Best Glamping near Vestavia Hills, AL

We just spent some time at several of Alabama’s state parks. This is by far the best state park that we went to. I can’t wait to go back!

Oak Mountain has plenty of activities for everyone including a demonstration farm, horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, swimming and fishing. The campground is conveniently located to the lake with it's own beach area. There is also a pier to fish or swim from. Our campsite had a major ant problem and the bathhouse was subpar. Still Oak Mountain is my favorite Alabama state park thus far

Oak mountain state park has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. There's so much to do; and its always growing. It's the largest state park in Alabama. Theres lakes, waterfalls, nature trails, basket ball court, volley ball, a petting zoo, horses back riding, water sports, dirt bikes trails, BMX course, archery, cabins, primitive camping and rv's , a beach, a wildlife rescue center and so much more. If you're in the area do yourself a favor and check it out.

Oak Mountain is a great camping spot for people that want to have a quick escape from the city of Birmingham. It is located only about 20-40 min outside downtown. Oak Mountain has several of options of things to do away from just camping and hiking (which of course are also great to do here). The roads offer a great opportunity for a nice long bike ride. There is a huge lake which is perfect for swimming and family picnics, especially on a hot and humid Alabama summer day. We had a fantastic time camping at Oak Mountain and will definitely be back!

What an amazing campground! Alabama knocked this one out of the park. From the first time you enter the park, which isn’t too far from BHam or the interstate, you’re transported to a different place where things move much more slowly just the way we like it. The campground is a 5 mile ride from the main entrance. A beautiful winding road takes you all the way, deep into the property. If you’re lucky, you will see plenty of wildlife (we saw 7 deer and one rabbit). The campsites are very spacious, we stayed in site A30 which was great! But if you want a view, try A26 which overlooks the lake. There is a general store on property that even has propane. If you’re active, they offer bike and hiking trails, horse riding, kayak and paddle boat rentals, and a couple of beaches. Don’t wait, book your stay here ASAP!

Oak Mountain State Park is Alabama’s largest state park. Located just outside of Birmingham, it’s easy to escape to nature without being too far off the beaten path. This park is HUGE! There’s so many things to do here, we plan to return when we have more time to explore!

We saw several hiking trails, a horseback riding area, a golf course, a lake with a beach and swimming area, plus kayak and boats, we also saw some kind of skiing tow rope area! It was really cool, I’d never seen one of those! I read the park is known for mountain biking also, and I noticed a few road bikes in the bike lane driving in.

We originally booked a tent site without electric, but it was blazing hot, so we decided to move to a site with electric so we could have fans in our rooftop tent and ended up in site A06. The site was shaded and there was no one in that area so we had great privacy. Our site backed up to the woods, so it was nice.

The tent (no electric) sites are the best in my opinion. Most are back in the woods and shaded. I don’t believe you can reserve a specific tent site, as they assign you one when you arrive, but there were so many great tent sites, i don’t think it would be a problem unless it was a super busy weekend. Most of the tent sites are walk in also, so if you have a rooftop tent, or car camping, these won’t work.

A loop seemed to have larger, wooded, sites with more privacy. B loop was wide open. The tent sites were great in both loops though.

The restrooms were ancient. They could use some updates, but they were clean and functional, and there were multiple facilities throughout the campground.

There’s a camp store at the check in area, they have the essentials, and they do have ice. The ladies working in there were really nice and helpful too.

Oak Mountain is a great spot to camp, just go when there’s not a heat wave in Alabama, and you have time to explore the park!

This state campground in the Birmingham AL metro area is a quick getaway for city and suburban dwellers. We were looking for continued warm fall weather on a slow trip north; this met the warmth and fall criteria in late October. The proximity to the city made it a good choice for exploring Birmingham.

Campground as Hotel

We left in the morning and came back in the evening. Using the campground strictly for accommodations worked out well; it wasn't a place where we would have wanted to hang around the campground all day. The large RVs crammed on sites that weren't very large gave us a closed in feeling. We pulled down the shade in our teardrop to avoid the light pollution from the campers who leave ground lights and other decorative lights on all night. (Do they leave their outdoor holiday lights on all night at home?)

Tent Only Sites

• The tent only sites are the best feature of this park. You can pitch your tent among the trees away from the RVs packed together in the rest of the park. 

• There's no power or water at these sites.  

• These sites are listed as tent only, but the park office attendant told us there were a few where we could fit our vehicle and teardrop. We declined because we thought we'd be too close to the road although we later saw several that would have been fine

• Site 42B is the BEST SITE IN THE PARK! You walk down to the site from the parking area, and then there's a great view of the water. I took a photo looking back at the site from the beach area.

Other Sites

• All sites not designated tent only have electricity and water. There are some sites with sewer hookup as well as 50 amp power. See site map photo.

• Loop A's sites are more spread out than sites in Loop B.

• Loop B: B33 was ok. I recommend sticking to the outside of this loop because there are two roads down the center where you'll have sites on both sides, across the road and behind you. Inside the loop seemed crowded because there were large RVs.

Restrooms

Several restrooms are spread throughout the park. They each have a couple toilets and a shower along with hot and cold water in the sinks. Restrooms are clean and a checklist indicates they're inspected 2 or 3 times per day. Everything works fine, but they could use an update inside. If the usage at the end of October is any indication of overall usage, this park is heavily used. It's close to Birmingham which has over a million people, one-fourth of Alabama's population. The state of Alabama should step up and do some renovation.

Site Taxes are HIGH

Be prepared for a significant jump to the cost when taxes are applied. Our campsite fee was a reasonable $22.65/night which included a 15% senior discount. Regular price is $26.65. Taxes and a $4.50 one-time fee were added for a grand total of $85.62 for 3 nights. If you're counting, that's 20+% in taxes.

Things To Do In The Park: boating, fishing, swimming, hiking. You can purchase a detailed hiking map for $1. If you aren't from the area and want to take in some Birmingham history, there are options.

• Red Mountain Park has hiking trails along with old iron ore mines. There's an adventure park with zip lining, climbing, etc.

• The base of Vulcan, Alabama's entry in the 1904 World's Fair, is the best place to see Birmingham. The museum next to the statue was well done; it provides a history of this steel city.

• The park across from the 16th Street Baptist Church (site of the bombing on 9/15/1963 that killed 4 young girls) is a window into the sad part of Birmingham's history. There's also a civil rights museum nearby.

• The craft breweries (Good People and Avondale) were good. And great barbecue at Saw. Pizza was good at Post Office Pies but they need to put more basil on a pizza advertised as a white basil pizza, not 5 little scraps.

Deerlick Creek is a wonderful campground located northeast if Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I believe this is one of the best ACOE parks we've stayed in. An engineering challenge to put such well planned sites in such a diverse terrain... and making it beautiful and functional. We stayed in Site 33 which was a back in with a tiered layout from the parking pad to the balcony. The sites had 50/30/15 amp electrical, good water and pressure, table, fire ring, separate BBQ grill, tables and lamp post.

The bath house was very clean with showers and hot water but only one for the entire campground. However, I never saw a crowd there during our 5 days though so its probably all that's needed.

The camp hosts are awesome! Very friendly and super hard working the entire day. Every site is blown for leaf removal, grill and fire ring debris removed, water and electric verified operational after each use. Site pads are concrete and pretty level or at least site 33 where we stayed was. Our reservation tag was already posted when we arrived at our site so check-in was quick and without issues.

There are sites designated as tents only that are great! Very private with space and vegetation between them. There is also water and electric at each site.

A great paved bike path with deer abundant in the evenings. Boat ramp and beach swimming area.

We loved the park and the only reason for four stars vs five is due to sites 36 though 40. These are some of the most beautiful sites here but also the most difficult to get out of if your trailer is long. This is a dead end loop with a small turn around at site 39 and 40. Most rigs 26' or longer can not make this turn around. While we were there three campers required backing their rigs out of a challenging narrow single lane road with trees along the road way sides. A sign warning campers beforehand would be helpful.

Overall a great campground, we will return to this park again.

Campground Review:

Although I have camped at this park many times this was my first night at one of the backcountry sites and it was a HUGE improvement. I already love this park because of the many trails and wide range of terrain along with the lake where you can swim or boat. Usually the campgrounds however are crowded and close together so you don’t get the privacy that I usually want out of tent camping. This was a totally different experience. The site we stayed at was only a short walk, maybe 15 min from the road but it felt like a totally different world. We had a huge area to set up our tents (we actually ended up sleeping in Tentsiles) and there was a small stream that we could pump water from. We couldn’t hear a single car and it felt very secluded from the rest of the park. Another major advantage to this site is that it is located along one of the trails in the park so you could set up camp and go on a hike straight from there. You aren’t allowed to have campfires at these sites but this wasn’t an issue this time of year since it was already so hot out and additionally it seems that people sometimes don’t follow this rule since there was a firepit that appeared to have been used recently. 

While in the park this visit we also took a hike to Pevine falls which I would highly suggest. There is a 5.5 mile roundtrip hike that starts near the beach area and ends at the falls. On a hot summer day you can take a dip to cool off before you hike back out. You can also rent boats from the marina and get out on the water. We actually got Oru Kayaks recently as a wedding gift and took them out on the water to test them out.

Overall, if you are planning on tent camping at Oak Mountain State Park I highly recommend checking out these sites over the traditional camping area sites. They provide more interesting scenery and are more secluded. It costs $6 a person to stay at the sites but you don’t have to pay the park entrance fee if you are camping. You can’t reserve the sites so you just have to go check in at the camping area the day of and get a site but there are usually several available, even in peak season.

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****Product Review:****

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products. At this campground, I tested the Beyond Clothing Aether Crew base layer shirt and Brokk Capris. Since the weather is so hot in Alabama these days and we were doing some pretty steep hiking I was excited to put these clothing items to the test. Some of the things I really loved about the Beyond Clothing items are:

1. Material: These items are all made of incredible quality materials. The capris are tough but also stretchy and light. The pants material made them super comfortable and the stretchy fabric made it easy to move around and they were able to keep up with my flexible movements. Additionally, the shirt base layer material was incredible in the hot weather. Even though I was wearing a backpack and sweating like crazy it pulled the moisture away from my body and the ridges helped to keep me cool. I can’t fully describe just how comfortable both of these items were.
2. Compartments/Pockets: The pants have several different pockets with a variety of closures and throughout our hikes I used all of them. The side pockets are deep enough to hold keys or a phone but sit close to your body and don’t get in the way. They are also lined with really soft material the I was able to use to clean my phone screen. The pockets on the lower part of the pants were deep and wide giving you storage for larger items you might need to carry. 
3. Style: I am a smaller guy and often struggle to find outdoorsy tough clothes that fit me well and also look good. Beyond really hit the spot and made some durable but also good looking items. I loved how the pants were cut short and allowed my legs to breathe while still being long enough that I didn’t scratch up my knees while moving around our campsite. 

Can't wait to try these clothes out more in a variety of other camping situations.

very nice park, nice bathrooms and tent pad. called about a noisy group and rangers were helpful.

Awesome campspots. Some hookups and some primitive spots. Lots of hiking and bike trails nearby in oak Mtn state park.

The park itself is beautiful, but the campground was trashy in my opinion. We were just traveling through but I wouldn’t want to stay for longer than a night. The campground by the interstate exit was a lot nicer when driving by.

The spot we had was extremely hard to park in and the hookups didn’t make sense how they were posted. Pavilion looked dumpy and not well kept.

PROS 

Senior discount 

Reserved 363 days prior to arriving 

Very friendly check in staff H

Huge park…very nicely landscaped and neatly mowed 

Quiet 

Regularly saw ranger driving through campground 

A30 level site and nearly full shade coverage 

Moveable wooden and metal picnic table 

Metal fire pit with cooking grate 

Campfire wood for sale at park office 

Don’t miss the TREE TOP NATURE TRAIL! 

Good food at The Grille at Oak Mountain State Park inside the Pro Shop at The Oaks Golf Course 

All major shopping and eateries just beyond the park boundaries in Pelham, Hoover and Birmingham 

CONS

$5 reservation fee for making my own on-line reservation 

Street lights throughout campground 

Toilet/shower facility heavily used which badly needs updating 

Campground trash dumpsters are beyond the campground gate…not walkable 

Poor signage upon entering Park. We stopped at the first building on the right, as it was marked RANGER OFFICE with a large, rig-friendly parking area, but it was not a check-in for campers. Then we went through another gate on the main roadway and it wasn’t the campground check-in either. Campground directional signs after we got through that gate. Glad we didn’t arrive in the dark! 

Limited and very tight rig parking at campground gate check-in 

No notice by park on the south entrance roadwork and roundabout construction...horribly tight to maneuver... recommend North entrance/exit until construction is completed…that’s how we departed. 

Never saw a camp host 

No WiFi 

2 bars Verizon

Love this park!

This state park has it all. A place to swim, numerous hiking trails, playgrounds, etc. The newly remodeled campground is spectacular. The pads are super level (at least in A16. Small tent spots sprinkled in. Saw security and police several times just passing through to check on folks. Love that. We will be back many more times for sure.

Having visited 3 times now, twice before the renovations and now once after, I can confidently say I love this park! I have previously primitive camped here and now camper at a full hookup RV site. Tent sites range from "water in vicinity," "water at site," and "water and 20 amp power at site." Rv sites are water and electric or full hook up. I think all RV sites are now 50/30/20 but I'm not certain. There is a dump station near the exit of the campground. Sites are mostly level/slight grade but found that not all drain very well when it rains, including our site a17.

The park has so many different activities including -Hiking -Bmx trails -Swimmimg -Archery range And more I can't even remember.

Flip side watersports operates at 2 locations and paid activities include -wake boarding -Aqua Park And rentals of -Kayaks -stand up paddle boards -paddle boats And -Canoes.

There are things to do year round and the weather was great for mid July.

This is a must visit park. Plan to stay at least 3 days. The campground is very nice. The bathrooms and showers need some maintenance, but overall it's nice. There are many activities for everyone of all ages and abilities. They have a Gulf course, an interactive farm, wildlife area with animals, water activities with rentals, trails for bicycling and hiking and amazing sites to see.

We stayed at the equestrian campground at Oak Mountain. It was very nice and quiet. Once you go through the gate take your first left and keep driving. We only stayed 2 nights and didn't get to see everything they have at the park. We want to go back!

We went to Oak Mountain for a boy scout weekend camping trip. They have a bmx trail, nice places to fish and swim, shower houses, walking trails, you are able to build campfires. Our scouts and parents had so much fun.

This place is beautiful! Well kept, safe, but still way out in the open and with an incredible natural feel. Waters great too

I was very excited to visit Birmingham for my first trip. I didn’t know what to expect out of the city although I have heard several things about it’s long standing history.

One of the most attractive things about this location was that it was close to the Botanical Gardens which I had seen raved about and a lot of top magazines. Southern Living had featured them as one of their southern living gardens and I was very interested in seeing exactly just what that had in store.

Since I am a tent camper finding a location close to a city is sometimes somewhat difficult. However Birmingham location and proximity to this park are very close and that made for the best of both worlds.

While I was at the campground I enjoyed a wonderful tent site that was primitive. They have both primitive and improve sides at the campground and you can pick and choose from either. I enjoy the primitive sites simply because it does save a little bit of money while on one of my budget blog trips this stretches my dollars further and helps me go a little bit farther to the next location. I noticed that the RV sites were plenty long and could accommodate almost any size rig and still have space. There were both pull through and back and sides for both tent campers and RV campers.

The shower house although it was not the most improved our house I have been to was nice and the water pressure was strong. I enjoyed several hiking trails while out at the park during the day and then made my way into Birmingham for the evening.

The community of Birmingham it’s a wonderful place and I truly enjoyed this stop I only hope that I can explore it more on my next trip there. So many things to do while here it was hard to not have a bit more time here.

Beautiful park and very well kept. If you can’t find something to do here you aren’t looking. Mountain Biking, road biking and very well payed out lanes. Tents, cabins, pull thoughts for classA’s. Just a beautiful park!!

So I've only camped here in a Tent & RV. There are nice Bathhouses that include Toilets, Urinals, Sinks, Stand-Up Showers & Lights! There is also WiFi and a small beach. And Cabins that are not in the campground area you can camp Primitive campsites, one's with power & water hookups and others w/power, water & sewage and a fire🔥pits in every campsite.and you can bring your own boat as long as you Only Use an electric motor like a trolling motor. There is fishing and pets are allowed. Also certain nights there will be games including bingo for all campers to participate in & win stuff. Every Sunday morning there is an indoor/outdoor Church gathering.

We took our kids for the first time and it was a great trip! I’ve always lived Oak Mountain so I for sure go back as often as I can. We stayed on 42B which was an AMAZING site. My favorite one so far. There was a lot of traffic just because that was the way to get to the campground beach, but it was still really good. Staff is great, campsite was great, bathrooms... need some updating! But hey, they work! You’re not there for glamor and luxury, you’re there for camping. 🤷🏼‍♀️ we already have our next trip planned and we are so excited!

Relaxing