Lake Guntersville State Park - Alabama (October 2018)

Here we are in Lake Guntersville State Park working from a hastily created Plan B. Why? Hurricane Michael shredded our original plan.

We had reservations to spend two relaxing weeks at Grayton Beach State Park in Florida. Then Hurricane Michael came along 10 days before our trip and devastated Florida’s Gulf Coast. 

We called Grayton Beach State Park a few days after the hurricane and found out it escaped serious storm damage. The news got better because the iconic trees just outside the park survived the weather. 

One ranger said he thought the park would reopen in a few days. That was partially correct in that the park reopened, but not to the public. It served as a staging area for the rangers and volunteers who worked to restore some of the other state parks damaged by Hurricane Michael. The State of Florida cancelled our reservations. It is hard to get too upset since the park was being used to help others.

But we could not help feeling sorry for the victims of this storm and sad that we would not be able to camp there this year. 

Evidently, Hurricane Michael didn't care how beautiful the state parks on Florida's Gulf Coast were. Evidently, Hurricane Michael didn’t care how hard it was to get reservations in Florida state parks. Hurricane Michael inflicted some serious damage to several of our favorite parks and communities along the Gulf Coast and we felt bad for the areas and people who suffered damage from that storm.

So, we were in a scramble to plan a new Rosie adventure. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) Instead of heading to the beach, we decided to point Rosie in a northerly direction.

It is easy to get reservations in the parks no one wants to visit. Of course, there is a reason as to why these parks are mostly empty. The trick is to get into the good parks that everyone wants to camp in. It took way too much effort to come up with a replacement trip, but we ended up with plans that were worthy of a true Rosie adventure.

During that process, we kept saying how much we appreciated the WBCCI (Wally Byam Caravan Club International, the Airstream Owners Association) caravans. They take care of all your reservations plus make sure you see  some very interesting sights along the way. We decided that we need to sign up for more WBCCI Caravans.

Lake Guntersville was a last second addition to our trip. We were approaching three and a half years on Rosie's tires and most Airstream forums say you are living on borrowed time once your tires cross the third year mark. This is because of the weight and stress factors acting against trailer tires. Having survived a blowout in Arkansas, we didn't want to risk another possible tire problem. 

Lake Guntersville State Park

The recommended tire dealer near our home said he could install the new tires on Friday. Our trip was to start on Sunday. The thought of pulling Rosie out of storage on Friday, getting new tires, taking Rosie back to storage and going back two days later to connect again wasn't appealing. Wouldn't it be better to simply leave for our adventure from the tire store? 

There were a couple of parks along our route that we wanted to visit. As expected, they were full. We were able to squeeze in for two nights at Lake Guntersville State Park, a park that wasn’t on our list of “must visits.”

It was raining when we pulled into Lake Guntersville State Park. It appeared that it had been raining for a while because we saw an ample supply of mud around our site.

Entrance to the camping area

Rosie's site

The other factor that greeted us at the park was the cold wind. We were glad we replaced our beach clothes with warmer ones. 

The rain stopped during our first night and we were able to explore the park the next morning. Our impression as we walked around the park was that it was huge, the lake was huge and there was a huge lodge on the hill above the campground. It seemed as if everything was huge in this park.

Shore of the lake

Speaking of the lake, one fisherman said that Guntersville Lake is known as one of the best fishing lakes in America. While we cannot verify his statement, it was easy to see that a large number of the people in this campground loved to fish.

The playground

A fellow camper said that the lodge was a highlight of the park and recommended eating lunch there. That sounded like a plan to us.

View of the lodge from the campground

The Lodge Sign

We were glad we drove up to the lodge. It was worth visiting the park to see it. First, it was big, just as we thought. There were two high school reunions and three weddings taking place in the lodge during our visit.

The Lodge

The Lodge

Inside the lodge

Looking into the dining room

Second, the lunch was reasonably priced and very good. The oversized picture windows in the restaurant overlooked the lake and the campground.

Lunch at the lodge

We noticed that many deer live in this park as we drove around it. The deer seemed to be used to traffic as they continued to graze as cars passed by the areas they were in.

Grazing near the lodge

A deer

Here are some specifics about this park:

• Our site was a back-in
• Our site was gravel and level
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection
• We could not find any WiFi service in this park. We did notice a WiFi antenna system suggesting they had WiFi at one time.
• AT&T provided two bars of 4G service over our site
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS using Rosie's TV antenna
• We were able to see ME-TV, Antenna, Bounce, My-TV, COMET and GRIT digital TV channels. 
• The restrooms in our camping area were clean and warm. As the temperature dipped into the 40s one morning, the heated restrooms and showers were appreciated. 

Our opinion of the park changed during our visit. It turned out to be a great park and one we will visit again.

Rosie in the campground

One side note to our visit: While walking around the campground we started talking to a couple also in an Airstream trailer. We learned through out conversation that he was in a prominent position with one of Alabama's well-known college football programs.

No, I’m not going to identify him or his university as he deserves a little privacy. 

There are two colleges in Alabama with football teams typically in the national Top-25 ratings and both of those teams had "bye" weeks the weekend we were camping at Lake Guntersville State Park. The “bye” weekend was a perfect time for him to slip away for a small break from the season. 

I will say that I earned a degree from one of these “nationally known” football schools and served on the faculty at the other. We enjoyed swapping old "war stories" about that university and its former coaches. This chance meeting made our visit to Lake Guntersville State Park more memorable. 

An overview of the lake