A Thousand Trails Gem: the Beautiful Hidden Cove RV Campground in Arley, Alabama!

In order to say we camped in Alabama, we went to the only Thousand Trails we could find in the state: the Thousand Trails Hidden Cove RV Campground in Arley. If you look at the map of where we camped, you could say we went out of our way to camp here since it is in the northern part of the state. The other campgrounds we hit were pretty much in a straight line across.

While this is true, it is for two reasons.

It was the only Thousand Trails campground we found in Alabama that we could stay at for free. A big deal when you are trying to save money on the road.
Our reservation after AL was supposed to be in Tennessee for a couple of weeks before heading towards TX, but we changed routes once we got to this campground and postponed Tennessee.

What was going to be a full week’s stay at this campground turned into a three-night stay, and we headed southwest to Mississippi. But read on to learn about our three days at this little gem of a campground.

Our Check-In and Site

We arrived at this campground around 7:30 at night, and it was dark out. We don’t usually like to arrive this late, but we traveled basically up the entire state of Alabama to get there. We had spent the previous night at the Florida Caverns RV Resort, which you can read about here. It was a 300-mile trip that took 5.5 hours to drive, not including the stops. So we did arrive late.

The office was closed, but there was a packet there for us with a campground map, rules, and our site number. We were able to easily navigate to our site C-5, which was a back-in site.

The sites were wide and, even though we were between two other fifth-wheels, we had no trouble backing into our site and were set up in no time.

There were no rules at this campground against dog fences, so we were happily able to set them up so our dogs could have their area outside to roam free. Once again, these fences have been amazing for us. We bought two sets of them so they could be as big or as small as we need them, given the site space. Definitely worth getting these if you have pups. Here’s the ones we got from Amazon and had delivered to one of the other Thousand Trails we were camped at.

Exploring the Hidden Cove Campground

Given our late arrival, we didn’t explore the grounds until the next day. Even though there were a lot of RVs on site, it was very quiet. It was actually quite beautiful, as most areas of the campground have views of the Lewis Smith Lake that surrounds it (see the map above).

It was quite beautiful, and there were a lot of boats out and about. This was the view from Loop C looking out at the water. But on the opposite side of the lake was what they called the Lake Observation Deck, which we spent more time at. It was a beautiful spot to sit, relax, read, and fish. I’m sure on a hot day it’d be a nice place to swim too!

The open deck area had a few picnic tables and was great to sit on, but if you walked down the stairs at the far end, there were large rock surfaces to put your lawn chair and fish. We spent many hours there one afternoon, basking in the sun. What a way to unwind!

There is also an area with a boat ramp and dock. It was a pretty steep grade down to it, so we were glad to have our electric bikes to get back up. There were no boats docked up to it when we were there, but I’m sure it’s convenient for campers with boats.

The Clubhouse

An amenity we didn’t realize the campground had until we walked by it was the Clubhouse. Many of the Thousand Trails we’ve been to have had rec rooms to go to, all with different things in them. This one was an actual whole building.

There is a large room with several pool tables, ping pong, air hockey, and checkers. There is also a couch in that room with a TV and movies to watch. In the corner was also a train set to play with, which I’ve never seen at a campground. They have it covered.

In another room of this building, there were more couches, another TV, free books, and a couple of pianos. This would definitely be a good place to hang out on a rainy day if you wanted to get out of the RV for a while. There was fun had by all in our couple of trips to the Clubhouse.

Other Hidden Cove Offerings

This campground also has a playground, mini golf (with only a few holes), and a swimming pool. We were there in March and the pool was closed. I assume it was seasonally closed and not actually out of order. It is set off to the side by Loop C so it is very easily accessible for campers.

There were some cabin rentals as well as vacation cottages, but we weren’t there long enough to really explore these, or even get a photo of them. Many of them did appear to have water views from them, though, which must be beautiful if you don’t have an RV.

The Arley, AL Area

We were at Hidden Cove for a few days, but we did leave and spend one of those days hiking nearby. By a simple Google search, we found a nearby hiking trail that went to a magnificent waterfall. It was the Sougahoagdee Falls Trail (and no, I don’t know how to actually say that). It was about 4.5 miles long and passed several different waterfalls along the way to the big one. You can read about that hike here. It really was beautiful, and we got to take this family photo with it as our backdrop!

The only other place we visited nearby was the Dollar General about 10 minutes away for a few supplies we forgot. It’s very conveniently located nearby, as everything else would have been quite a drive.

Change of Plans

As I said, while we were here, we changed our plans and switched our week-long stay to only 3 nights. We changed our route when we left, and therefore thought it best to shorten our stay. However, had we stayed longer, I could have very easily spent another few days sitting by the lake with my book, watching the kids fish. There was no traffic around. There weren’t sirens in the distance. It was peaceful and quiet. And a great campground to go to if you are a Thousand Trails member!