Oak Mountain State Park

We camped here in September, 2016 in a 35 foot fifth wheel. Located just south of Birmingham, this is the largest state park in Alabama.

Check in was quick and easy and the camp hosts are very friendly and helpful. Our site was a full hookup, back in site with a nice long asphalt pad, fire ring, gravel area for the picnic table, and a gravel pad for parking our truck. We had a nice view of the woods behind the RV. There was plenty of room between our site and the next one. The bath house was clean and well maintained.There are many beautiful tent sites scattered around in the woods.

Some of the amenities in the state park include a lake, golf course, archery range, equestrian camping and horse stables, nature and hiking trails, beach, mountain bike trails, and scenic drives. Lots of shopping is available in nearby Pelham and Birmingham.

If you are looking for a place near Birmingham to spend a few days, I would highly recommend Oak Mountain State Park.

I really wanted to give this a 3 star rating, but the state park itself deserves a 5 star rating, so I picked the average. We had arguably the best site in the campground and it was in fact a nice site. A30 is on a nice little cul-de-sac with a few other nice sites. Ours overlooked a bunch of woods with a mini-mountain behind it that the kids summited a few times. But beware, while A-loop isn't too bad, B-loop has a totally different feel that felt dumpy and redneck. A-loop tends to be in the woods while B-loop was generally a big open field with a few pull-thrus. There seemed to be some old run-down squatters in this area (really old campers that looked to be falling apart) so I don't know if they were there for the winter or what, but it was unappealing.

The bathrooms/shower houses here needed serious updating. They were old with peeling paint and cheap stall doors. The toilet in the restroom by us seemed to be 6" too tall. I'm a tall guy, almost 6'2" and my toes were barely touching the ground! The playgrounds that were interspersed around the state park (with the exception of one) were at least 30 years old and unsafe (the springy seesaw thing was coming off the ground and almost falling over when the kids were on it!).

The sites were (from what I could tell) either full hookup or hike in tent site. Most RV sites were asphalt paved. Ours was level, but not all were. Many of the sites were arranged in an unusual way, sometimes situating next door neighboring RVs feet from each other at weird angles. The power is 30amp throughout I believe. The state park assigns sites so if you have a preference you should call and request a good site in A-loop.

OK, while the campground didn't impress me much, the state park is amazing! This place is HUGE! It's about 7-8 miles from one end to the other. They have so much to do that you could really spend a whole week here and do something different every day, which you can't say about most state parks. They have over 50 miles of mountain bike/hiking trails. They have an amazingly beautiful drive up to Peavine Falls that you must do. They have archery, 18-hole golf course, equestrian offerings (including a separate campground for your horsey adventures), a bird rescue exhibit, a treehouse elevated walkway, boat rentals, fishing, zip line water ski park, a petting zoo and a barn exhibit. You really can do so much here. It's about 30 minutes from downtown Birmingham and the campground is about 15 minutes off of the interstate.

One other thing I noticed, not just in this park, but everywhere we went in the area, is how trashy everything is. Everywhere we drove or hiked I was amazed at the trash along the trails and the roads. We tried picking up some but seriously, I have never hiked anywhere where there was this much trash (bottles, food containers, wrappers, etc.) on the ground.

The campground isn't going to win any awards and it needs some serious updating, but it is nice to have full hookups for a good price and to be in the woods (at least some of the sites) close to hiking. I'd stay here again, but I would ask for a few particular sites.

This is a good park to stay when visiting Birmingham. It may be the closest. We checked in on a Tuesday, and there were only a few people here. The park filled up as the weekend approached.

The park offers access to a wide variety of outdoor activities. We liked the hiking, bicycling, and kayaking on nearby lakes. The park is about 45 minutes away from downtown Birmingham.

We were on the B Loop, and the bathhouse next to the activity building was rumored to be the roughest in the park. I would tend to agree but at the same time it is quite serviceable.

The parks staff and the hosts were friendly and helpful.

This state park campground is pretty large. They only took cash for the site fee. Fortunately I had enough, as we'd been traveling for a number of days before checking in here. The park is a fair number of miles off the I-65 corridor, just south of Birmingham and the I-459 corridor, and the actual campground is located approximately 5 miles into the park beyond the front gate where we checked in for the night (since we arrived later in the evening), but is convenient none-the-less. The campsite I selected was nice in terms of grade and shade. The restroom facilities were nothing to write home about, but were serviceable. The sewage dump left me a little concerned, as I could see raw sewage just a few inches down into the standpipe. I watched the neighbors have an issue trying to dump theirs. I tested the flow capacity with a bucket of water, and it seemed the level didn't change, so I dumped without incident. Altogether, I would stay here again as a good pass-through site traveling by way of Birmingham..

Our site was in Loop A and on the map our site looked like a crescent shaped pull-thru. It was really just the left side of the road. Our RV door opened into the road. We don't have slides but a passenger side slide would also have been right by (in) the road. Utilities were beside the road for hook-ups. Then you walk down a hill to the picnic table and fire ring. The site down the hill was wooded and spacious.

Tent sites across the street from us really didn't have any real parking.

Bath houses were run down. It took super strength to turn on the shower. I think peeling paint has resulted from latex paint being painted over old oil in a high humidity area.

There is a swim beach and fishing dock within walking distance from the campground.

There is no late check in for camping.

This is a fancy state park with golf course, new archery, BMX track, fancy horse boarding and stables. Last but not least it has a dumpy campground.

We'd stay again if in the area, but only to do things outside the campground.

Stayed at Oak Mountain Equestrian Center Campground, which is just inside the gate and has a separate registration site. 12 our so pull throughs side by side on a gently sloping field. Gravel lots, full hook ups (50 amp). New rest rooms/showers. The sites are angled so you can manage to get a view even you have a neighbor. Monday-Thursday the sites are mostly empty, and horse enthusiasts camp and ride during the weekend. We stayed here for a month while I worked in Birmingham, and would certainly go back. Quiet, clean and convenient. Oak Mountain is a real destination.

Pros: new bath house, view of the woods and pastured horses, nice people (campers and gate attendants) safe (park patrol came through regularly) Hiking, biking, golf, a restaurant just down the road, fishing in several lakes. Proximity to a decent sized city. Just off I-20, but still quiet and beautiful. I had a couple of maintenance issues, park took care of it in less than an hour.

Cons: Could be better maintained. Bath houses are new but could be cleaned better (spiders in every corner). Gravel lots need to be grated and re leveled. No shade except for the site closest to the bath rooms.

Full timers and stayed here for a week.
We loved the trails and we just happened to be here when they hosted their annual Fall Fest. Park located in a good area of town with lots of amenities nearby.
Campground was kept clean.
Sites were a little awkward but not a deterrent.
Only one shower stall in bath house
We will be staying here again

This park is HUGE! Almost 10,000 acres with something for everyone: camping, golf, hiking, biking, archery, water sports, and probably more. The campground was very nice and well maintained, with full 30A hook-ups and we were able to get some satellite reception. There seems to be campground WiFi but it wasn't very fast so we didn't use it. Cell coverage was fair on Verizon. They also sell propane which is nice for a state park to do.

If you're in good physical shape, you MUST do an early morning hike to King's Chair on the Blue trail, in time to catch the sunrise. Incredible views from the top of the mountain. It's 2.1 miles from the North Trailhead.

Oak Mountain is a gorgeous State Park. Huge. Lots of hiking trails. 2 lakes. The campground is also huge and was pretty crowded the weekend we were there. Some other time I could see it being very peaceful. We just lucked out being next to several families tent camping together with a ton of kids. This also seems to be a tent campers paradise. Tons of great spots tucked back in the woods. But since we camp in a trailer we had a spot with no privacy. Site was easy back-in and level. Did not use the showers or bathrooms. Hike around the lake out to the dam was spectacular.

Great place this time of year. We were here middle of the week, January 2019. High in the low 50’s.Very quiet. Didn’t have reservations. Called about 2 hours out. Our site had 30 amp and water hook up. Level site – B24. Only here one full day. We chose to drive up to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center on the property. Very nice facility. They had hawks, owls and an eagle. Wish we had another day or two here. With the small number of people here, the wifi was good.