Best Cabin Camping near Gaylesville, AL

Desoto State Park is a beautiful park with great hiking and waterfalls. The primitive camping area has a keyed gate. Make sure you arrive during business hours so they can get you registered and give you a key. They will also give you a big card with your last name on it that you will put on the campsite ledger board once you have driven through the primitive area and picked from available sites. This ledger board is halfway along the gravel road once you have let yourself through the gate and is also where the common area is. In the common area there are pit toilets, a large covered pavilion, rentable cabins, picnic tables and stone fire rings. Campsites are well marked, each has a trash can (not bear proof since no bears), and a stone fire ring. At registration you will also receive the gate code for the improved RV park so that you can use the showers and do laundry. When you leave you can put your gate key in a Dropbox outside the office.

This park has it all in terms of overnight amenities. You can stay in a motel style room, log cabins, chalets, backcountry sites, wall tents, improved campsites and primitive campsites. Whatever you're looking for, this place probably has it and all in a beautiful setting. We stayed here while visiting Little River Canyon and it was a good location for our needs.

The park also has a near little nature center with cool interpretive programs. The improved campsites have hook ups (water, sewer and electric), picnic tables, fire rings and large gravel pads with plenty of room. There are a number of wonderful hiking options here as well. It's a little pricey, especially with the convenience fee and the 13% lodging tax but you get what you pay for and this place is NICE.

My first experience with Cloudland Canyon State Park was on a day hike, and my second was photographing a wedding here--which should set the stage for what type of place this is! 

The park can be spoken of in two separate sections; the East Rim and the West Rim. The East Rim is home to several cabins, the group lodge, one of the full service campgrounds, and the main trailhead, as well as the ADA accessible overlook trail which is where many of the iconic photographs of this park come from. This side is very popular for day use as the one mile out and back hike to Cherokee Falls draws in campers and people from Chattanooga coming in to enjoy the towering waterfall and the swimming hole below. The campground here is smaller, and less private than the west rim loop, offering 24 tent/RV sites that have 30A electrical hookup, gravel tent pads, picnic tables, and fire rings, along with a bathhouse and playground. The main road to the trailheads and day use area runs past this loop and while there are trees for shade they do not offer any privacy. 

The West Rim side houses the pioneer camping, west rim loop, the yurt village, and the remaining cabins. We have not been able to see the inside of the yurts, but they are spaced away from each other and off the road, and offer a lot of privacy; the loop that serves the yurts it not connected to any other road, and has a shelter, playground, and bathhouse. 

The West Rim camping loop has a total of 48 tent/RV sites with 30 or 50A hookups, water, gravel tent pads, picnic tables, and fire rings. This loop is far more wooded and offers a greater variety of site size and privacy, and has an extremely quiet and peaceful vibe to it. If the east rim is good for those using their campsite as a home base for exploring, the west rim is perfect for campers who want the convenience of a bathhouse with running water and/or the ability to run electric in their RVs, but without giving up the feeling of being immersed in nature. Sites 4-9 are well spaced from each other and great for tent campers and families who want their kids to have room to play, and while site 37 does not have as much privacy being in the center of the loop, it does have one of the most perfect climbing trees I have ever seen in a public campground. 

There are 16 cottages/cabins, and Georgia State Park cabins really cannot be overstated; they are well appointed, well maintained, and absolutely beautiful, and are spaced out to offer a feeling of seclusion: perfect for winter getaways, or for people who enjoy total creature comforts at night with nearby adventure during the day. Word of advice; cabins 1-5 are on the east rim and the waterfall trail runs almost directly behind them, so there is a loss of privacy there, especially on busy weekends. 

Finally, the park offers 4 pioneer sites and 30 walk-in backcountry sites. I have not seen these in person yet, but it is worth noting this park has accommodations for every type of camper out there.

There is not enough good I can say about Cloudland Canyon. About 45 minutes from Chattanooga, it is a must-see for anyone traveling from out of state who want to add adventure to their tour of the city, a home base for the many hiking and climbing opportunities within the park, or just a beautiful and peaceful place to spend a few nights out in nature.

The sites all have gravel pads that the tents must go on, fire pits with grills and also charcoal grills, picnic tables and lantern poles at all the sites. Showers and a laundry room. I’ve been twice, a few years apart, and both times the camp hosts have started cleaning and maintenance with gas fueled golf carts and leaf blowers very early in the morning so if you go to the woods to sleep in, you won’t. Also the camp store starts closing 15 mine before posted time and won’t sell you ice or wood so plan accordingly. The trails are just beautiful. The steps down to the waterfalls allow dogs but it’s 600 steps made of metal grate, in case you want to bring boots for them. It’s very beautiful here and I’d rate it higher if the staff and volunteers were less rude. That may not factor in to your camp, though, and it’s still worth seeing!

We travel around the country and stay at many campgrounds.  This is one of the few places we would plan a trip to just for the campground/park.  They have two campgrounds each providing a unique experience depending on what your looking for.  The East rim campground is close to all the amenities.  Very nice sites within easy walking distance of all the overlooks and playgrounds.  The West rim campground is in the forest and takes a drive or hike to get to the day use amenities.  We chose the West rim and it's peaceful and beautiful sites.  Most the outer sites provide a raised parking pad with a private viewing area of the forest below.  Our site not only had a large area for the picnic table but had a separate deck like area for looking out over the forest.  Down the hill beside the retaining wall for the pad was our fire pit thus providing us three different relaxing spots in one campsite.  We have already planned on coming back just for this campground. 

It's a 13 mile half hour drive to Lookout Mountain