Overlanding

Alabama

Why Alabama is a forest road state, and what that asks of a vehicle

Federal agencies hold 875,707 acres in Alabama, which is 2.7 percent of the state. The Forest Service has 673,400 of that, the Department of Defense 147,589, the Fish and Wildlife Service 34,041, the Park Service 17,540 and the Bureau of Land Management 3,137. The national BLM route layer this site sums for motorised mileage holds no Alabama records at all, so no BLM road figure appears anywhere on this page.

The second number matters more. Across four national forests the Forest Service designates exactly two trails for all-terrain and off-highway vehicles: the Kentuck trail in the Talladega and Flint Creek in the Bankhead. Flint Creek takes nothing wider than 50 inches. Neither was built for a full-size truck. What a licensed, plated vehicle uses here is the road network, and the forest says so plainly: registered and state licensed machines are permitted on all open Forest Service roads and not trails.

So this is a state of forest roads, county roads and water. Our build of the federal recreation database finds 25 federal campgrounds a vehicle can drive to in Alabama, and 19 of them belong to the Army Corps of Engineers, against four in the national forests and two in Park Service units. Six Corps projects and a navigation waterway carry that camping, on lakes measured in hundreds of river miles rather than acres of desert.

Cheaha Mountain is 2,407 feet and the low point is sea level on the Gulf, so nothing here is about altitude. What Alabama tests is water. The state climatologist puts the thirty-year average at 56.88 inches of rain a year, one of the wettest figures in the Southeast, and the Forest Service answers it with a single sentence of advice worth more than any trail rating: avoid driving on unpaved roads or trails when they are wet or muddy.

Alabama by the numbers

Acres of federal land 1: 875,707; 2.7 percent of Alabama. The BLM holds 3,137 of it and the national route layer records no BLM roads in the state
Acres across four national forests 5: 673,000+; Bankhead 181,988, Talladega 394,960, Conecuh 84,224, Tuskegee 11,348, in 17 counties and six ranger districts. The CRS figure for the state is 673,400
Designated OHV trails in the whole state 7: 2; Kentuck in the Talladega and Flint Creek in the Bankhead. The Conecuh, the Tuskegee and two of the three Talladega districts have none
Federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach 4: 25; 19 Corps of Engineers, four Forest Service, two Park Service. Twenty-one can be booked ahead and one is first come only
Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama 2: 2,407 ft; Cleburne County. Our own 3DEP query at the summit reads 2,406 feet. The low point is sea level on the Gulf of Mexico
Acres of wilderness, in three areas 11: 42,218; Sipsey in the Bankhead, Cheaha and Dugger Mountain in the Talladega, designated between 1977 and 1999. Motors and mechanised equipment are barred from all three
Rain a year, the 1991 to 2020 average 55: 56.88 in; Over 60 inches on the Gulf Coast and in the northeast, 52 to 54 in the Black Belt. The mean annual temperature is 63.6 degrees
Acres of wildlife management area 42: 750,000+; 366,670 acres state and Forever Wild, 345,323 federal under cooperative agreement, roughly 38,000 privately owned and leased in kind
Of the Sipsey Fork designated wild and scenic 30: 61.4 mi; 36.4 miles wild and 25 scenic, designated October 28, 1988, in the Bankhead National Forest
State parks, about 45,300 acres 43: 21; Land and water together, run by the State Parks Division. The parks service itself publishes more than 48,000 acres for the same 21 properties
Acres secured by the Forever Wild Land Trust 52: 284,000+; The trust owns 223,466 of them. Its buying has added to nine state parks and 20 wildlife management areas and built more than 363 miles of trail
America’s Byways in Alabama 31: 4; Two All-American Roads, the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Selma to Montgomery March Byway, and two National Scenic Byways, the Talladega Scenic Drive and Alabama’s Coastal Connection
Scenic drive the Forest Service publishes for the state 22: 1; The Talladega Scenic Drive is the only named driving route across all four Alabama national forests. Everything else is an unnamed forest road on a motor vehicle use map
The Talladega Scenic Drive, as FHWA measures it 33: 26.4 mi; The Forest Service gives the same byway as 29 miles. FHWA allows an hour for it and charges a dollar a person for the side trip into Cheaha State Park
Of Pinhoti National Recreation Trail in the Talladega 23: 140 mi; Piedmont to Sylacauga, in the forest’s own Talladega handout. The same forest’s wilderness page calls it 100 miles of moderate to difficult hiking. It is a walking trail, not a driving one
Combined length of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee lakes 35: 457 mi; Six lakes, Demopolis, Coffeeville, Warrior, Oliver, Holt and Bankhead, and 39,800 surface acres of water, all of it Mobile District
Of shoreline on Walter F. George Lake 37: 640 mi; The lake runs 85 miles down the Chattahoochee on the Georgia line and carries 13 Corps day use parks and four campgrounds
Of Natchez Trace Parkway, 52,289 acres 25: 444 mi; Across Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, averaging 800 feet wide. An NPS unit since 1938 and finished in 2005
Acres in Oak Mountain, the largest state park 46: 11,861; South of Birmingham, with more than 100 miles of trail. Cheaha, on the state high point, is 2,799 acres
Acres in Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge 50: 7,000; Approximately, on the coast beside Gulf State Park and the Coastal Connection byway. No vehicle may be driven on the sand anywhere along it

The Bankhead sits on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau

The William B. Bankhead National Forest covers the northwest corner of the state, in Lawrence, Winston and Franklin counties. The forest’s description of its own ground is the useful part for anyone planning a road: moderate to strongly dissected topography, with broad nearly level ridges and narrow strongly sloping ones running into steep gorges with rock bluffs. That is plateau country cut by water, and it is why the roads here follow ridge lines and the trails drop into gorges.

It is also why the forest is short on long drives and long on short ones. The recreation sites cluster around Lewis Smith Lake and the creeks that feed it, at Clear Creek, Corinth, Houston and Brushy Lake, with the Sipsey River picnic area and trailhead and Natural Bridge inland. Between them, forest roads link ridge to ridge, and the Bankhead Ranger District at Double Springs is the office that answers for all of it.

Source 19

The country the Sipsey cut, and the sites around its edge

The forest calls itself the Land of a Thousand Waterfalls and warns in the same breath that most of the paths to the well known ones are remote and are not maintained as official trails. It is direct about what that means: your safety is your responsibility.

The Sipsey Wilderness takes up 25,770 acres, reached only on foot by a 55-mile trail system, with no facilities and limited parking at the trailheads. Around it the developed sites do the work. Clear Creek is the largest recreation site on Lewis Smith Lake, with 102 single and double units on water and electric hookups. Corinth has 52 sites with electric, water and sewer, 29 picnic sites and a double lane boat ramp. Brushy Lake is 33 acres with 13 campsites. Houston has 14 picnic sites, a group shelter and a boat launch, and no camping at all.

The Owl Creek non-motorised trail system runs nearly 25 miles from the Pine Torch Trailhead on Lawrence County Road 70, with loops of several lengths and primitive overnight camping at the Owl Creek Horse Campground. The forest’s own horse camp page calls the same system approximately 26 miles, which is the kind of difference worth knowing before you count on a distance.

Source 16

The Talladega is the biggest and holds the high ground

The Talladega National Forest is 394,960 acres and the Forest Service calls it the largest national forest in Alabama. It comes in three ranger districts and two very different landscapes. The Oakmulgee District lies in the centre of the state south of Tuscaloosa County, across Hale, Tuscaloosa, Bibb, Perry, Chilton and Dallas counties, and its ground is level to moderately sloping broad ridges with stream terraces and floodplains. The Shoal Creek and Talladega districts sit in the northeast, in Cherokee, Calhoun, Cleburne, Talladega and Clay counties, on upland hills and low mountains with moderately steep slopes.

The northeastern half is the last of the Appalachians. Cheaha Mountain rises to 2,407 feet inside the 7,245-acre Cheaha Wilderness, with Cheaha State Park on the summit itself, and Dugger Mountain Wilderness takes in the second high ground on the Shoal Creek side. The Pinhoti National Recreation Trail runs through all of it. The forest’s Talladega handout calls it a 140-mile journey from Piedmont to Sylacauga; the forest’s wilderness page calls it 100 miles of moderate to difficult hiking. Both numbers are the Forest Service’s own.

For a driver the Shoal Creek chain is the one to learn. Coleman Lake campground opens in mid March and closes in early December. Pine Glen has 21 campsites, cooking grills, sanitary facilities and access to the Pinhoti, and stays open all year at three dollars a night. Sweetwater Lake, 58 acres, sits on the Pinhoti between the two. High Rock Lake, 19 acres, is about a mile south of Pine Glen. Morgan Lake, 14 acres, closes at sundown and bars alcohol under its own forest order.

The flat Oakmulgee half is the quiet half. It runs Payne Lake and two shooting ranges, plus ten designated hunting camps open all year for primitive camping, against four of the same on the Shoal Creek district. Nobody drives the Oakmulgee for scenery. People drive it because it is empty, it is open in January, and nothing there closes for the season.

Source 14

The Conecuh runs to the Florida line

The Conecuh National Forest sits in the far south of the state along the Alabama and Florida line, in Covington and Escambia counties. Its topography is level to moderately sloping, with broad ridges, stream terraces and broad floodplains, which is the opposite of the Bankhead in every respect that matters to a vehicle. There are no gorges and no grades. There is sand, standing water and fire maintained pine.

Four recreation sites carry it: Blue Lake, the Conecuh shooting and rifle range, Leon Brooks Hines public fishing lake and Open Pond. The Conecuh Ranger District office is on Alabama Highway 55 at Andalusia, and that town is the last real resupply before the state line.

Source 20

Longleaf country, and the one dispersed camping sentence the Conecuh publishes

The forest calls itself the heart of longleaf country and describes the ground as fire maintained longleaf pine in the uplands, dark wet swamps and bays in the bottoms, and cypress ponds it singles out as especially scenic. Open Pond is the largest recreation area at 450 acres, built around a 30-acre natural sinkhole pond, and the forest offers it plainly as a base camp for exploring the rest. Blue Lake, spring fed from underground limestone aquifers, is a ten minute drive away.

The 20-mile Conecuh Trail is open all year, about ten miles of it also open to mountain bikes, and the forest states that primitive camping along the trail is allowed with some restrictions during deer hunting season. That sentence is the closest thing the Conecuh publishes to a dispersed camping permission, and it is tied to the hunting calendar rather than to a fixed date.

The neighbouring Blue Spring Wildlife Management Area covers 23,000 acres and is managed jointly with the state, with its own seasons and bag limits. That is the pattern across Alabama: federal ground with a state hunting rulebook laid over the top of it, and two sets of vehicle rules to read before you park for the night.

Source 17

The Tuskegee is the odd one, and the most generous

The Tuskegee National Forest lies in east central Alabama, west of Auburn, entirely within Macon County, on level to moderately sloping broad ridges with stream terraces and floodplains. The Tuskegee Ranger District office is on National Forest Road 949 and it is the whole administration of the forest.

Its recreation list is short and worth knowing: Taska Recreation Area, part of the Black Belt Nature and Heritage Trail, with picnic tables, grills and an interpretive stop; Thloko Okhussee, the big pond, on Macon County Road 54, also called Vaughn Mill Road; and the Uchee shooting range. There is no lodge, no marina and no fee campground.

What makes it matter to a vehicle traveller is written on the forest’s own handout rather than here, and it is covered in the routes below: this is the one Alabama national forest that publishes a general primitive camping permission, and the one that bars off-road vehicles outright.

Source 21

Two trails, and the roads that carry everything else

The Forest Service is direct about where a machine may go in Alabama. All-terrain and off-highway vehicles are allowed on two designated trails in the state’s national forests, the Kentuck trail in the Talladega and the Flint Creek multiple use trail in the Bankhead. There are no designated trails on the Conecuh, the Tuskegee or the Shoal Creek and Oakmulgee districts, and law enforcement officers issue citations to riders who go elsewhere.

The sentence that follows is the one a full-size vehicle needs. Registered and state licensed machines are permitted on all open Forest Service roads, and not on the trails. The forest’s general rules put a spark arrester or state approved muffler on anything motorised, tell you to operate only on areas, roads and trails designated as open, and forbid damaging the land, vegetation or wildlife while you do it.

That makes the road network the trip. The forest reports 524 road miles maintained and 283 trail miles maintained in a year, and describes 432 miles designated for hiking, equestrian, off-road vehicle and mountain bike use across the four forests, which counts different things again. None of those is a published total of drivable forest road, so this page does not turn any of them into one. Carry the motor vehicle use map for the district you are in, and treat a road with no sign as no permission.

Source 6

Nineteen of the twenty-five federal campgrounds belong to the Corps

The Corps Lakes Gateway lists seven Army Corps projects on or against Alabama ground, every one of them run by the Mobile District: the Alabama River Lakes, the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes, George W. Andrews, Lake Seminole, the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, Walter F. George and West Point. Our build of the federal recreation database finds 19 Corps campgrounds in the state, which is more than four times the Forest Service total and nine times the Park Service one.

That single fact reshapes a trip here. In most western states the federal campground you end the day at belongs to the Forest Service or the BLM. In Alabama, odds are it belongs to an engineer, sits on a navigation pool rather than a mountain, and has a boat ramp instead of a trailhead.

Not everything at a Corps lake is run by the Corps. The Gateway marks which areas are Corps managed and says outright that state operators and private marinas run the rest, so the rules at your site belong to whoever posts the entrance, not to the name on the dam. The Mobile District’s own pages refuse every scripted request, so nothing on this page is taken from them.

Source 34

The Alabama River lakes, measured in river miles

The Alabama River Lakes are three projects in a chain across the middle of the state. Claiborne is the most primitive of them, in the southwest hill country, and covers over 60 miles of the Alabama River between Claiborne Lock and Dam and Millers Ferry Lock and Dam. It has no power installation and stays mostly within the original river banks, which is why the camping there feels like river camping rather than reservoir camping.

The William Dannelly Reservoir is the big one. It cuts across the Black Prairie Belt, covers 105 miles of the same river, holds about 27 square miles of water and more than 500 miles of shoreline, and takes close to three million visits a year. Upstream of both, R.E. Bob Woodruff Lake is reached from Montgomery on US 80, which is the same road as the Selma to Montgomery byway.

This is the useful thing about Alabama’s Corps water for a vehicle traveller: the lakes are long and thin rather than round, so a day on a river lake is a day of driving small roads between ramps and campgrounds, not a day circling one shoreline.

Source 36

Where the Natchez Trace touches Alabama

The parkway clips the northwest corner of the state on its way from Mississippi into Tennessee. The Park Service’s own county table puts the Alabama section between approximately milepost 309 and milepost 342: Colbert County from 309 to 328, then Lauderdale County from 328 to 342. It publishes no Alabama mileage of its own, so none is stated here.

Those two counties put Tuscumbia and Florence within a few minutes of the parkway, which makes them the natural overnight stops for anyone driving it. The Tennessee River crossing sits inside the Colbert stretch.

Plan the fuel and the food off the parkway rather than on it. The Park Service publishes mileposts and county lines for this stretch and nothing about services, so treat Tuscumbia and Florence as the supply points and the parkway itself as a road you drive slowly with a full tank.

Source 27

Wildlife management areas are the other half of the public map

Alabama’s wildlife management area system is larger than its national forest system. The Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries manages over 750,000 acres: 366,670 owned by the department and the Forever Wild Land Trust, 345,323 federal acres held under cooperative agreements with the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Corps, and roughly 38,000 private acres leased in kind. Large stretches of the national forests are wildlife management areas too, which means two rulebooks over the same ground.

Forever Wild is the reason so much of it exists. The land trust has secured more than 284,000 acres for public use and owns 223,466 of them, without relying on taxpayer money, and its buying has produced 23 recreation areas and nature preserves, more than 363 miles of trail, and additions to nine state parks and 20 wildlife management areas.

The vehicle consequence is specific and it catches people out. On a wildlife management area a licensed vehicle may only be driven on the regularly used roads shown on the area permit as open to motorised traffic, and only for hunting, fishing, trapping or camping unless the division has given written permission. Unlicensed machines are barred outright on a long named list that includes Black Warrior, Choccolocco, Coosa, Oakmulgee, Little River, Perdido River, Red Hills and the Cahaba River area.

Source 52

Seasons: mud, then heat, then a short bright autumn

The state climatologist puts Alabama at 56.88 inches of rain a year on the 1991 to 2020 average and calls it one of the wettest states in the Southeast. It is not spread evenly. The Gulf Coast and the northeast around the Paint Rock valley clear 60 inches; the Black Belt sits nearer 52 to 54. December at 5.46 inches and January at 5.29 are the wettest months, and October at 3.50 inches is the driest.

Read those two facts together and the travel window writes itself. October is the driest month of the year and it is also the month when most forest campgrounds are still open, before the March to December and March to October gates begin to shut. Spring is the opposite: wet ground, soft clay two-track and the state’s busiest tornado month in April, which averages close to 14 statewide.

Heat is the other half of it. The mean annual temperature is 63.6 degrees, over 66 in the south and 60 to 62 in the north and on the higher ground, and summer on the coastal plain is humid enough to matter to a fridge, a battery and a dog. Winter is short and mostly wet rather than frozen. Alabama publishes no chain or traction law, and the rule you actually need in the cold months is the same one you need in April, which is to stay off unpaved roads when they are soft.

Source 55

The gates run on a printed calendar, not on conditions

The National Forests in Alabama publish one fee and opening schedule for the whole state each year, and it is the clearest planning document the state produces. For 2026 the Kentuck ORV trail runs 1 April to 31 December at five dollars per operator per day. Flint Creek trailhead is open all year at three dollars per operator. Clear Creek and Corinth on the Bankhead run 13 March to 31 October. Coleman Lake on the Shoal Creek district runs 15 March to 8 December. Lake Chinnabee and Turnipseed on the Talladega district run 1 March to 1 December, although the district’s own handout gives Turnipseed as 1 March to 30 November.

Several sites stay open all year, and they are the ones to note if you travel in winter: Brushy Lake and Owl Creek Horse Camp on the Bankhead, Pine Glen and Warden Station on the Shoal Creek district, Payne Lake on the Oakmulgee and Open Pond on the Conecuh. Houston day use parking runs only 15 May to 14 September and the Houston campground is closed.

Fees are small and consistent. Day use is usually three dollars a vehicle, an annual pass for all four forests is 30 dollars a vehicle, and camping runs from three dollars a night at Pine Glen to 18 at a Payne Lake site with water and electricity. Kentuck and Flint Creek charge per operator rather than per vehicle, which is a different thing if you arrive with a trailer and two riders.

Source 15

Four byways, one forest scenic drive, and no beach driving

The Federal Highway Administration lists four America’s Byways in Alabama. Two are All-American Roads, the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Selma to Montgomery March Byway, and two are National Scenic Byways, the Talladega Scenic Drive and Alabama’s Coastal Connection. All four are paved and all four are drivable in any car, which is the honest shape of the state’s named driving.

The Forest Service, for its part, publishes exactly one scenic drive across all four Alabama national forests, and it is the Talladega. The FHWA entry for it describes travelling the backbone of Horseblock and Cheaha mountains, the southernmost extension of the Appalachians, and charges a dollar a person for the optional side trip into Cheaha State Park.

The coast is the one place where a reader coming from Texas or the Carolinas has to unlearn something. Alabama permits no recreational beach driving. Gulf Shores prohibits motorised vehicles and conveyances on its sand under ordinance section 6-18, and Orange Beach allows only authorised government and beach maintenance vehicles. Plan the coast as a paved byway with campgrounds beside it, not as a sand route.

Source 31

The state parks fill in what the forests leave out

Alabama State Parks runs 21 parks. Its own About page describes more than 48,000 acres across them and says 80 to 90 percent of the system’s funding is generated by visitors rather than taxes, on four to five million visits a year. The department’s State Parks Division page gives about 45,300 acres of land and water for the same 21 properties, which is the figure the facts above use.

Three of them do most of the work for a vehicle traveller. Oak Mountain, at 11,861 acres, is the largest, with more than 100 miles of trail, just south of Birmingham. Gulf State Park on the coast has 496 improved campsites plus 104 full hookup sites at its RV resort, and a 900-acre freshwater lake behind the dunes. Cheaha, at 2,799 acres, sits on the state high point and is surrounded by the Talladega National Forest, which its page gives as 392,567 acres against the Forest Service’s own 394,960.

The two northeastern parks are the useful pair on Lookout Mountain. DeSoto is 3,502 acres eight miles northeast of Fort Payne, with a 94-site full hookup campground and more than 35 miles of hiking trail. Lake Guntersville covers 6,000 acres of woodland above the Tennessee River with 36 miles of hiking and biking trail.

Source 44

One wild river, and why it changes what is drivable

The Sipsey Fork of the West Fork was added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System on 28 October 1988. The designation covers 61.4 miles: 36.4 of them classed wild and 25 scenic. The description is of steep canyon walls and sandstone bluffs 30 to 100 feet high, cascading waterfalls and a plant list that mixes Coastal Plain and Appalachian species, which is an unusual combination to find in one gorge.

A wild classification is the strictest of the three, and it is one of the reasons the Bankhead reads as a walking forest rather than a driving one. The 25,770 acres of the Sipsey Wilderness around the river take no motorised or mechanised equipment of any kind, bicycles and wagons included, and camping there is capped at seven days with a group limit of ten people.

What that leaves a vehicle is the ring of roads and recreation sites around the outside, which is genuinely good: Lewis Smith Lake camping at Clear Creek and Corinth, the Sipsey River picnic area and trailhead, Natural Bridge with its half mile of paved path to a rock arch, and Kinlock Falls, where a forest order bars alcohol and camping without a written permit within half a mile of the falls.

Source 30

Passes and routes

Talladega Scenic DrivePaved

2,407 ft 29 miles

US 78 west of Heflin to Adams Gap, on State Route 281

A National Forest Scenic Byway and the only scenic drive the Forest Service publishes for the whole state. It begins where US 78 meets SR 281 just west of Heflin, winds along the backbone of the southern Appalachians through the Talladega National Forest and the Cheaha Wilderness, climbs to 2,407 feet at Alabama’s highest point, and ends where the pavement runs out at Adams Gap and Forest Service Road 600. The Forest Service gives it 29 miles; the Federal Highway Administration measures 26.4 and allows an hour. 10

Vehicle
Any car

Season
All year
Cheaha State Park and the summitPaved

Spur off State Route 281

The Talladega Scenic Drive to the summit of Cheaha Mountain

The 2,799-acre park sits on top of the state at 2,407 feet, surrounded by the Talladega National Forest, which the park gives as 392,567 acres including 7,245 acres of Cheaha Wilderness. The Forest Service publishes 394,960 for the same forest. The park is the paved way to the summit, with rock cabins, chalets, improved and primitive camping, and CCC primitive sites near Cheaha Lake. 45

Vehicle
Any car. One dollar a person for the side trip, per the byway listing

Season
All year
Little River Canyon Rim ParkwayPaved

11 miles

Alabama Highway 176 along the west rim, exiting the preserve at Eberhart Point

Eleven miles along the west rim of Little River Canyon with eight overlooks, on a road the Park Service describes as having sharp and blind turns, steep and blind hills and no shoulders. It advises against RVs and trailers outright and tells motorcyclists to use extreme caution because of the steep hills and loose gravel on the sharp turns. The parkway leaves the preserve at Eberhart Point, where Cherokee County roads carry on towards Canyon Mouth Park. 24

Vehicle
RVs and vehicles with trailers not recommended

Season
All year
Natchez Trace Parkway, Colbert FerryPaved

Milepost 327.3 on the Tennessee River, Colbert County

The anchor stop on Alabama’s stretch of the parkway, where George Colbert lived on a ridge above the Tennessee River and ran an inn that fed and housed travellers on the old Trace. The Park Service lists the site’s amenities as historical and interpretive exhibits and auto parking, and nothing else, so arrive with what you need. The parkway itself crosses Colbert and Lauderdale counties between roughly milepost 309 and 342. 26

Vehicle
Any car

Season
All year
Gulf State Park and the dune coastPaved

Gulf Shores, on Alabama’s Coastal Connection between Fort Morgan and Orange Beach

The state’s coastal base camp and the largest campground in this guide: 496 improved campsites plus 104 full hookup sites at the RV resort, behind a 900-acre freshwater lake in Lake Shelby. It is the practical place to sleep on the Gulf, because both cities either side of it prohibit driving on the beach and the refuge next door is not open to vehicles either. Park, walk, and keep the truck on the byway. 47

Vehicle
Any car or coach. No vehicle may be driven on the sand

Season
All year
DeSoto State Park and the Lookout Mountain rimPaved

More than 35 miles of trail, 11 of mountain bike trail

Eight miles northeast of Fort Payne, on top of Lookout Mountain

The 3,502-acre park sits on the plateau above Fort Payne, at the north end of the same rim the Little River Canyon Rim Parkway follows south. It runs an improved campground of 94 full hookup tent and RV sites alongside primitive camping and backpacking, chalets, cabins and lodge rooms. Paired with the canyon drive it makes the best two-day loop in northeast Alabama that does not need a permit. 48

Vehicle
Any car. 94 full hookup tent and RV sites

Season
All year
Lake Guntersville State ParkPaved

36 miles of hiking and biking trail

Above the Tennessee River at Guntersville, in Marshall County

Six thousand acres of woodland above the largest lake in Alabama, and the northern anchor for a trip that also takes in Monte Sano, the Natchez Trace corner and the Skyline country in Jackson County. The park page gives 36 miles of hiking and biking trail and states no lake acreage, so none is given here. 49

Vehicle
Any car

Season
All year
Walter F. George Lake, the Chattahoochee side

85 miles of lake, 640 miles of shoreline

Eufaula south to Fort Gaines, on the Georgia line

Sometimes called Lake Eufaula, this is the largest single Corps recreation complex touching Alabama: 85 miles down the Chattahoochee with 640 miles of shoreline, 13 Corps day use parks and four campgrounds, and a resource site near Fort Gaines on the Georgia bank. State operators and private marinas run further parks on the same water, so read the sign at the entrance rather than assuming the Corps rulebook applies. 37

Vehicle
Any car. Four Corps campgrounds and 13 day use parks

Season
All year
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, the Alabama end

149 miles of river section

Demopolis, Alabama north to Amory, Mississippi

The river section of the waterway runs 149 miles from Demopolis north to Amory through four locks and dams, and the Alabama half of it is a chain of Corps campgrounds and landings along the west edge of the state. The Tom Bevill Visitor Center sits a mile south of Pickensville on Highway 14. It is flat, slow country and it is the quietest camping in Alabama outside the Oakmulgee. 38

Vehicle
Any car. Tom Bevill Visitor Center at Pickensville on Highway 14

Season
All year
Selma to Montgomery March BywayPaved

54 miles

Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma to the Alabama State Capitol, on US Highway 80

A National Historic Trail established by Congress in 1996 and designated an All-American Road, the highest tier of the federal byway programme. It follows the routes of the 1965 marches through Selma, crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge and runs east on US 80 through Lowndes County into Montgomery. The Federal Highway Administration allows an hour to drive it and a day to experience it. 29

Vehicle
Any car

Season
All year
Alabama’s Coastal ConnectionPaved

130 miles

The Mobile Bay shore, Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan and the Gulf beaches

A National Scenic Byway around the southern tip of the state, linking Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines at the mouth of Mobile Bay, the Dauphin Island Audubon Sanctuary, Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge and Gulf State Park. The Federal Highway Administration counts more than 12,000 acres of protected land along it. Driving on the sand is prohibited at every point of it. 32

Vehicle
Any car. No fee

Season
All year
Kentuck OHV Trail

23 miles in four loops

Kentuck OHV Trailhead, Talladega National Forest, run from the district office at Heflin

One of only two designated OHV trails in Alabama’s national forests. Four loops run from easy sections with gentle grades and sweeping turns to harder ones with steeper grades, tight turns, rough ground, rocks and log obstacles. Vault toilets, no potable water. The recreation site page files it under the Shoal Creek Ranger District while the forest’s ATV notice calls it the Talladega District trail; either way it is the Talladega National Forest and the Heflin office answers for it. 8

Vehicle
ATVs, motorcycles and mountain bikes. Five dollars per operator per day

Season
Open 1 April to 31 December, closed 1 January to 1 April
Flint Creek Multiple-Use Trail

16 miles

Flint Creek Trailhead, Bankhead National Forest, from the district office at Double Springs

The other designated OHV trail in the state, and the one with a width limit that settles the question for a full-size vehicle: nothing wider than 50 inches. The forest shares the same 16 miles with horse riders, mountain bikers and walkers, states that operators must conform to all Forest Service regulations and state traffic laws, and provides no water at the trailhead. 9

Vehicle
Motorcycles and ATVs under 50 inches wide, plus horses, bikes and walkers. Three dollars per operator

Season
All year
Horseshoe Bend Tour RoadPaved

3 miles

A one-way loop around the battlefield on the bend of the Tallapoosa River

A short paved loop that skirts the edge of the battlefield and follows the bend of the Tallapoosa River the park is named for. A 2.8-mile nature trail runs around the battlefield and past the Tohopeka village site. Bicycles are allowed on the tour road and nowhere else in the park, and off-road vehicles are not permitted anywhere in the park except for administrative use by staff. 28

Vehicle
Any car. 15 mph, strictly enforced

Season
All year
Owl Creek and the Pine Torch Trailhead

Nearly 25 miles of trail

Pine Torch Trailhead on Lawrence County Road 70, Bankhead National Forest

The Bankhead’s horse and mountain bike country, on the far side of the forest from the Sipsey Wilderness. Loops of varying lengths run off a trailhead on a county road, with primitive overnight camping for riders at Owl Creek Horse Campground at five dollars a night and for hikers and bikers at Brushy Lake. Both provide campsites, drinking water and toilets. The forest gives the system as nearly 25 miles in its handout and approximately 26 on the horse camp page. 16

Vehicle
Drive to the trailhead. The trail system itself is non-motorised

Season
Horse camp open all year
Coleman Lake to Pine Glen, Shoal Creek District

Forest roads off State Route 281 north of the Talladega Scenic Drive

The Shoal Creek chain is the most useful stretch of forest road camping in Alabama. Coleman Lake has hookup and non-hookup sites, Pine Glen has 21 campsites with cooking grills and sanitary facilities at three dollars a night and stays open all year, and the Pinhoti Trail links the two past Sweetwater Lake, 58 acres. High Rock Lake, 19 acres, is about a mile south of Pine Glen. Warden Station Horse Camp is open all year at six dollars a night. 14

Vehicle
Any high-clearance vehicle. Three dollars a vehicle day use

Season
Coleman Lake 15 March to 8 December. Pine Glen all year
Open Pond and Blue Lake, Conecuh National Forest

Alabama Highway 55 south of Andalusia, near the Florida line

Open Pond is the largest recreation area in the Conecuh at 450 acres, built around a 30-acre natural sinkhole pond, with hookup sites at 16 dollars and plain ones at eight, and the forest offers it as a base camp for the rest of the district. Blue Lake, ten minutes away, is spring fed from limestone aquifers and has picnic sites, restrooms and a swimming beach. The 20-mile Conecuh Trail runs from here through fire maintained longleaf uplands and cypress ponds. 17

Vehicle
Any car

Season
Open Pond all year. Blue Lake day use 1 April to 31 October
Tuskegee National Forest

13 miles on the Bold Destiny trail, 8.5 on the Bartram

US Routes 80 and 29 west of Auburn, in Macon County

The smallest national forest in the country and the one with the most generous camping rule in Alabama: primitive camping is allowed anywhere in the forest except during gun deer hunting season, when designated sites only apply, and eleven hunter camps stay open all year. The Bartram Trail, 8.5 miles, was the first trail in Alabama designated a National Recreation Trail. Taska Recreation Area sits 3.5 miles east of Tuskegee on US 80 and 29 and permits no camping. 18

Vehicle
Licensed vehicles on forest roads. No off-road vehicles anywhere in this forest

Season
All year. Camping moves to designated sites during gun deer season
Payne Lake, Oakmulgee District

Highway 5 out of Brent, in the central Alabama forest south of Tuscaloosa

The Oakmulgee is the flat half of the Talladega National Forest and the quietest of the four Alabama forests to drive. Payne Lake is its campground, at 18 dollars for a water and electric site, 12 for water only and five for a primitive one, open all year. The district also runs ten designated hunting camps for year-round primitive camping and two shooting ranges, one of which charges nothing to anyone holding an Alabama hunting licence or wildlife management area permit. 15

Vehicle
Any car. Three dollars a vehicle day use

Season
Open all year

Rules worth knowing

Stay limits are set forest order by forest order, and they differ: There is no single national forest stay limit in Alabama. Forest Order 2012-01-02 sets a 14-day camping limit at Houston, Corinth, Clear Creek and Brushy Lake on the Bankhead Ranger District. Order 2012-05-02 sets the same 14 days at Coleman Lake, Pine Glen and Warden Horse Camp on the Shoal Creek district, and also bars parking outside the space assigned to your own camp unit. Order 2012-03-04 limits Open Pond on the Conecuh to 14 days, but only between 1 March and 30 September. Order 2012-01-03 shuts the Bankhead’s dispersed camps, Owl Creek, Allred, McDougle, Wolfpen and Corinth Overflow, to everyone but the people camping there between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. A separate order bars camping without a written permit within half a mile of Kinlock Falls. 12
Operate only on what is designated, and carry a spark arrester: The Forest Service rule for off-highway vehicles in Alabama has two halves. Operate only on areas, roads and trails designated as open to OHVs, and equip the vehicle with a state approved muffler, spark arrester or both. Operating a vehicle in a way that damages the land, wildlife or vegetation is prohibited on its own account. Flint Creek adds a width limit of 50 inches. Two of Alabama’s four national forests have no designated OHV trail at all, and the Tuskegee bars off-road vehicles outright, so on most of the state’s federal ground the designated route is a road. 6
A licensed vehicle belongs on the roads, and the trails are not for it: The forest’s standing public notice is the clearest statement of what a plated vehicle may do in Alabama. All-terrain and off-highway vehicles are allowed on two designated trails in the state’s national forests, Kentuck in the Talladega and Flint Creek in the Bankhead, and registered, state licensed machines are permitted on all open Forest Service roads and not on trails. The notice names the Conecuh, the Tuskegee and the Shoal Creek and Oakmulgee districts as having no designated trails, and says law enforcement officers will issue citations to riders who use them anyway. 7
Alabama’s ATV registration is voluntary, and a truck is not an ATV: Under Act 2017-395 a person may voluntarily register an all-terrain vehicle or a recreational off-highway vehicle with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Public use registration is 45 dollars plus 2.50 issuance and runs three years; private use is 15 dollars plus 2.50. The definitions matter more than the fee. An all-terrain vehicle is 60 inches or less wide, 1,500 pounds or less dry, on three or more non-highway tyres. A recreational off-highway vehicle is 80 inches or less wide and 2,500 pounds or less dry, on four or more. A full-size truck or van is neither, which is our own reading of the two definitions rather than a sentence the agency writes, so what it needs in Alabama is an ordinary plate. 51
On a wildlife management area: nine days, designated sites, and the roads on the permit: Administrative Code Rule 220-2-.55 governs every state wildlife management area, community hunting area and special opportunity area. Camping is only lawful in designated sites, and individuals or groups may camp for no more than nine days in any thirty-day period. Campfires must be out before you leave and no warming fires are allowed away from the camping area. A licensed motor vehicle may only be operated for hunting, fishing, trapping or camping, or by written permission from the division, and only on the regularly used roads shown on the area permit as open to motorised traffic. Driving any motor vehicle behind, under or around a locked gate, barricaded road or sign prohibiting traffic is an offence in itself. 41
Alabama has three fire levels and the top one stops campfires: The Alabama Forestry Commission publishes a ladder rather than a stage system. A Fire Danger Advisory asks everyone to delay outdoor burning. A Fire Alert, issued by the State Forester for named counties, restricts burn permits to Certified Prescribed Burn Managers with the manpower and equipment to control a fire. A Drought Emergency is declared by the Governor, generally when the Keetch-Byram Drought Index passes 600 and there is on average more than one wildfire per county per day over a wide area. It is commonly called a No Burn Order, it has the force of law, and it prohibits all outdoor burning including campfires. Charcoal in a grill or masonry pit and gas grills are still allowed, with a ten-foot circle cleared around them. 53
A burn permit is Alabama law above a quarter acre: Section 9-13-11 of the Alabama code requires a permit from the Forestry Commission to conduct a prescribed burn for silvicultural or agricultural purposes. The permit means the burner has the manpower and equipment to control the fire and will stay with it until it is out, and holding one does not transfer responsibility for damage caused by the fire or its smoke. Fires smaller than a quarter of an acre need no permit, which is where a camp fire sits on an ordinary day. Permits are issued by the dispatch centre on 800 392 5679. Counties and cities set their own additional burning restrictions and the commission tells burners to check locally. 54
Corps of Engineers lakes: designated sites, 14 days in 30: Nineteen of Alabama’s 25 drive-in federal campgrounds are on Corps ground, so this is the rule that governs most federal camping in the state. Under 36 CFR 327.7, camping is permitted only at sites or areas the District Commander designates, and camping at one or more campsites at any one water resource project for longer than 14 days in any 30 consecutive days is prohibited without written permission. Leaving equipment on a site, or turning up without occupying it daily in order to hold it for later, is prohibited separately, as is digging or levelling ground or building any structure. 39
And on a Corps lake, stay on the authorised roadway: The vehicle rule at a Corps project is 36 CFR 327.2, and it covers everything with wheels: cars, trucks, motorcycles, mini-bikes, snowmobiles, dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles, trailers, campers and bicycles. Operating or parking a vehicle off an authorised roadway is prohibited except at locations and times the District Commander designates, and taking any vehicle through, around or beyond a restrictive sign, a recognisable barricade, a fence or a traffic control barrier is prohibited. Parking that obstructs traffic or other vehicles can be towed and impounded at the owner’s expense. 40
No motor vehicle on the beach at Gulf Shores: Alabama does not licence recreational beach driving anywhere, and Gulf Shores states its version in one line: no motorised vehicles or conveyances, under ordinance section 6-18. The same rules ban fires, grills and cooking devices on the sand, glass and breakable containers, and tents or canopies larger than seven by seven by four feet outside a designated tent area. Anything left on the beach between an hour after sunset and sunrise is removed. If you have driven a permitted beach in Texas or the Carolinas, unlearn it before you arrive here. 56
Orange Beach is the same answer in different words: The City of Orange Beach answers the question directly in its own published FAQ: only authorised government vehicles and beach maintenance vehicles are allowed on the beach. Between the two city ordinances, the Gulf State Park frontage and Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, which covers approximately 7,000 acres of coastal land, there is no stretch of Alabama sand a private vehicle may legally drive. Park at a public access, walk the beach, and camp at Gulf State Park or on the Corps water inland. 57
State traffic law is the forest’s traffic law, and wet roads are your problem: The National Forests in Alabama put state traffic and game law inside the forest boundary unless something says otherwise, so a plated, insured vehicle with a licensed driver is the baseline. The forest’s own visitor rules add the instructions that actually matter on this ground: do not damage the land or vegetation with any vehicle, avoid driving on unpaved roads or trails when they are wet or muddy, use motor vehicles inside campgrounds and recreation sites only to enter and leave, park only in marked areas, and obey area and trail restrictions on OHVs and ATVs. Motor vehicles and motorised equipment are not allowed in wilderness at all. Closure orders are posted on bulletin boards and on the forest website. 13

How high is Alabama?

From Gulf Shores at 7 feet to Cheaha Mountain at 2,407. Altitude decides what your engine, your brakes and your lungs have to work with, and how late in the year the passes open.

Towns

Heflin Cleburne County seat at 960 feet on US 78 and Interstate 20. The Shoal Creek Ranger District office is here, and the Talladega Scenic Drive leaves State Route 281 just west of town. 960 ft
Fort Payne DeKalb County seat at 905 feet under Lookout Mountain. DeSoto State Park is eight miles northeast and the Little River Canyon Rim Parkway runs south from the falls. 905 ft
Double Springs Winston County seat and the Bankhead Ranger District office on Highway 33. Flint Creek, one of the state’s two OHV trails, is run from here. 824 ft
Anniston Calhoun County seat between the Shoal Creek and Talladega districts. The largest services stop within reach of Dugger Mountain, Choccolocco and the northern Pinhoti. 711 ft
Guntersville Marshall County seat at 637 feet on the Tennessee River. Lake Guntersville State Park covers 6,000 acres of woodland above town with 36 miles of trail. 637 ft
Talladega Talladega Ranger District office, and the way up to Lake Chinnabee, Turnipseed and the Kentuck trail. Last town of any size on the west side of the Cheaha high ground. 555 ft
Florence Lauderdale County on the north bank of the Tennessee River. The Natchez Trace Parkway crosses this county between mileposts 328 and 342 before it leaves for Tennessee. 550 ft
Tuscumbia Colbert County seat south of the river. The parkway runs the length of this county from milepost 309 to 328, with the Colbert Ferry site on the Tennessee River at 327.3. 468 ft
Tuskegee Macon County seat beside the smallest national forest in the country, which allows primitive camping anywhere outside gun deer season. Taska Recreation Area is 3.5 miles east on US 80 and 29. 462 ft
Andalusia Covington County seat and the Conecuh Ranger District office on Alabama Highway 55. Fuel and tyres before Open Pond, Blue Lake and the Florida line. 345 ft
Eufaula Barbour County on the Chattahoochee, beside Walter F. George Lake and its 640 miles of shoreline, 13 Corps day use parks and four campgrounds. 263 ft
Brent Bibb County, and the Oakmulgee Ranger District office on Highway 5. The way in to Payne Lake, the Vick and South Sandy ranges and the district’s ten year-round hunting camps. 241 ft
Montgomery The Forest Service supervisor’s office for all four Alabama national forests is on Chestnut Street. East end of the Selma to Montgomery March Byway and the nearest city to Horseshoe Bend. 238 ft
Selma Dallas County seat at 137 feet on the Alabama River. West end of the 54-mile All-American Road to Montgomery, and close to the Corps lakes on the middle river. 137 ft
Demopolis Marengo County, where the Tombigbee meets the Black Warrior. Corps resource manager’s office two miles west on US 80, and the south end of the Tennessee-Tombigbee river section. 125 ft
Gulf Shores Seven feet above the Gulf. Gulf State Park and its 496 improved campsites, the east end of Alabama’s Coastal Connection, and a city ordinance that bans every motor vehicle from the sand. 7 ft

Passes, high roads and summits

Cheaha Mountain Talladega Scenic Drive: US 78 west of Heflin to Adams Gap, on State Route 281 2,407 ft
Dugger Mountain Calhoun County, in the Dugger Mountain Wilderness on the Shoal Creek district. Measured for this chart from the 3DEP surface; no agency publishes a figure for it 2,134 ft
Monte Sano Mountain Madison County above Huntsville, the north end of the same ridge country. Our own 3DEP reading, not an agency figure 1,654 ft
Adams Gap Clay County, where the pavement of the Talladega Scenic Drive ends and Forest Service Road 600 begins. Our own 3DEP reading 1,443 ft

Pass, road and summit elevations are the figures published by the agency that manages them. Town elevations are the town’s or county’s own figure where it publishes an exact one; the rest are from the U.S. Geological Survey (3D Elevation Program at the place’s official coordinates), retrieved September 18, 2026. Every source is listed at the foot of the page.

Sources for this page

Congressional Research Service. Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data (R42346), Tables 1 and 2, data as of September 30, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Geological Survey. Elevations and Distances in the United States, online edition. Alabama: Cheaha Mountain 2,407 ft, Gulf of Mexico sea level. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Geological Survey. Geographic Names Information System and 3D Elevation Program point query. Elevation of the 3DEP surface at the GNIS coordinates of the named place, rounded to the nearest foot. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Recreation.gov. Recreation Information Database (RIDB) full export, the site’s own build of it. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, About the Area: 673,000 acres, 17 counties, six ranger districts, 432 designated miles, 524 road miles maintained. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Opportunity: Off-Highway Vehicles (OHV). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Public Notice Regarding ATVs, Forest Order 08-01-00-22-108. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Site: Kentuck OHV Trailhead. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Flint Creek Multiple-Use Trail. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Site: Talladega Scenic Drive. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Wilderness: three areas totalling 42,218 acres, and the Sipsey restrictions. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Alerts and standing Forest Supervisor orders. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Rules for Forest Visitors. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Region: Talladega National Forest, districts, counties and recreation sites. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, 2026 Recreation Fee and Opening Schedule (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. Alabama’s National Forests Great Escapes: Bankhead National Forest, Informational Handout 0002, July 2023 (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. Alabama’s National Forests Great Escapes: Conecuh National Forest, Informational Handout 0002, July 2023 (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. Alabama’s National Forests Great Escapes: Tuskegee National Forest, Informational Handout 0002, July 2023 (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Region: Bankhead National Forest, counties, topography and recreation sites. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Region: Conecuh National Forest, counties, topography and recreation sites. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Region: Tuskegee National Forest, Macon County. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama, Recreation Opportunity: Scenic Drives, three driving-route entries and one named byway. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
USDA Forest Service. Alabama’s National Forests Great Escapes: Talladega National Forest, Informational Handout 0002, July 2023 (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
National Park Service. Little River Canyon National Preserve, Scenic Drive: Little River Canyon Rim Parkway. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
National Park Service. Natchez Trace Parkway, Park Statistics: 444 miles, 52,289 acres, averaging 800 feet wide. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
National Park Service. Colbert Ferry Stand Site, Milepost 327.3, Natchez Trace Parkway. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
National Park Service. Natchez Trace Parkway, Counties and approximate mileposts: Alabama, Colbert 309 to 328 and Lauderdale 328 to 342 (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
National Park Service. Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, Outdoor Activities: the three-mile Tour Road. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
National Park Service. Alabama: Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. National Wild and Scenic Rivers System: Sipsey Fork of the West Fork, 61.4 miles designated October 28, 1988. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Federal Highway Administration. America’s Byways: Alabama, four designated byways. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Federal Highway Administration. America’s Byways: Alabama’s Coastal Connection, 130 miles. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Federal Highway Administration. America’s Byways: Talladega Scenic Drive, 26.4 miles. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Corps Lakes Gateway: Alabama, seven Mobile District projects. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Corps Lakes Gateway: Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes, six lakes, 457 miles, 39,800 surface acres. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Corps Lakes Gateway: Alabama River Lakes, Claiborne, Dannelly and Woodruff. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Corps Lakes Gateway: Walter F. George Lake, 85 miles, 640 miles of shoreline, 13 day use parks and four campgrounds. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Corps Lakes Gateway: Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, 149 miles of river section and four locks and dams. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Office of the Federal Register. 36 CFR 327.7, Camping, at Corps of Engineers water resource development projects. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Office of the Federal Register. 36 CFR 327.2, Vehicles, at Corps of Engineers water resource development projects. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Administrative Code Rule 220-2-.55, Wildlife Management Areas of Alabama (PDF). Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Wildlife Management Areas: over 750,000 acres and how the ownership splits. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. State Parks Division: 21 state parks, approximately 45,300 acres of land and water. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama State Parks. About Alabama State Parks: more than 48,000 acres across 21 parks, and how the system is funded. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama State Parks. Cheaha State Park: 2,799 acres on the state high point at 2,407 feet. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama State Parks. Oak Mountain State Park: 11,861 acres, the largest state park in Alabama. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama State Parks. Gulf State Park: 496 improved campsites, 104 full hookup sites and the 900-acre Lake Shelby. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama State Parks. DeSoto State Park: 3,502 acres on Lookout Mountain, 94 full hookup sites. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama State Parks. Lake Guntersville State Park: 6,000 acres and 36 miles of hiking and biking trail. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge: approximately 7,000 acres of coastal lands. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. ATV/UTV Registration under Act 2017-395: voluntary registration, vehicle definitions and fees. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Forever Wild Land Trust. Forever Wild Program Overview: more than 284,000 acres secured, 223,466 owned. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Forestry Commission. Burn Restrictions: Fire Danger Advisory, Fire Alert and Drought Emergency. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Forestry Commission. Burn Permits under Alabama Code 9-13-11, and the quarter-acre threshold. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
Alabama Office of the State Climatologist, University of Alabama in Huntsville. Alabama’s Climate: 56.88 inches of rain and 63.6 degrees on the 1991 to 2020 normals. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
City of Gulf Shores. Beach Rules and Regulations: no motorised vehicles or conveyances, Ordinance Section 6-18. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
City of Orange Beach. FAQ: Are vehicles allowed on the beach?. Retrieved September 25, 2026.

Reviewed September 25, 2026. Conditions, closures and rules change; check with the managing agency before you travel.

Who manages Alabama

The agency on the sign decides where you can drive and where you can sleep. Choose one to see how much of the state it holds and what that means for a trip.

Alabama
2.7% 875,707 acres

Source: Congressional Research Service, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data (R42346), Table 2, data as of September 30, 2024. Federal land here means the five agencies shown; state, tribal and private land make up the rest of each bar.

The public land map of Alabama

Agency boundaries, the BLM and Forest Service roads and trails open to vehicles, wilderness, and BLM campgrounds. Select any point for who manages it.

Map layers

Find a place

Layers

Federal land Who manages the ground, by agency

State and local land State forests, parks and wildlife areas, county and city land, nationwide

BLM roads and trails Routes managed for public motorized use

Forest roads and trails Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map

Wilderness BLM Wilderness and study areas, closed to vehicles

Camping and trailheads BLM campgrounds, OHV areas and trailheads

Base map

Map Topo Satellite

Legend

Federal land, by managing agency

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment

State and local land (USGS PAD-US)

State land
County and city land
Regional agency or district
Land trust or conservancy

Gaps with no tint inside public land are private parcels, often old mining claims and homesteads. They are not open to the public.

Dashed clay lines on the base map are unpaved tracks from OpenStreetMap. They show what exists on the ground, not what is legal to drive.

Select any point to see who manages the land.

Boundaries are approximate and land status changes. This map is a planning aid, not a survey or a statement of access. Confirm routes, closures and camping rules with the managing office.

Open the full map