Meaher State Park - Mobile, Alabama (May 2026)

 It seems like every time we camp in this Alabama State Park, we see some improvements designed to make the campground better. We noticed this time that their staff had been busy planting trees in the new camping loop. 

Our site was in the original loop along Mobile Bay. We always find it entertaining to watch the traffic backup on I-10 leading to the tunnel under the Bay. 

Rosie's site in Meaher State Park

We were surprised at the number of empty sites when we arrived. A park ranger assured us that the campground would be packed over the weekend. 

One of the boardwalks in Meaher State Park

The primary reason we picked this park was that it was close to our son's home. This gave us an opportunity to visit his family and watch our grandson play baseball. 

Visiting our son at his house

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had some shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpster was in the middle of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Comet, Charge!, ION, Grit, ME-TV, Rewind, Roar and Story
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Rosie in Meaher State Park

Rosie's site with a view of I-10 over Mobile Bay

You can rent a canoe, but we saw too many 
alligators to fall for that!

Meaher State Park - Mobile, Alabama (October 2025)

We were surprised when we arrived at Meaher State Park. Three years ago, we noticed the gate was too close to the road. That meant your trailer was still on the road while opening the park's gate.

This time the gate was moved farther inside the park. The result was that even "big rigs" could safely enter. 

That wasn't the only thing that was different this time. The number of campsites appeared to have doubled since we were there last time. 

Rosie among friends at Meaher State Park

The new camping loop looked like a parking lot. Any trees in that area were cut down to make the campsites. On the positive side, the paved sites in the new section were generously wide. Also, the bathhouse in the new area was very nice. 

New section of the campground

One of the disadvantages of the new section was road noise. Perhaps the noise will be less when the trees grow back. The park has plans to plant 150 trees in that area.

Meaher's is a relatively small state park and does not appear to be a destination type park unless your goal is to spend the day fishing. We noticed there were a handful of people constantly fishing from the pier or boardwalk areas. 

Fishing pier at sunset

The primary reason we wanted to camp in Meaher State Park was to watch our grandson play baseball on his “kid-pitch travel ball" team. Needless to say, we were very proud watching him bat, pitch and pick-off a base runner on second base trying to steal third.

Our grandson about to hit a double 

 

Our daily visitor on the boardwalk trail 

Look carefully and see the horned owl in this tree 

We saw several alligators in the water while on our walks. They ranged in size from three feet to probably eight feet or larger.

We saw several rabbits while on our walks. They seemed to be used to people because they did not run away as we continued our walks and came very close to them. 

We were surprised to see a horned owl in a tree. Of course, we saw the normal birds found along the water.

We may have set a record for the number of Airstream trailers in the park during our visit.  We saw seven Airstreams including an Atlas and two Interstates. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had some shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpster was in the middle of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Comet, Charge!, ION, Grit, ME-TV, Rewind, Roar and Story
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Rosie at Meaher State Park

Selfie with our son and his family

Rosie at sunset

Eating out at a Cajun restaurant

Sign at the start of the fishing pier. 

Anchors Aweigh RV Resort - Foley, Alabama (May 2024)

When we heard that the Alabama Airstream Club's Spring Rally was being held at the Anchors Aweigh RV Resort in Foley, Alabama, we checked our calendar and noticed that we did not have anything planned for that weekend so we penciled it in. We had attended Alabama Airstream Rally twice before but we had schedule conflicts in recent years. It would be nice to see our friends in this event. 

Another factor in attending this rally was that the campground was less than an hour from Mobile and our grandson was scheduled to play a baseball game there on Saturday. We could slip away from the rally and watch him play ball then spend the afternoon with our son and his family. 

When we checked the Rally's schedule, Saturday was a free day, allowing us to spend the day in Mobile. That was all the "convincing" we needed, so we made our reservations to attend this rally. 

Airstream trailers heading to this rally taking a break in a Rest Stop on the Interstate

There were more than 55 people and 27 Airstream trailers at the rally. That was a larger group than I remembered at previous rallies. The main event at the rally was attending the Foley Hot Air Balloon Festival. We joined the crowd and saw what they called a “glow” one evening. It was impressive to see the inflated and colorful balloons across the field. 

Selfie at the Balloon Festival 

The "Evening Glow" at the Balloon Festival

The balloon festival spanned across several days. In fact, we were concerned about the traffic around the balloons when we left on Saturday morning to travel an hour to watch our grandson play baseball. The balloons were scheduled to lift off and float away about the same time we needed to leave for Mobile. Our worries were relieved when we left Rosie that morning. Traffic around the Balloon Festival would be minimal because there was a thick fog. The balloons could not fly in fog. 

We discovered that the new technologies available in our truck were very helpful while driving in inclement weather. The adaptive cruise control system was able to spot cars ahead of us before we saw them and adjusted our speed to stay behind them. 

After about half an hour on the road, the fog lifted and we were able to arrive in time to watch our grandson’s 9 a.m. game. We were amazed at how much he had improved since last year. 

Grandson playing the "pitcher" position

Grandson at bat

Celebrating winning the game

We made it back to Rosie in time for the Rally’s Low Country Boil. It was very good. 

The rally ended Sunday morning and we watched as most Alabama Airstream Club members hitched up and left. We planned to stay an extra day because our next campground did not allow checkins on Sundays. 

Rosie in the campground

We spent our “bonus” Sunday looking for a public beach to walk on. We ended up at Gulf State Park and enjoyed our time at the beach. We were amazed at how good we felt being at Alabama’s Gulf State Park. 

We were surprised to see that about 10 Airstream trailers were still in the campground when we returned after spending some time on the beach. I guess we were not the only people who decided to spend an extra day in this park. 

The weather deserved a special mention. While it wasn’t too hot, the humidity was oppressively high. Rosie and our truck were covered with condensation. It was hard to breathe. We saw the results of the humidity when we opened the awnings in the mornings. They were very wet and it took a long time to dry out. 

One of the lessons quickly learned in the campground was that traffic in Foley and the campground were impossible to deal with. Logically, you would turn right exiting the park and travel about half a mile to Foley's main road. We did that once and ended up waiting a painfully long time to safely cross the highway. Turning left adds a few miles to your trip, but you ended up at a traffic light. That was a much better option, especially when exiting with Rosie. 

Another lesson learned at this campground was to frequently inspect the anchor points on Rosie's bike rack. An Alabama Airstream Club  member asked if he could look at our bike rack because he was thinking about adding one to his Airstream trailer. He quickly noticed that one of the anchor points had vibrated loose. I was able to add "Locktite" to the screws, reconnect and tighten that anchor point. I also added checking the bike rack to our safety check list that we use before departing any campground. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with concrete and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpsters were at the exit to the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Comet, Court-TV, Cozi, CW, Dabl, Grit, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, Outlaw, Rewind, Start and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

I doubt that was the "real" tow vehicle!

Visiting our son's family from this campground

Gulf State Park - Gulf Shores, Alabama (September 2023)

We waited until checkout time before we left our wonderful site in a military FamCamp and headed west for our next Rosie adventure. (Rosie is the name of our Airstream trailer.) Gulf State Park was less than an hour away, so we didn’t have to rush to get there. 

We have a running joke about Gulf State Park's campground. It seems that every time we have reservations there, the rate increases between making our reservations, paying our deposit and arriving at the park. As we expected, we were informed that we owed more than the figure quoted on our reservations while checking in. This may be unique to Gulf State Park because I cannot think of another campground that regularly changes its rates between making reservations and check-in. 

Sign at the Gulf State Park

On the way to the campground

With more than 500 campsites in this park, we have never had trouble getting reservations until now. The reservation system claimed that the campground was full and we got one of the few remaining spots. We were confused by the vacant spots until the weekend, when the park really was full. 

Why is this Alabama State Park usually full? It has beach access along Alabama's Gulf Coast, full hook-up connections and more than 25 miles of bike trails through the bayous. We never go to the park's swimming pools or the tennis courts because we enjoy trails and the beach, but these are popular and well used by other campers in this park.

The beach at Gulf State Park

We were amazed at how quickly electric bicycles became the predominant vehicle used for recreation in this park. Sure, there were some e-bikes around the last time we were there, but it seemed as if everyone had them this time. We found ourselves having to avoid e-bikes while walking or on our pedal-powered bikes. 

One of our campsite neighbors told us that “Lefty” had three babies and was visible in the mornings. If you have camped in this park before, you probably know that "Lefty" is an alligator and tends to hang out in a specific location along one of the trails in Gulf State Park. We found Lefty and two of her babies the next morning. Our campsite neighbors said they saw all three of Lefty's babies later that day.

The famous park alligator, Lefty

Two of Lefty's three babies

I could not help but think about when we camped in Gulf State Park ten years earlier. It was very hot then and our first Rosie's single air conditioner could not keep the trailer cool. We made multiple visits to a store to buy window reflectors in an attempt to cool Rosie down.

Rosie in our campsite at sunset

Another photo of Rosie at sunset

It was hot a day or two on this trip, but our current Rosie has two AC units. Sure, we have reflective shields for all of the windows, but we didn't need them. We simply switched on both AC units and Rosie was quickly comfortable. 

We were able to make two side trips while camped at Gulf State Park. Our son and his family was about an hour away. We spent a weekend morning with them.

Our grandson practicing for his big game

We also went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. This is a small zoo, but the animals were out and we enjoyed our visit there.

The lions were enjoying the day at the zoo

The sloths are always interesting and entertaining

During past visits to this park, we would see maybe one or two Airstream trailers in the campground. There had to be a dozen or more Airstream trailers in the park this time. These ranged from 50 year-old vintage Airstreams to brand new ones. We always enjoy talking with other Airstreamers, sharing tips with them and learning from their experiences.

One Airstream couple caught our attention. They stored their trailer in a commercial storage facility. We do too. They said about a year ago, a gang of thieves crashed through the gate at their storage facility and stole every RV parked there but their's. Why? Their trailer had a very strong and difficult hitch lock on it plus it had a wheel boot. The storage facility's video surveillance captured the thefts in progress. The thieves were able to quickly hook up the RVs and drive off until they came across the Airstream trailer with the hitch lock and wheel boot. They could see via the surveillance video that the thieves tugged on both devices then quickly moved on to the next trailer.

We were using the same hitch lock on Rosie, but we didn't have a wheel boot. I asked our neighbors if they researched what boot to buy or did they simply select one off the shelf. As you would expect, they researched both the hitch lock and the wheel boot. Needless to say, we immediately ordered a wheel boot for Rosie. 

A couple of days before heading home, we called the property manager of where we store Rosie. He told us that the renovations to the property were on-going and that the electricity was still off to the property except for the office area. When asked about the power-driven gate and the security cameras, he said that the gate will not lock again until all renovations are complete and the power was turned back on. We could simply open the gate by hand. 

When asked about the security cameras, he said that some security cameras were operating. My interpretation was that the cameras attached to the office worked while the others around that compound were dark. 

That made our decision easy as to where we would store Rosie before our next adventure. We took Rosie to the RV Storage lot on the military base near our home and parked her there. When we pulled up to the gate and the armed and professional Military Police officer checked our IDs before allowing us to pass, we knew that Rosie would be safe there. 

We plan to go back to what we call Fort Rosie after the renovations are completed because there are advantages to storing Rosie inside a warehouse. But for now, the added security of storing Rosie on a military base overrides other options.

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site did not have shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and was level
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection. We needed 30 feet of sewer hose to reach the connection 
• There was a dump station in this park
• The one and only trash dumpster for all 500 campsites in this park was near the front of the campground. Granted, it was a "super-duper" dumpster with a trash-masher to make more room in it. Still, it filled up fast and we ended up having to drive to it every day
• No, really! There was only one trash dumpster in this campground and people camped in one of the park's 500+ sites have to take their trash to it. Yes, we frequently saw lines of trucks waiting to approach the dumpster
• There were multiple bathhouses in the campground 
• The park provided amazing WiFi service. We measured our WiFi download speed at 46 Mbps
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Circle, Comet, Court-TV, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, Retro and Stadium
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

The famous water tower 

A somewhat unique sign near our campsite

Selfie at the Butterfly house

They must be expecting some very large visitors at this campground

Evidence that they have ice cream in Gulf Shores, Alabama

Meaher State Park - Mobile, Alabama (November 2022)

We mentioned to several people that we planned to camp in Meaher State Park near Mobile, Alabama. The response was always similar to, “That’s a nice little park.” What stood out to us was that people who knew the park consistently included the word “little” when describing it. 

How little was “little” when we arrived? Meaher may be the smallest state park we have camped in up to now, but it was surprisingly nice. It was more of a campground than a state park, but had some great trails through the bayou and marsh. 

The sign was near the boat launch, not at the park's entrance 

We selected this park because it was close to our son's home. We were able to visit him, his wife and our grandson during Thanksgiving week. 

Grandson practicing baseball in his backyard

Sunset' reflection on Rosie

It appeared to us that several families were camping together in the park during Thanksgiving week. Our questions about how to cook a turkey in a camper was answered when we saw one person lowering a turkey into a fryer. Fried turkey sounded good to me. 

We were surprised by the number of RVs that left the park on Thanksgiving morning. I guess those people didn’t want to risk being stuck in traffic while heading to their next stop. Sites didn’t stay empty long. By evening, empty sites were filled with new campers and families. 

There were only a few sites in this park that didn’t have a view of the Bay. Our site wasn’t on the water, but we enjoyed watching the incredible sunsets across the Bay and watching the traffic on the I-10 bridges near the Alabama Battleship park. 

I-10 in the background

We walked over to the boat launch our first day in the park. Two men were launching their boat and told us they were scouting the area because duck hunting season started Friday after Thanksgiving. We started hearing the hunters around 6:15 Friday morning. We were glad we knew about duck season, but I doubt our dog understood and was anxious about the sounds from the rifles. 

The boat launch area in this park

As expected, hunting was not allowed in the park, but some hunters and fishermen were in the water near it. Thankfully, most hunters stopped by noon but not before an incident. We were walking on a boardwalk over the marsh area when we heard a hunter take a shot. A few seconds later, we heard bird pellets rain down around us and then Becky said "Ouch" as she clutched her chest. She was hit by a stray bird pellet, but it did not break the skin and only left a red mark on her. 

We immediately called the park's office and reported the incident. Almost immediately, we saw two park rangers running towards us. A few minutes later, the Game Warden arrived and talked with us before he walked out on the boardwalk to watch the hunters. About an hour later, we talked to an Alabama State Park Law Enforcement officer. We were not aware that state parks had their own police force. That officer was in a state park about 50 miles away when he was called in.

The bottom line was that everyone from the park rangers and game warden to the state park law officer was professional in their dealings with us and all agreed that the hunter outside the park was careless and additional officers would patrol the area keeping an eye on the hunters. One careless person will not keep us from returning to this park.

We were having a minor problem with our trailer hitch. The ball was loose. I called several RV centers near this park and most didn't want to see us or they quoted hundreds of dollars to tighten the ball. I ended up calling Foley RV, the dealer we purchased Rosie from in Gulfport, Mississippi. John, the service manager said to drop by and he would take care of us at no charge. That reinforced again that we made a good decision to buy from them. 

Foley RV in Gulfport, Miss. 

Our son and grandson came to the park one day. According to Becky's Apple Watch, she and our six year-old grandson rode more than five miles around the park on their bikes.

On a bike ride with our grandson

Taking a break while on a bike ride

We agree that this is a nice little park and we look forward to returning there in the future. 

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 asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The camp literature said there was a dump station in this park. We could not find it
• The trash dumpster was in the middle of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Circle, Comet, Court-TV, Dabl, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, Retro, Stadium and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park