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Alabama Camping at Cheaha

Alabama offers great camping opportunities. We often use our camper to travel to far away places and consequently, our home state’s campgrounds have not been extensively visited. However, Southeastern T@Bs, T@Gs and Friends, a camping group for owners of smaller campers like ours, held a meetup at Cheaha State Park. So, we were happy to have the opportunity to camp with them so close to home.

The State has made a good many recent improvements to Cheaha State Park. The campground is really quite nice now because two loops offer full hookups. We had Site #5 and it was a wonderful, shady site. The shade was needed because temps were in the high 80s. The sites included nice picnic tables and a fire ring.

Alabama Camping at Cheaha State Park — Site #5 at Cheaha State Park

Alabama Camping with a Camping Group

We had a fabulous time camping with Southeastern T@Bs, T@Gs and Friends, which is a Facebook camping group. Everyone was friendly and fun to be around. It is a very laid back event, which we like. There was a potluck that everyone attended and several hikes with varying group members. I really love that there are so many opportunities to camp with this group because there are about five or six meetups per year.

View Above Bald Rock — View above Bald Rock and SE Camping Group

Hiking at Cheaha

I really enjoyed hiking with our friends with the SE camping group. My husband is not a big fan of hiking so I don’t often have others with whom to hike. It was a real treat for me. I participated on three small hikes and my husband was on two of them.

CCC Observation Tower, Highest Point In Alabama

Cheaha CCC Observation Tower and Alabama camping — Cheaha Observation Tower

Cheaha State Park was built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Observation Tower at its highest point (2,407) was dedicated to the park on April 4th. The hike from the upper improved campground to this spot was pretty easy except for a small area with big rocks over which you had to climb. Also, the last bit of the hike had a pretty good incline.

I climbed to the top of the tower and the view was not outstanding, but the tower and surrounding area was pretty nice.

Pulpit Rock

My husband passed on this hike and I was very glad he did. It was very steep in places and since he has had a knee replacement. The hike is only .3 mile, but the terrain makes it a workout. There is a big payoff in the end though, that makes all the effort so worth it. Pulpit Rock was my favorite view at Cheaha.

Bald Rock

Bald Rock was the easiest hike that I did at Cheaha because the incline was not steep. There are two options: a trail or a boardwalk. I did the boardwalk with my husband and it was a very easy .3 mile hike.

Bald Rock Overlook Alabama Camping — Bald Rock Overlook

Cheaha also has several other trails that were taken by members of our camping group.

Other Alabama Camping Activities

When my husband and I are camping by ourselves, we spend a lot of time visiting surrounding areas. Because we had our camping group friends to hang out with, we stayed at the campground the entire time. We had lots of campsite chats, shared drinks and snacks, plus the big potluck. Lastly, we had a very rousing game of Mexican Train Dominos with a few friends.

There are quite a few activities that would be fun in the surrounding area of Anniston. Cheaha is a beautiful park and with the surrounding area attractions, it is a very desirable place to camp.

Previous Alabama Campgrounds Visited

Alabama is a beautiful state with great areas in which to camp. The following are other Alabama campgrounds we have visited with links to the posts:

Deerlick Creek Park, Tuscaloosa

Desoto State Park, Fort Payne

Gulf State Park

Happy Camping Y’all

Teardrop Left at Campground

We have family in Tampa and this trip was more about visiting them than camping. So, we decided to spend a couple of nights at their home. Therefore, we left Endeavor, our teardrop, all alone at Hillsborough River.

Link to park.

We set up our rug, awning, and chairs so it would look like we would return at any time. Teardrops are so light, it is easy for them to be stolen and we worried a little about being gone so long.

Our time with family was great and we did a lot of cool things in Tampa. I will cover those activities in a separate post.

On the afternoon before we left to return to the park, I received a disturbing message via Facebook Messenger. It went something like: “Ma’am, this is the Ranger in Charge at Hillsborough River. I need you to call me ASAP.” This freaked me out! My first though was that something had happened to our camper.

I called immediately and spoke with the ranger. He was concerned about us and said that several people had noticed that we had not been around. He wanted to be sure that we were okay. I thought it as really great that he went to the trouble of tracking us down to confirm that all was well.

Camping at Hillsborough River

We had two nights and one full day with Hillsborough River as home base. The river and a canoe launch was just across from our site, #32.

Hillsborough River empty campsite — River is beyond the trees

View of Hillsborough River from State Park — Hillsborough River

We sometimes camp with friends and play games at night. The above shelter would be nice for this as it is screened and would enable us to be protected from bugs. Bugs were not bad at all during our time at the park, but we were not outside with lights on for a long period.

We did not use some of the nice amenities. There is a very large pool, a cafe, and rentals for canoes and bikes. Also, there is a playground and several hiking trails.

One thing about Florida State Parks that I really like is that they have dishwashing stations with hot water. With our limited cooking, I loaded up our dirty dishes in a plastic bucket and carried them to the station for washing. With no sewer available, this was a lot easier than it is in parks without this option.

Our New Accessory

We were given a large, heavy-duty cot by our son’s girlfriend and we tried it out one beautiful morning. It was glorious laying on the very comfortable cot looking up at the gorgeous blue sky and amazing trees! The cot actually holds both of us.

Man laying on cot in Campground — Our new equipment—thanks Laura!

Spanish moss in trees — View from the cot

Road inside Hillsborough River State Park — Path to our site

In conclusion, we had a very relaxing stay at the campground and hope to visit it again. It is the most beautiful park I have visited in my limited camping experience. We are big fans of Florida State Parks. One tip, the bathhouse near site #77 is much newer and nicer than the one nearest site #32. However, we loved our site and think it would be a good one for bigger rigs as well.

Lastly, if you would like to follow our adventures, below is a link to our main page.

Retirement and teardrop camping!

HAPPY CAMPING!

Tag: Hiking

Alabama Camping with a SE Camping Group