Forget what TLC says! Chasing waterfalls is a great way to spend time outside and with family.
One of the most beautiful places to go chasing those waterfalls is in North Alabama. DeSoto State Park in Fort Payne, Alabama is host to 5 waterfalls. We love Alabama State Parks!
DeSoto State Park Waterfalls
DeSoto State Park has a total of 5 waterfalls: Lost Falls, Laurel Falls, Azalea Cascade, Indian Falls, and Lodge Falls.
DeSoto Falls is one of Alabama’s largest waterfalls and is only 7 miles from the main park area. Little River Falls is only 10 miles away and is quite a beauty after a large rainfall.
All of the different waterfalls have very different trails out to them. Little River Falls appears to be wheelchair accessible while some of the other trails will require a few miles of hiking on somewhat rugged terrain. (Our 4YO was able to do the hikes with no problem, but sometimes I think crawling over downed trees and wet rocks is a bit easier when you are closer to the ground if you fall.)
DeSoto State Park Activities
- Hiking is always one of our favorite camping activities. One day of our waterfall chasing adventures we went 7 miles. There are more than 11 miles of different trails and 7 of those are perfect for mountain biking. Many of the trails intersect and join which makes it a great way to start a hike to a destination from pretty much anywhere in the park. The trails are all well travelled and well marked with mileage markers to tell the distance to the trail’s destination. You can get a free map at the store, but I recommend buying the $1 map!
- The trails are very different in how easy or strenuous they are. They range from a wheelchair accessible boardwalk trail to walking on wet rocks to cross streams with steep climbs.
- Mountain Biking- We LOVE biking and have started picking spots to camp based on their bike trails. (Chewacala State Park near Auburn, Alabama just can’t be beat.) Our kids love getting to ride their bikes around the campground. Kids at campgrounds seem to make friends quickly and I love that they stop by and ask my kids if they want to go ride. We made new friends with the kids at the site next to us and all made several loops together. This is probably one of my favorite parts of camping… Our kids make friends at every campground. So when we camp now the bicycles are just as important as taking a pillow.
- Geocaching – We have done a couple of geocaches before but were excited to find some more while we were camping. (The Geocaching app is awesome for this adventure.) Now we are going to make this a bigger part of our exploring when we camp. The kids think its a treasure hunt.
- Zipline Aerial Adventures – This was not yet opened when we were there. It should open sometime in the summer of 2019. It looked like most of it was built already and we were so disappointed that its not ready yet… but I guess its a great excuse to come back. There are six ziplines and seven skybridges.
- Swimming – There is an olympic sized pool in the park. It is $4 per person and is open seasonally.
- There is so much to do inside the park, and near the park. My husband and I went horseback riding near here years ago and had a great time.
DeSoto State Park Camping
There are so many ways to camp at Desoto. You can go in to the backcountry backpackers camp, primitive camp sites, or one of the 94 full hook up sites. They also have a motel as well as beautiful cabins.
Primitive camping offers a picnic table and a grill. There is a water faucet near the vaulted toilets in the middle of the campground. You are allowed to use the shower facility at the improved campground. Not all Alabama State Parks allow this, sadly.
Improved camping has it all! The sites are large and were so easy to get into. There were many pull-through sites. The sites we saw all look pretty level. Each site has water, sewer, and electric (50/30 amp). I did read that they have cable TV, but we didn’t use it so I don’t know. They have some wifi in the campground… but we didn’t have the best signal where we were and didn’t need it bad enough to go look for it either. We use Verizon and every time I needed my phone I had enough service to make a call or send a text. I didn’t always have enough to surf the internet that much… but again I didn’t really need it so I didn’t work very hard to find a better signal.
Our campsite was wide with plenty of room between us and the other campers. We had a grill, a fire ring, and a picnic table.
The campground is gated. You will check in at the country store and they will get you the code. There is RV parking near the store.
The bath house was very nice and clean. And the temperature was always comfortable in there. At the back of the bath house is a laundry room.
At only $38 a night AND being able to make online reservations this was a VERY user friendly experience.
My parents stayed in one of the log cabins. It was a 2 bedroom 1 bath. It was just off one of the trails, so you can go for a hike. The back porch was huge. They had a picnic table, grill, and fire ring.
We went to the restaurant for a Sunday morning breakfast buffet and it was delicious. Fresh hot and plenty to eat. And pleasant service. I highly recommend it.
We had a great stay at the Desoto State Park. This was our 3rd time camping here and our first time as RVers, so it was a little different.
Check out my husband’s video of our stay!
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