Gunter Hill COE Campground - Montgomery, Alabama (September 2020)

If you looked at our calendar in January 2020, you would have seen that we planned to go on two WBCCI Caravans that year with Rosie, our Airstream trailer.  (The WBCCI is the Airstream Owners club.) The first was a six week tour through New England and the Atlantic coastal provinces of Canada. The second was five weeks exploring Texas. These were two very popular and hard to get on caravans. We were looking forward to discovering the sights on those caravans. 

Well, that was the plan and if 2020 was a normal year, we would have already visited more than 20 campgrounds in nine states and three Canadian provinces. But nothing was normal during 2020. Between the global COVID-19 pandemic and a series of  “stay home” and “safer at home” mandates from our state and local governments, we parked Rosie, our Airstream trailer, for more than six months and stayed home. 

During that time, we continued talking to our Airstream friends via email and reading news reports about coping with the mandatory COVID restrictions. A growing number of trusted experts were saying that camping in campgrounds with large sites was considered safe as long as social distancing and masks were used. 

After discussing the pros and cons, we decided to venture out to a Corps of Engineers campground because most COE parks feature well-spaced, large sites. We also wanted to camp in a COE campground with full hook-ups and the closest park to our location meeting those requirements was Gunter Hill. 

Sign at Gunter Hill COE Campground

Most campers in this park were “reasonable” about respecting social distancing concerns. The campers flaunting the protocols were easy to spot and avoid.  

Rosie in our site at Gunter Hill COE Campground

It is amazing how quickly you forget the steps involved in packing and hooking up your trailer after parking it for six months. We packed things we learned over the years should be left home. We left some things at home we missed in the campground. It didn’t take long to get back in the groove of camping in Rosie and remember how to better prepare for our next trip. 

Next trip? We are anxious about going out again in Rosie. 

Riding bikes in Gunter Hill COE Campground

Looking out at the waterway feeding into the Alabama River

The weather was perfect for camping. The high temperature was in the low 80s only one day. The highs were in the low to mid 70s the rest of the time. Nightly lows were in the mid 50s to the high 40s. 

The campground was busier during the weekend when young families with children started to arrive. It was nice to hear the happy sounds of children playing in the campground. It was also nice that those youngsters observed social distancing norms when around other campers. 

We noticed three brand-new RVs in the campground. It was obvious that those families were making the normal first-time mistakes that all RVers seem to fall into. There were news reports about record RV sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our simple observations while at this campground seemed to suggest that there was a bumper crop of new RV owners being introduced to camping. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There are two loops in the campground. The Antioch loop is more rustic and has only water and electric hook-ups. The Catoma loop has larger sites, water, electric and sewer connections. We camped in the Catoma loop
• Our site was paved with concrete and was level. Sites in the Antioch loop are grass or gravel and mostly unlevel
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There were two dump stations in this park, one for each loop
• There were two bathhouses in the Catoma loop. The volunteer at the gate suggested we use the bathroom in our trailer since the number of COVID-19 cases in Alabama were increasing during that time span and the park's public restrooms were cleaned once a day Monday through Friday and not cleaned over the weekends
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided marginal 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also received digital channels Antenna, Buzzr, Decades, Escape, Get, Grit, ME, THiS and multiple Spanish-speaking stations
• This was a pet friendly park 

We brought our bikes to this park. We enjoyed our adventure in this quiet and beautiful campground. 

Paved roads in the Catoma Loop

Becky and Suzy in the group pavilion

Selfie at Gunter Hill

Bridge in the Catoma Loop

Walkway next to boat ramp