william bankhead national forest

We have visited Bankhead NF many times from short day trips for picnics and hikes to a 5 day backpacking trip, and even renting a nearby cabin. Bankhead is beautiful and offers a variety of landscapes. The Sipsey Wilderness area is our favorite with its many waterfalls, Borden Creek perfect for wading, and even old growth forests. Our kids love wading the creek, playing in the waterfalls, and exploring the wildlife. USE CAUTION to watch for venomous snakes. On our backpacking trip we saw a copperhead, a water moccasin, and a CORAL SNAKE! Just watch where you step (and look over logs before you step over). We have not seen a rattlesnake, but I believe they are there as well. We've also seen many non-venomous snakes. For a short visit, the Borden Creek recreation area is a great place to stop. It can also serve as a parking area for a longer camping/backpacking trip. The area has a vault toilet, a bridge offering a good view of the creek, and a short hike will lead you to waterfalls. There are some picnic tables and a shelter a short walk from the parking area over the bridge. The creek is clear and shallow enough in most places to make it perfect for wading. If you can come in the winter when it's been below freezing, the waterfalls freeze into amazing sculptures. For a longer day hike or backpacking trip, you can pass through a hemlock forest, climb over massive old growth trees downed in the tornado, visit the big tree and its surrounding area, and see tons and tons of rock shelters and waterfalls. There is a "Friends of Sipsey Wilderness" group website with maps and lots of information to help you plan for a longer hike.If you plan to hike, keep in mind that you will need to cross shallow creeks and prepare accordingly. The creek bottoms are rock and sand so crossing is usually pretty easy. There are warning signs to watch for flash floods so keep that in mind. Outside of the Sipsey Wilderness, Bankhead has tons of different areas to explore. We've spent entire days driving through the back roads and exploring stops along the way. There are some cabins and vacation rentals available in the area too.We love Bankhead and highly recommend visiting!

Based on what I can find the Sipsey Forest seems to be the most popular area for hiking. I would recommend starting from the 200 trailhead which as noted in a previous post is located at 34.285583,-87.398552. I hiked the 200 trail as well as parts of the 203 and 207. The 200 trail was definitely the highlight with the best views. The 203 while scenic is basically a walk through the woods and does not follow the river. I found the scenery somewhat uninspired and turned around about half way in. The 203 is called the "lookout" trail so there may have been some spectacular view at the end that I missed but barring that I would not recommend it. The 207 was more scenic than the 203 and followed the river but I lost the trail about half way in and had to turn around. Not sure if I was just not able to find the trail or if it dies out. I also tried hiking the 209 but the crossing over the river appears to have washed away. I also discovered that a trail leads south of the trailhead towards a picnic area and continues on from there. This trail was similar to the 200 in terms of scenery and I would have hiked more but it was getting dark. Happy hiking!!

It is buried down miles and miles of long local roads, highways do not go here or even close to here. Garmin tried to take us down a dirt road, needless to say that's when we pulled out a map. Once we arrived the check in people were very nice and helpful. They set us up on a wonderful hill overlooking the lake. The RV pad is paved, pebble rock for living space. Bathroom has 1 shower, 2 toilets and 1 sink. Shower and sink are the push button kind that shut off automatically. Hubby says it was fine, but I think I'll us the rv's shower. :) Awesome bike trail, mostly down hill....killer back up hill to campsite!! Nice jogging trail with beautiful views of cliffs and water. Come Sunday morning the few other campers who were here all left. We are very isolated from the view remaining campers. Beautiful day, great shade, lovely water. We would come back again.

Bankhead National Forest is a place for all families/hikers to go. We hiked Trailhead 200 from the South to the rock tunnel and then turned around. We spent maybe 3 hours on this hike taking out time to eat snacks and taking breaks to enjoy the quiet and views of rocks and surrounding area. The website to research more is http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/alabama/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=30091&actid=50The coordinates for Trailhead 200 are 34.285583,-87.398552. Place these coordinates into Google Map and you can see by using satellite the parking area. You can also follow the river north from there. There is a $3 charge to park and it is well worth it. Take the trail and stay adjacent to the river as you head North. You will cross some small creeks but be sure you stick wih the river as we continued along a creek not realizing we had left the river. We went through some brairs, etc. but still had a great time. The paths are obvious and you can either take the low path or high path as shared by ohers on Trip Advisor. The low paths will come back to the high path when they end. The tunnel through the rock is narrow and as you enter you will see that it is not total darkness. You will see the light from the other side as you enter. It is a must for your list of hikes.

Returned to the Corinth Campground. This is now our favorite RV parking spot in the Southeast. We took long walks into the surrounding areas. We rowed our inflatable kayak on Smith Lake. We bicycled all around. Best of all, we got to see Natural Bridge and Dismals Canyon.Finally, the hikes in the Sipsey Wilderness were nothing short of magical. with ideal weather we hiked 4 different trails from 3 trail head locations with our Whippet and Italian Greyhound loving every minute of it.At the campground morning and evening walks were always punctuated by deer herd encounters. The fearless deer, does leading fawns and yearlings, were always around and available to be seen in the mornings and the late afternoons. This is just one of the most delightful places in rural Alabama. We are already planning our return. A superior campground more reminiscent of a country club with full hook-up availability.

We visited Bankhead this past summer. The falls are not marked because it is not for in-experienced nor physically limited individuals. The hike is moderate, but when you get close to the falls, he becomes very difficult. But believe me....it is well worth it to all those 'Waterfall Chasers' like me!!!It is so beautiful. I found one of God's sanctuaries on this earth. I want to go back there many more times. A refreshing escape to the wilderness.

This was our second trip to the Bankhead NF. We stayed in the Corinth Campground in our new travel trailer. This is the best managed, best laid out, and best located campground in all of Alabama. With a full hook-up and a delightfully flat and graded site, it was heaven. The lake and boat ramp (Smith Lake) where very close so we could kayak and swim. The real treat was hiking in the Sipsey Wilderness. The variety and visual beauty of the heavily forested trails was awesome. Open all year around this is the one place we've been to that we intend on returning many times a year.

Houston access: Beautiful trails to enjoy nature and silence. Very basic services. Be sure to bring water and snacks as there are no concessions in (or close to) the area.

Beauty at its best! Hills,trees,creeks,wildlife,old buildings,arrow heads.Plenty of room for the little ones to roam and explore.

A drive through Bankhead forest in the fall is a glorius, heart throbbing, and color infusing passage through nature. You will see leaves that are every color in the rainbow. Don't miss it.

nice affordablecamping, pleasant and informative staff. wo muchto see and do...just make sureto wear snake boots.bahaha. They also have serious deer and with that hunters butthe staff will give you all types of info to stay safe

Bankhead is a great place to spend a relaxing afternoon for a walk, or a longer hike, even if you don't have an entire weekend to devote to a larger park. Beautiful and historical, wildlife and trails.

Some very-hard-to-find trails, but a beautiful area. Not as much wildlife as we'd hoped, and given that it was rather dry when we went, not a lot of waterfalls tricking much either.We had a great two-hour trek through a small muddy cave, and down by the river though, and the drive in/through the forest was gorgeous too. Bring lunch/dinner, as it is quite remote once you get to the smaller roads.

Bankhead National forest is a very well equipped facility for camping. Beautiful area. The area has so much to offer from many many acres of preserved natural forest to bountiful access to the river/lake. Area is great for anyone that wants to camp, from large motorhome camping to tent camping.

Great hiking trails, nice creeks easy access to most of the area's. Don't forget to drive over the Tennessee Divide.