Best RV Parks & Resorts near Steele, AL

Stayed at site 13, level gravel sites with picnic table on concrete pad, fire ring, FHU. Extended stays at the back of park and closer to hwy 20. There is a nice dog park, playground, covered pavilion, laundry room, dated bathroom, but clean. Shirley reserved our spot, and helped us pull through,and hook up, with our new RV! There is a little path/bridge, so We walked over to Camping World to get our bigger RV. The next morning, we had a few questions, so the Camping World service employee, came over (on a golf cart)to answer them. We decided to stay another night, and it was easy enough for Shirley to extend our reservation. If we were in the area again we would go back. There is a lot to do in the area….Talladega National Forest, Talladega SuperSpeedway and Cheaha State Park.T-Mobile was good, and paid about $30 night with Good Sam Discount. This Campground is also known as CWGS Campground of Oxford.

This park is located on the highest point in Alabama. It has a great camp store with most basic groceries, hotel, cabins/chalets, group lodge, restaurant with gorgeous views, pool, 6 acre lake ALONG with great hiking trails. There is also a dog park and in general this is a very pet friendly 🐶state park. (Bring the groceries you need- closest grocery store is a 20-30 min drive)and know that the restaurant is decent but it may have varying hours during off seasons.) . 🚍⛺️campground- there are two campgrounds with full hookups. The Upper campground at the top is the mountain near all the major trailheads, restaurant, camp store and pool. The Lower Campground at the bottom of the mountain is near the small lake with swimming area and walking trail around the lake. We stayed at the Upper and in February we had the whole campground to ourselves most of our 2 week stay. All the sites are updated and have water, 30/50 amp electric, sewer, picnic table and fire ring or grill. Bathrooms at upper level can be an uphill or downhill walk. *💲this state park has a $4.75 reservation fee and a 3.75% daily “resort fee” on your base campsite rate. Both of those are not deal breakers but good to know. (Especially since the pool is only open for a limited time)

🏡 there are chalets and cabins. I felt the cabins had the better views than the chalet and more private but these are smaller and more rustic. When you are making reservations for a cabin or chalet be sure to check the occupancy rate for the cabin you choose- some are limited to 2 people and look👀 at the amenities of each cabin/chalet- some are quite rustic but descriptions are given. Good news is that they do have pet friendly cabins.

🏕there are semi/primitive and backcountry style sites. ✏️Note that the semi primitive camp sites (the ones on Tower Road) don’t have a shower house for you to use- there is a bathroom available. If you plan to hike a lot and don’t want to drive your car- try to get sites on the upper part of park. (My personal pet peeve is driving daily to a trailhead when I am camping)

📌There is also a hotel with motel like rooms (near the pool and restaurant) and you can even rent an entire lodge for groups that was very attractive from the outside (this was located at top of mountain near the overlook trail-not really walking distance to pool and restaurant)

🥾hiking - 10.5 miles of hiking in the boundaries of the park with connectors to the Pinhoti. The hiking trails had spectacular views on both sides of the mountain. Hiking poles were helpful! While the .3 mile wooden boardwalk to Bald Rock is stroller and mobility challenged friendly, most of the other hikes were moderate to strenuous for the average person. For example- There is a one mile trail straight down the mountain to the lake and lower campground. That said, we loved the hiking here. Next time we plan to bring our larger back packs and do an overnight on a section of the Pinhoti. Did I mention how awesome the views were hiking?

🚵 mountain biking- there are 5 trails that are multi use... and hikers must yield to bikers on these. While we were here there was a mountain biking race. 🚴‍♀️road biking- the roads in the park had some incline...but I was glad to have my bike to roam the upper part park where we camped. (We don’t bring a tow vehicle) My husband biked outside of the park and you can decide for yourself if you would have fun road biking here after you drive UP the mountain roads to the Visitor Center. *It is 3 miles from the visitor center/park entrance to the lower campground/lake area via non park roads. 🛶- we didn’t paddle here, it was not near our campground and it is only a 6 acre lake/pond. There is a swimming/wading.

Happy Camping! Pamela and Keith

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.

Quiet RV park close to Ft Payne and surrounding parks such as Desoto state Park. Close to Little River Canyon waterfall among others. (A must see). Sites at park very close together and our dually truck had to be parked sideways in front or back of site. One side of park is for long term stays while the other side is for up to two week stays. Other than that friendly check in and was able to have ups delivery. Available Sites are able to be chosen when get there.  Internet using Verizon (nomad) for work is only ok. My husband was able to work on conference calls ect but had one dropped call and while he was working I wasn’t able to use our internet. Evening hours when trying to stream sling was difficult to non existent the second week of our stay. Gave it 4 stars due to friendliness and ups delivery.

On our trip to Cheaha State Park we stayed in the lower campground, which features very roomy RV sites, some with really nice views, and all with full hookups including power, water, and sewer.  There is no cable or wifi available however, and cell service is pretty spotty.  There is also an upper campground with RV sites in the park and separate tent and primitive camping sites available.

The lower campground is right next to Cheaha Lake, which is a small lake, but large enough for some kayaking and features a sandy beach swimming area and a nice playground (see video).  There are also pavilions and picnic areas around the lake.  There is a nature center by the lake that has some interesting nature exhibits and a few live animals to check out.

There are lots of great hiking trails, mostly toward the top of Mount Cheaha in the park itself, and there are several different overlooks with spectacular views.  The main overlook has an easy boardwalk trail that leads to it from the parking area and is wheelchair accessible.  There's also a pool, lodge, cabins, and a restaurant on the mountain in the park.

The main road that leads to the park and campgrounds has some pretty steep and long uphill and downhill sections.  Nothing too crazy, but I would suggest that you make sure your tow vehicle can handle it without overheating the engine or transmission, especially in the heat of the summer.

Cheaha Lower Campground Tour:

https://youtu.be/iH4gYju0YRE

Cheaha Lake Fly Around:

https://youtu.be/IOGloJ\_Ob6E

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!).