Gunter Hill COE, Montgomery, AL

May 19 - 24 Gunter Hill COE

We were up early for the drive down to Montgomery, AL and Gunter Hill COE.  It was only 210 miles but it seemed like it took forever.  There was a long traffic delay on I-65 that lasted for 10-12 miles.  Not sure what the problem was since we didn't see any accidents or construction.  Odd!

The directions to the campground had us wondering if we were going the right way.  It seemed like we had to make a right or left turn constantly and the roads progressively were worse.  We did drive down Old Selma Highway for 4-5 miles and finally turned into the COE park.

Our campsite was very long and we could have parked two motorhomes the size of ours in the driveway along with the tow vehicles.  It was a nice level concrete pad for the mh and grass between the sites.  Full hookup sites like this for $13/night with pass.  One of the nicer campsites we've had in a long time.

Our cellphone and wifi service were terrible since we were so far out in the boondocks, plus due to the trees we had a difficult time setting up our Dish Playmaker.  I did mange to get it working finally and we were able to watch a few of our favorite shows.

Just as we arrived at the park it began to rain and it rained every day we were there.  Sometimes lightly and others torrential downpours.  I think we received over 8" of rain total for the 5 days.  Our campsite was flooded more than once. 😕

The creek down the road from us was at flood stage very quickly and stayed high for the duration of our visit.  Our campsite was just off the Alabama River and was high enough that there wasn't any danger to us. 

Boat launching area

Flood stage

 There are two camping sections at Gunter Hill and we were in the newer part with great campsites.  The older section is sort of a rustic type, with narrow interior roads and the sites tended to be unlevel.  They are rock parking sections for the RV/Trailer, etc and the heavy rains washed out a number of the sites.

The campground is used very heavily by locals and many of them expressed that they preferred to be in the old section since it was right on the water.  The light areas between the trees, in the background, showing in these two photos are the river.

Due to all the rain we didn't get out and do a lot of touring in the area.  We've been to Montgomery before and our friends John & Ann Duncan showed us around to all the interesting places to visit.

The telephone pole takes away from this photo but the large trees and pretty pasture with the horse perked Gerry up so I've included it here.

 The cattle sure do have some nice grass to munch on.  We saw cattle in Tucson eating cactus and I'm sure they would trade places with this group.  Part of the pasture was underwater and a few young ones were playing in the flooded area.

 We ran across some old plantation homes and stopped to get some shots of them.  This one below was beautiful and looked very stately.

I think this is a newer home but it fit into the area very nicely.

We did go grocery shopping at the nearest Public's that was 19 miles away and very expensive.  We took advantage of being near some restaurants (none near us) and had lunch at a Chappy's.  We hadn't been to one before and were pleasantly surprised when our waitress asked us what kind of ice cream we wanted.  We each enjoyed our complimentary cone before leaving.  It was crowded, however we had a nice meal and great service.  

That was our exciting 5 days at Gunter Hill.   No, I do not like thunder and lighting all night and getting weather alerts 4-5 times a day.