Best Tent Camping: Alabama. Joe Cuhaj

      Saying that Cheaha State Park is a standout in the Alabama State Park system is not an overstatement. The park is located atop Cheaha Mountain, the state’s tallest at 2,407 feet (Cheaha comes from the Creek word chaha, meaning “high place.”)

      Located within the 390,000-acre Talladega National Forest, in the east-central part of the state, Cheaha is the perfect place to set up base camp and explore remarkable waterfalls and beautiful mountain vistas; swim in deep, cold mountain stream pools; and simply admire nature.

      As with many Alabama state parks, Cheaha was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The CCC was created during the Great Depression under the orders of President Franklin Roosevelt. Its simple mission: create thousands of jobs for able but unemployed young men through an array of public works projects ranging in scope and size from dams to roadways to state parks.

      The centerpiece of Cheaha is a signature piece of CCC engineering, a massive stone fire tower at the summit built entirely by hand with stone mined from the region. A CCC museum was just opened within the tower in spring 2013.

      Hiking is Cheaha’s prime draw. The handicap-accessible Boardwalk Trail offers a 1-mile trek out to Bald Rock and a spectacular view of the surrounding Talladega Mountains. The park’s second trail is for the more adventurous. The Rock Garden Trail begins at the base of the mountain and climbs to the top with a steep elevation gain. You’ll often find rock climbers scaling cliffs and rappelling here.

      And the surrounding Talladega National Forest, with hundreds of miles of trails, is just a short drive, or walk, from Cheaha. A few outstanding routes include the Chinnabee Silent Trail, which travels alongside beautiful rushing streams, waterfalls, and gorges; the Cave Creek Trail through tunnels of bright rhododendrons in the spring and more magnificent views; and the world-famous Pinhoti Trail. The Pinhoti travels more than 130 miles, the entire length of the forest, and then into Georgia, where it connects to the Appalachian Trail. The Pinhoti provides a wide variety of loop hikes for day hikers.

      Cheaha State Park is also a prime gathering spot for fall-leaf spotters. Thousands of people flock to the mountain late October–late November to see the spectacle provided by the north-Alabama hardwoods.

      Needless to say, Cheaha is a very popular campground and will be full most of the year except in the very dead of winter, late December and early January. Summertime and the weekend of the Talladega 500 NASCAR race is when the park is most packed, followed closely by the fall, when leaf seekers descend on the area.

      You’ll find four campgrounds in the park. A semiprimitive one sits along what is known as the Picnic Trail and is located across the road from the stone CCC fire tower. The 25 nondescript sites here are simple grassy plots, some a bit rockier than others. Each has a fire ring and a picnic table. The large field sports a decent view to the west, though a few sites along the edge of the area slope down considerably. There are several sites along the picnic area at the top of the mountain. These spots give you a good view of the surrounding mountains to the west, but radio and television antennas across the road to the east, next to the fire tower, detract from the view. Additionally, these campsites are right up against the road so evening traffic could be a nuisance. Community water spigots are available in this campground.

      The second campground is Mountain Top (also called the Upper Campground). While the sites are a bit close together, they aren’t close enough to take away from your camping pleasure. The pads are light-packed gravel, and all sites include water, power, a picnic table, a fire ring, and a grill.

      The two bathhouses in the loop are exceptional. Hand-built by the CCC, these stone structures house clean restrooms and hot showers. Best of all, they have excellent heating if you find yourself on the mountain on a frosty winter morning. There isn’t really a best site in this campground. Each one is exceptional with plenty of shade. The thick forest obscures any views. If you have kids or don’t like walks to the bathhouses on cold mornings, then your best bets are sites 3, 8, 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, or 25, which are each adjacent to one of the two bathhouses.

      The final two campgrounds are not in the main state park but down the hillside on a side road just off of AL 281. The Lower Campground is popular with folks who want to be near Cheaha Lake (the lake is across the road from the campground). There are 30 sites in the Lower Campground, all with power, water, picnic tables, and fire rings. The campsite has