Technically, our recent stay at Wind Creek State Park was our second visit to the park in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. We had to remind ourselves of that fact because the first visit is mostly a blur in our minds. This is where we camped the first night after purchasing Rosie. We were too overwhelmed with trying to learn how to do things inside our trailer while on that maiden voyage and unable to enjoy Rosie or the park.
Things were different this time. We are now comfortable camping with Rosie and we discovered that Wind Creek is a great park with lots of things to do.
First, there are more than 600 campsites at this park. While not all of these are on the water, many are. Our campsite was probably 20 feet from the edge of the lake.
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| Rosie at our campsite at Wind Creek State Park |
This made it easy to go for a quick swim behind Rosie. Of course, we had to occasionally share the lake with some other residents and their families.
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| Sharing the lake with another "family." |
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| More young "families" on the lake. |
Another feature we enjoyed at the park was the many places we were able to ride our bicycles. We were able to follow the meandering roads going around the many "fingers" of this lake. There are some moderate hills at the park, so you will have a workout as you ride your bike around Wind Creek State Park.
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| Lots of places to ride your bicycles at this park |
When not riding our bikes, we enjoyed being at our campsite. It was very easy to relax while at our "lake house."
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| Rosie at Wind Creek State Park in Alabama |
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| Camping at Alabama's Wind Creek State Park |
While riding our bikes around the lake, Becky said she remembered camping here when our sons were small children. She also remembered that we climbed some form of a "tower" at the park with our boys. That started our search for the tower.
The "tower" turned out to be a silo and once we found it, the memories of our tent camping trip from more than 25 years ago came flooding back. The view from the top of this silo was great.
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| The silo overlooking Wind Creek's lake |
Another memory from our first camping trip was the main playground in the campground area. We remembered our sons playing on a "jungle gym" that, with a little imagination, could appear to be similar to a car. We couldn't resist and had to recreate a few "legendary" scenes on the play equipment.
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| Steve trying a "shortcut" |
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| Becky shifting to ludicrous speed |
While at the park, Steve had to do a few last-minute things for his work. The picture below shows him writing a press release about the new graduate program for Troy's Hall School of Journalism and Communication.
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| Steve working while inside Rosie |
Some points about the park:
- Most sites have 30 amp electrical service. I don't know if any sites offer 50 amp service.
- Bath houses and restrooms were clean and modern.
- This is a pet friendly campground.
- Expect to pay around $26 per night for your campsite. (Weekend rates are higher.)
- All sites have water and electric service. Some have sewage connection. Fewer on the water have sewage connections.
- TV service is minimal. We could watch Alabama Public Television and occasionally the local Fox affiliate would pop in for a few minutes. I guess it is good that you don't go camping to watch TV.
- There is WiFi service in the park. The speed of the service degrades as the number of people in the park increases.
- There is a camp store in the park, which closes around 5 p.m.
- There is an ice cream/pizza/hot dog stand in the park.
- There are a couple of dump stations in the park. You may need to plan your park exit time if you intend to drop by one of the dump stations.
- There appears to be only one trash dumpster in the park.
There were two memorable events that happened while camping at Wind Creek this time. First, we decided to conduct an experiment with Paco, our Hahn's Macaw parrot. We thought we would see if Paco was a good camper. We discovered that Paco isn't into camping and we ended up taking him home after one day at the park.
The second memorable event was that this was the first time we heard the severe weather sirens switch on while in a park. We gathered at the bath house along with a couple dozen other concerned campers until the storm passed over us.
The bottom line is that we had great time at Wind Creek State Park in Alabama and we plan to return to this park again.
