Best Cabin Camping near Midway, AL

PROS 

We were able to reserve 368 days prior to arrival 

Very friendly and helpful check-in clerk 

Fantastic view of the lake from site 45 

Mostly quiet except for campground party animals until 3am! 

Concrete parking pad 

BBQ grill 

Fire ring constructed of concrete pavers 

Coin-operated washers/dryers in shower/toilet facility 

Small playground, pool and mini-golf course 

Good jumping off point for Shiloh Battlefield 

CONS 

Campsite 45 was full of litter…cigarettes butts, bones, bottle caps, pieces of chalk, straws, melted soda bottles…just nasty 

Fire ring made of concrete pavers full of ash and trash upon arrival…again nasty Pedestal BBQ grill full of trash and ash upon arrival…more nastiness 

Campers ignored basic rules/courtesy/respect such as keeping dogs on leash and walking through occupied campsites at anytime. One camper walking through our site complained to us our chairs on our site were in THEIR way. 

No senior discount 

Narrow site 

Site 45 not level 

Site 45 mostly fun sun 

Basically we didn't experience any of the campground rules being enforced so obviously there is no management oversight at this State Park 

Never saw a park ranger drive through the campground (Saturday-Monday) 

Never saw a camp host or a campsite for a camp host

Campground quiet hours not enforced 

Posted "No Swimming” from campsites along lake, but that didn’t stop a sole and no one enforced it 

Concrete picnic table at end of parking pad, so at the bumper of the camper 

Sites very close to each other with no vegetation between sites, so no privacy what so ever 

Street lights throughout campground, so not dark sky friendly 

Small playground, pool and mini-golf course not walkable from campground 

Trash dumpsters outside of campground…not walkable 

Twisty, steep and narrow roadway into campsite...not for novice rig drivers

Due to short campsites, tow vehicles had to be creative with parking, sometimes blocking most of the campground road, again no enforcement efforts

No WiFi 

1 bar Verizon

The sites are rather narrow with varying sizes and locations for outdoor living space. Pay close attention to the states website regarding vehicle size maximums. As I walk through the park, it appears that all spots are full hookup and paved. We are on site 43 and anything longer than 30 ft will be pushing it. As it is, our 25ft trailer fits nicely, but the truck is parallel parked across the end of my site in order to be off the road. The picnic table is behind the camper instead of on camp side, which isn’t my favorite setup but we are making due. Some sites have metal fire rings, while others (like ours) have rock circle pits. Some campsites on the hill side have no picnic table OR fire pits. They also have almost no room to walk around the RV without tumbling down the hill. Sites 62 and 64 aren’t terrible, but everything else from 59 and up is pretty bad. 25-34 and 51-54 are short and back up to a a hill. Would be great for Class B or smaller travel trailers. Sites 10-24 are in a separate area from the rest. 35-50 are down on a low flat area near the water and are the best if you like a view of the lake.

Bath house in our loop is clean, not completely out of date, and heated for cold weather camping. There is a small area with 2 set of pay washers/dryers and a few vending machines.

All in all, well worth the State’s $32/night charge.

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.

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.