet campground with waterfront site 8. Plenty of space between sites. FHU, level gravel, waterfront site with picnic table, fire ring, and grill. Felt safe, and across the street from bathrooms/laundry. Dated but clean. Woman’s bathroom with showers & bathroom stalls. 2 washers & dryers, as well as a folding table. No dog park, but plenty of nature, paved roads for walking, as well as easy to find, marked trails. 10 minutes to town, with restaurants and a few stores to pick up groceries & necessities. Playground is on the other side of the trails, as well as the boat ramp. Lots of wildlife. Would stay here again!

The sites are well spaced, most are water front and easy access to water or have water view. They have full hookups!! Great Verizon and AT&T signals. Some sites are at the beach if you have kids. Took fishing boat, kayak and Ebike. Has two walking trails, playground, large dog park, fish cleaning station and huge beach. Bathrooms are very clean and large and hot water in the wintertime and placed throughout the park. Also a nice laundry facility.Camp hosts were nice and helpful. Had full moon while here and the nice time was beautiful as well as fabulous sunrises and sunsets. Our two golden retrievers loved it. It is south of the nat line but no bugs or misquotes in January! We will be back.

Wow. This park is phenomenal! It is so beautiful. The canyons are breathtaking and the staff is so helpful and friendly!

Pets are welcomed and many people had theirs. So if your pet doesn’t like crowds or other pets it would be best to leave them home. Also it’s a decent walk very steep and at times strenuous so elderly people or pets may want to stay at the top. (We slipped multiple times going down.)

Make sure you take a cash to get in the gate or you will have to go to the visitor center.

We plan to go back and camp but I believe you have to hike to the camp sites.

This review is based on a short-term stay versus a destination campground(CG). We traveled into the CG on the US highways following our RV GPS from FL with no issues getting to this CG. Check-in was very easy, and we were guided to our online reservation first choice, end site 19. Our check-in person was concerned we might not like pulling through site 19. He was correct, as this site was too short and had an incline at the unhitch point. We proceeded to the newer area, where we were given the choice of pull-through sites 97& 98, which were both FHUs and flat. We chose 98, which was fairly level and plenty long enough for our 5th wheel and F450. The sites in this CG are close to each other. There were no trees so that we could have put out our satellite, but there was no need due to the great cable selection. We got 3 bars on Verizon and used our MifI for what little internet we needed. We tried but could not connect to the CG's WiFi. They have very good water pressure, so we used a reducer. Where we were in the back of the CG, we could still hear the highway. There was no formal dog park, but plenty of areas to walk your dog. This is an older park with many permanent and seasonal residents. We were impressed that, for the most part, there was not that“trailer trash” look, and the residents were friendly. There are newer water and electric sites in the 100s area in front of where we were. There’s a shower house and laundry, but we did not use these facilities. This CG is a good short-stay option.

My seasonal five-star rating is based on being here in the offseason. There is just something about having a campsite right on the water that is so peaceful. However, in the summer, I would imagine the water would be clogged with boats zooming around, and we would not find it so peaceful or enjoyable (but many others would). 

There are four sections to this 130-site campground: Mallard Point, Oakwood, Creek View, and River Chase. The only sites that are reservable are in the Oakwood and Creek View Sections. Only Mallard Point and Oakwood were open when we were there; I’m not sure if it was because of flooding or just low occupancy. Based on Elaine H’s review, we had reserved Site 50 in the Oakwood section for two nights and we were not disappointed. We were right on the water, which gave us a little concern after the host said the water was expected to rise (some of the sites had some water) but we didn’t have a problem. Not much separation/privacy between sites but most people were in RVs (didn’t see any tents). Each site has a large picnic table, fire ring, lantern hook, and food prep table. 

Bathrooms were very clean AND heated, which was nice as the temperatures dipped below freezing at the end of February. Each section has laundry facilities ($1.50 each for wash/dry) The map showed two dump stations, one at the very end of the campground and one located in the Oakwood section but again, only the one in Oakwood was open when we were there. Sadly, no recycling. 

There are two very short nature trails but no other hiking trails. There is a fenced-in dog park. If you are not a boater, there is not much to do but again, it was very peaceful at the end of February.