DeSoto State Park - Fort Payne, Alabama (October 2022)

We camped in Alabama's DeSoto State Park multiple times before this trip. Our visits included both tents and later Rosie, our Airstream trailer. It is difficult to say which trip was more memorable to us, but the two that stand out in my mind were during our tent camping days. 

Sign at entrance to the park

The first contender for “most memorable visit” was when our children were small and they loved climbing on the rocks around this campground. We can still see in our mind's eye our children playing in this park. 

The second contender was when our son and his family, including our then three month old granddaughter joined us for the weekend. It would be hard to top that visit.

There were three camping loops in this park. None appeared familiar to us. A park ranger told us that the camping loops were updated a while back to add 50 amp power and sewer connections to all sites. Maybe that was the reason the campground didn’t look the same to us. 

Our site in the park

Another point that escaped our memories was the roads leading to the park. It would be hard to classify them as roads designed for RV traffic. In fact, the road suggested by Apple and Google Maps was frightening. Our RV GPS took us a longer way, but on roads better suited for RV traffic. 

Once checked in, it was easy to find our site. Backing in wasn’t the easiest we had seen because we had to back Rosie uphill and there were ditches on both sides of the road. That meant we had be be spot-on when we parked.

Our site was surprisingly level side-to-side. That didn’t hold for front-to-back. We noticed that many of the campers in our loop appeared to be coming in for a landing on an aircraft carrier as the front was much higher than the rear. We were able to level Rosie front-to-back, but it looked like it was trying to fly when saw her while walking around our loop. 

It didn't look level, but it was

There are several interesting things to see here, but you have to leave the park to see them. At the top of our list is the Little River Canyon National Preserve. According to Google Maps, this was less than five minutes from the campground, It took us longer to get there, but the Canyon should not be missed when camping in DeSoto State Park. 

Selfie in the canyon 

Across the canyon 

The leaves were changing colors

The second is DeSoto Falls. It rained one night while we were camping there and that increased the amount of water going over the falls the next day. 

The lake above the waterfalls 

Selfie at the falls

Falls after it rained

 

   

The temperatures dropped into the mid 40s at night while we camped there. We were glad we brought some cold weather clothes and that Rosie's heaters worked. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground 
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with dirt and gravel.  It took great effort to level Rosie front to back
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were several bathhouses in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service. We measured our speed at 1.5 mbps down and 0.93 mbps up when it worked
• AT&T provided 1bar of 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were unable to pick any TV stations using Rosie’s antenna 
• The campground provided a TV cable connection. Our cable connection didn’t work 
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Another entrance to the park

The CCC sign from the 1930s

Mushroom Rock 

Mushroom Rock is in the middle of the road

We had an observer as we hitched up to leave this park