Best RV Parks & Resorts near Madison, AL

We arrived one day early which was semi planned, but we were not in the spot we were staying for 11 days. Thank goodness because the pic on the site Vs reality was a pretty big difference. We have a big rig and no way we would fit. I figured I would have to finagle something in my own to get us a different site. NOPE! They guy at the gate helped us out and 5 min later we had a site! Store has a few things in it, including some Lake stickers/shirts/etc with Lake Guntersville on them. There is a little library box by the store with books people have put in after reading. There are sites for full hookup, water/electric, or primitive. There are long term sites as well. There is plenty to do! Beach, boat, water pad, basketball and tennis courts. Laundry available. Nice bathrooms and bathhouse. Dog park for bigs and Littles! The power went out once for a couple minutes and then again due to an accident on the mountain. There are neat things within the park to see and do. Hike/trails, golf, fish, zip line, horseback riding. A must stop is to see the donkeys, goats and emus. Towing to get here is interesting, but doable! We have a 42 ft RV with a 16 ft boat behind and we made it. Close enough to town but you have to go over the mountain. There are some neat stores down town and a farmers market.

We stayed at Bucks Pocket State Park recently for five nights and had a wonderful time. This park was recently reopened after being closed for a few years, lots of work has been completed to the campground and facilities. The sites are very nice with full concrete pads, 50/30 amp electrical, water, picnic table, fire ring and grill. There are a few sites that are on the bank of Sauty Creek that also have sewer hook ups. This is a very small campground with only 23 RV sites, 4 of them are pull through. There are also about 8 tent only sites. There are clean and well stocked bathrooms located at the park office and also includes a laundry facility. The office also sells firewood and ice if needed.

There are a few hiking trails that range in levels of difficulty, we hiked the trail to the overlook that I would classify as pretty arduous, the pay off was the Little Sauty Creek waterfall near the top and the beautiful vista of Point Lookout. The trail ascends 800 feet in elevation from the pocket floor to the summit so plan accordingly. There is also an off road vehicle (ORV) trail here so the park attracts these vehicles to the campground on the weekends.

The park host (Jesse and his wife) are very friendly and involved, he is visible throughout the day ensuring the park is maintained and orderly.

There will be little to no cell service or over the air TV reception due to the park being in the valley floor. The park does provide good WIFI that could be received throughout the campground.

A huge thank you to the State of Alabama for providing the resources to restore this great facility to the state park system. Also, an extra recognition to the A Year to Volunteer (https://www.youtube.com/c/AYeartoVolunteer) organization for the extraordinary effort and contribution to this park's rebirth.

The campground(CG) was easy to find for our mid-October stay. We exited off on 14A to gate 9 where we went through the gate and then did a u-turn to take us back down past the golf course to the CG. We had no problem doing the u-turn with our 40' fifth wheel. We followed the signage to the CG and then into pull-through site 21 with FHUs. There was no formal check-in, but our name and stay dates were on the site post. The pads here are huge and the utilities including 50 AMP worked well. We got 3 bars on Verizon and 2 bars on T-Mobile along with a large selection of OTA channels. We could have used satellite as there are no trees near the RV sites. They have a nice fenced dog park plus a shower and laundry facility with 4 machines each costing$1. The WiFi worked well for a CG this size. Use Gate 8 near the commissary and BX versus 9. Gate 8 gives you an easier drive to the campground. Overall we enjoyed our overnight stay.

General: Small (36-site) campground in two loops; only the upper has a bathhouse. It is about a ¼ mile walk from the lower to the bathhouse. 

Site Quality: Sites are gravel and vary; some are back-in, some are pull-through and some are parallel. Site 32 was very generous in size although not completely level. There was one picnic table, one set of water/electric utilities, and two fire rings (not sure why there were two). This site could easily fit a large Class A or two smaller campers. 

Bath/Shower House: Clean and heated. The toilets and showers have a curtain for privacy which IMO feels less private. When I was in the shower, someone opened the curtain not realizing (!) that someone was in there. Warm water at the sinks and showers was appreciated on a damp and chilly day. There is also a clean laundry facility - $3/wash and $2 to dry. The laundry room also has a microwave oven. 

Activities: There are daily cave tours; we have been in many caves and this one is very nice. By the lower loop is a small climbing wall. There are also hiking trails and gemstone mining, although we did not take advantage of either of these. We were there for the Cave Run - a 10km or half marathon where the last 1.2 miles AND finish are INSIDE the cave, which was very cool! 

Mason, the camp host, was great. Upon our arrival, he escorted us to our site in his golf cart (entirely not necessary but welcomed) and went over what we needed to know including the WiFi password (otherwise we had no service on Verizon). Be sure to go to the office (up a very steep hill or you can drive) and ask for your 15% senior discount if applicable (you need to show proof you are old!).

We stayed at site 40 with great view of lake. Site was very narrow (even for our pop up) but private as door side of camper opened to wooded area directly on lake. If neighboring campers backed in (vs pulling straight to camp with family on other side) they would have been kinda close. The site’s fire ring/grill and picnic table were down a bit from camper (not right outside door) but still on lake with beautiful view. Small Cell/WiFi tower was right next to site so got great reception (a must have since working remote). Bathhouse was very clean and being a shower snob, I was able to shower comfortably and didn’t get grossed out. We are planning to stay here again.