Lake Guntersville Camping Trip

Wednesday morning we hitched up the camper and pulled it down to Lake Guntersville State Park in northeast Alabama.  This part of the country is so beautiful, even though the late winter has delayed the trees from leafing out.  It took us a long time to get here because the wind was blowing at seemingly hurricane force and tried several times to snatch the camper right off our bumper.  We finally arrived at about 4 p.m. and started setting up camp.

We were not particularly thrilled with the campground area.  A tornado tore through here a couple of years ago and uprooted or damaged many of the trees in the campground.  They've re-planted trees, but they are just getting established.  Consequently, most of the campground has no shade.  The campsites are pretty close together.  About 40 or 50 campsites have full hookups (water, electricity, and sewer), and wi-fi is available.

Because we arrived in the middle of the week, we pretty  much had our choice of camp sites.  We picked one very close to the edge of the lake, where we could sit under our awning and enjoy the view.  Ducks, geese, herons, cranes, and coots came and went.  Boats zoomed by.  Folks fished from the shore and the docks.  It was pretty good viewing.

Once upon a time, my father's ancestors lived in this part of the country.  We made a quickie trip down here last October so that I could do some genealogy research, but I didn't get far.  Part of the plan for this trip was to go back to courthouses and archives to do more digging.  We got up Thursday morning, cooked and ate breakfast, then hit the road to St. Clair County, 50 miles or so down the road.  On the way we made several detours, one to an area in Etowah County where I believe some ancestors lived, and one to the John Looney House, a pioneer house in St. Clair County that was built around 1820.  When we arrived at the Looney House, the gate was locked and posted with a "No Trespassing" sign.  We waited around a little while, thinking perhaps the attendant(s) had gone to lunch, but nobody came, so we drove on down to Ashville.  We ate some good barbeque sandwiches at The Lunch Box, a tiny restaurant a block from the courthouse, before heading to the archive building.  That day's research went well, but I'd love to spend more time there.

The Looney House, built around 1820, the oldest structure in St. Clair County, now open only on special occasions or by appointment.  Note the double-decker "dog trot."

By the time we got back to our campsite, the campground had grown more crowded.  We had neighbors, fore and aft...neighbors with multiple children...and dogs.  The noise level had gone up a tad.

Yesterday, we needed to run a few errands.  It took half the day.  We came back, ate some lunch, sat around a while, and then drove up to another park about 15 miles from here called "Buck's Pocket."

The campground at Buck's Pocket is AWESOME.  It is situated along a rushing stream.  The camp sites are shady.  Some of them have full hook-ups.  All of them are beautiful.  The thing is that the roads in/out of the campground are narrow, steep, and curvy.  There were two fairly large campers set up in the campground, but they appear to be "permanent" guests.  It may be that they got in there and couldn't get out!  It surely was beautiful, peaceful, and quiet there.  If we come this way again, we may try to stay there, after we talk to the park ranger about the best way to get in/out!

The stream beside the campground at Buck's Pocket.

Lake Guntersville park has a big lodge/hotel overlooking the lake, and on Friday nights the restaurant in the lodge puts on an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.  Neither of us was in the mood to cook last night, so we drove up the hill to the lodge.  The food was okay.  Just okay.  Fried catfish, baked perch, fried shrimp, fried clam strips, boiled shrimp, crab legs, and some steamed vegetables.  $19.95 per person.  We thought it was a little pricey for no more than we ate.

I don't know what's on the agenda for today.  We go home tomorrow.

I'll let you know if anything cool happens between now and then.  ;)