Cathedral Caverns State Park Campground

Reviewed Dec. 25, 2025

Nice but small

We stayed on 12/23 to 12/24/25 and we had the entire place to ourselves. The campground where the bathhouse is is basically a rectangle with plotted out campsites. Not very private and smaller than I expected (There were a few other spots more private but you couldn't park right next to them. The bathrooms were very nice, clean and heated. The park host was very nice and made sure we had everything we needed.

Lee D.

Reviewed Feb. 26, 2025

Beautiful cave!

General: Small (36-site) campground in two loops; only the upper has a bathhouse. It is about a ¼ mile walk from the lower to the bathhouse.

Site Quality: Sites are gravel and vary; some are back-in, some are pull-through and some are parallel. Site 32 was very generous in size although not completely level. There was one picnic table, one set of water/electric utilities, and two fire rings (not sure why there were two). This site could easily fit a large Class A or two smaller campers.

Bath/Shower House: Clean and heated. The toilets and showers have a curtain for privacy which IMO feels less private. When I was in the shower, someone opened the curtain not realizing (!) that someone was in there. Warm water at the sinks and showers was appreciated on a damp and chilly day. There is also a clean laundry facility - $3/wash and $2 to dry. The laundry room also has a microwave oven.

Activities: There are daily cave tours; we have been in many caves and this one is very nice. By the lower loop is a small climbing wall. There are also hiking trails and gemstone mining, although we did not take advantage of either of these. We were there for the Cave Run - a 10km or half marathon where the last 1.2 miles AND finish are INSIDE the cave, which was very cool!

Mason, the camp host, was great. Upon our arrival, he escorted us to our site in his golf cart (entirely not necessary but welcomed) and went over what we needed to know including the WiFi password (otherwise we had no service on Verizon). Be sure to go to the office (up a very steep hill or you can drive) and ask for your 15% senior discount if applicable (you need to show proof you are old!).

Site32

Month of VisitMarch

(13) View All

Lauren W.

Reviewed Jul. 7, 2023

Amazing

Great cg. Average size sites, but shady. Site 23 back in. Fire pit, water, 50 amp, FHU. Very friendly hosts. Went up the hill to the Caverns. Wow! Just beautiful. Have a gift shop there also. Restrooms and showers were a bit of a walk up the hill, but clean and well maintained.

Site23

Month of VisitJune

(5) View All

Lorilee S.

Reviewed Jun. 25, 2023

Amazing!!

This campground is so clean. The new section has full hookups. Sites are a good size. It is a bit of a joke to the bathhouse/laundry room. Wash is $3 and dryer is $2. The cavern is a definite must! Camp hosts Theresa and Ray are absolutely amazing. They’re the friendliest camp hosts we’ve ever met!

Site20

Month of VisitJune

(11) View All

Joe O.

Guide

Reviewed Jan. 3, 2023

Newer campground with great sites

Traveled up from Florida for 5 nights. Newer campground. Sites were large and level. No real playground for the younger ones. Cave tour was a great experience and totally worth it. Firewood prices at the store were very high.

Only a 30 min drive to Huntsville!

Site7

Month of VisitDecember

(4) View All

Ray & Terri F.

Reviewed Nov. 13, 2022

New, nice FHU CG with several hiking trails

We are full-timers in a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow. We were in site B24 for 14 days in late October. The hosts are very friendly and helpful. The FHU sites are relatively new and the CG is very clean, quiet, peaceful and well maintained. The sites are currently gravel, but many are surprisingly unlevel back to front and spacing varies quite a bit from very close to fairly reasonable. There are apparently plans to concrete the gravel pads.

AT&T coverage was dismal, ranging from 1 to 0 bars of LTE speeds varying from 0 to 0.5 MB/s. CG WiFi was inconsistent, with speeds from next to zero and up to 1.5 MB/s. There are plans to upgrade it in the next year or so. We were not able to get DISH coverage on any of the western satellites at our site do to a large oak tree to the SW. We were able to get 17 OTA channels with our omni antenna.

SiteB24

Month of VisitOctober

Myranda

Guide

Reviewed Oct. 15, 2022

Beautiful Cavern, Wonderful Time

This campground is beautiful. It is well taken care of. Lots of hiking trails. Family friendly. You MUST take a tour of Cathedral Caverns. It was so beautiful.

Only downside is there is virtually no internet/cell service. We are full timers and work from “home.”

Month of VisitOctober

Mike E.

Traveler

Reviewed Jun. 9, 2022

Would go back again

Great hiking trails, amazing cave, helpful & friendly hosts, large clean shower/bathroom building. The showers are in the area for tent camping which is a bit of a hike from RV sites - less than a quarter mile. There's a great climbing wall for kids. If you want a break from the world it's great since internet is spotty & slow: I'm able to write this while on back roads in Georgia but couldn't do it there. The hills & some rain kept the temperature cooler while we were there - also a nice break in June. We would definitely plan to go back if we're anywhere near!

SiteRV 7

Month of VisitJune

fletcher6531

Reviewed Jul. 26, 2021

Great spot for the night

This is a great spot for a stop over to see the caverns. They just installed new electrical and water lines. No dump. There are showers and toilets. Very quite.

Site1

Month of VisitJuly

(8) View All

Britton E.

Reviewed Oct. 7, 2020

Our go to spot!

We live in Madison, AL and love driving out to Cathedral Caverns to camp on the weekends. It has a smaller but decent primitive campground. A quick drive down the gravel road and you're at the RV park with bathrooms. There are also two backcountry sites if you want to hike a mile or so. It's never too crowded and always clean! WARNING: Very spotty cellphone service, which is actually nice if you want to enjoy the outdoors!

Tony C.

Reviewed Aug. 5, 2019

A hidden gem

This is a wonderful park that is worth the time and effort to visit. We’ve gone here a few times now as it’s one of our favorites on a hot summer day. The temperature inside the cave stays a cool 62 degrees and the paths through the cave are wide and paved. The tours take about two hours and we’ve never seen it crowded, the guides are very knowledgeable and entertaining. The price to see the cave is $19.00 per person and the tours are started at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00, be sure to go to the office to obtain you tickets before the tour starts.

There is a small campground here that as a limited number of sites with 30 amp electricity, water but no sewer. The sites are not reservable yet so call beforehand for availability. There are also tent camping sites and a bath house for the campground. We like it here and will come again in the future.

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Jeremy H.

Reviewed Jun. 22, 2019

Clean, Quiet, Comfortable

My son Charlie(age 8) and I camped at Cathedral Caverns State Park on June 17, 2019. It was a Monday night. We chose one of the primitive campground sites and paid a little under$20 for one night. Since we were camping we received a discount on our cave tour the next day. It's worth noting that all of the primitive and RV campsites are outside of the state park’s main gates which means that anyone can easily enter or leave the camp at anytime day or night; however, two state employees live fulltime within walking distance of the campsites. It was encouraging to know that help was only steps away if we needed it. One of the rangers actually stopped and introduced himself while making his early evening round. He verified that I had registered at the camp, informed me that it might rain that night, and wished us a good evening. A father and son also drove through the campground about that time in a personal car. I expected him to camp, but later when we went for a walk, we didn’t find him. On our walk we went down to the restrooms gathering kindling in large, reusable grocery bags. We also brought our one gallon water jug. It’s quite a walk to the restroom and unless you are driving, it would be unreasonable to rely on it as your bathroom. Bring a camping toilet or a shovel. The RV sites are right next to the restrooms, which means that if you are in the primitive site it is very unlikely that you will hear RV generators all night. There were no RVs there on our night because the sites were being overhauled and it was closed though the restrooms were still up and running. The restrooms were very clean and spacious with clean, new shower curtains and it was fully stocked with supplies. I can’t say if the water was hot, but my suspicion is that it probably was since the rest of the facility is well kept. Back to the kindling: There’s plenty to be had and we even found four or five logs left by our campsite by a previous camper. Speaking of firewood, there’s plenty of that for sale for a reasonable$10.00 at the restroom facility. Money’s left in a box on the honor system. After cooking two cans of Southgate chili on an improvised Sweedish fire using the charitable camper’s firewood, we played in the field which was easily accessible from the primitive campsite. It’s guarded by a feral but entertaining cat who has an appetite for small rabbits. He almost caught one when he chased it through the campsite and under the picnic table where we happened to be eating supper. I’m not sure if he ever caught him but the last time I saw them they were running through the campsite like the wind. The campsite was simple. There was a fire ring and an old picnic table. You might want to bring a table cloth along or use a tarp if you’re doing more than heating up canned chili. The site was clean as was the entire park. I was easily able to back into the site with a 2007 Trailblazer. Though we had planned on tent camping, we ended up sleeping in the Trailblazer. Dad brought the tent, but he forgot the poles. All of the sites were clean and would have made wonderful tent sites. They were spaced adequately apart to provide a sense of privacy though if you’re pooping in a bucket you might have to be strategic in your temporary John placement. I don’t think my wife would have liked the bathroom situation at all and it might have been a bigger issue for Charlie and me if there’d been anyone else on the campground. We were the sole campers at Cathedral Caverns during our visit. We weren’t the only people using the park though. There were plenty who come to see the cave which true to its name feels like a Cathedral. I’ve been in a few tourist caves but there’s something different about this one. Our tour guide did a great job not only telling us about the beauty and history of the cave, but helped us to imagine one of the caves first explorers and its benefactor Mr, Gurly. If that description doesn’t make you want to visit, here’s this: Legend says there’s a ledge in the cave and if you toss a coin and land it right on the ledge you get your wish. After I tossed my dime I regretted instantly not wishing for a billion instead of a million dollars. I was assured by the tour guide that I could expect my check any day now, so the star review might change depending on how quickly the check rolls in.

Month of VisitJune

Jessica B.

Traveler

Reviewed Jun. 3, 2019

Nice enough

It was clean and mostly quiet but close to main roads so you can hear cars driving by. The showers and bathhouse were very clean and well maintained. The staff was very friendly and helpful. It’s not as secluded as I normally like but we went when it wasn’t busy so there were only two other campsites taken and everyone stayed spaced out. I would camp there again if I was in the area.

Malaney H.

Guide

Reviewed Aug. 29, 2018

Secluded

This campground was especially cool for us because we were the only camperz the night we stayed. We have a tiny trailer so we stayed in the RV section which have water and electric. It is 30amp and up so if you need 20 (which we did), make sure you have a converter. You can "rent" one for 10$ if not and get refunded once you leave.

This area has a large bathroom with showers. There are picnic tables and a fire ring. There is also a primitive tent area but I didnt go back there since it was a short stop for us.

This campground has a large cave which you can tour during the day for a small fee. The gift shop is nice and the people were helpful.

Kelly M.

Reviewed Aug. 1, 2018

Come for the caverns- the camping is okay

Okay- so we are strictly tent/primitive campers. This would be a decent place if you're looking for an RV experience. The sites themselves are pretty plain old plots of land. Nice and green in the early summer, but nothing all that special. But this place is still totally worth a visit! The caverns, while pre-tty gimmicky, are really impressive and nothing beats that inside-of-a-refrigerator feeling of a nice cave on a hot day. You might even want to take a sweater. Not the most pristine nature experience we would usually seek for camping, but it's an afforable way to stay near the caverns which are worth the trip!

Anna R.

Reviewed Jul. 18, 2018

Accessible caverns

If you are looking for a Cave experience in Norh Alabama that little kids can handle, this is it. Yes, it may be a little too tame for some and there is a small fee but it beats having to climb out of a hole with a petrified Pre schooler on your back.

Sara V.

Reviewed Jul. 10, 2018

Cute, secluded camping

Very cute place to camp. Tree cover helps protect from the rain. Great amenities as well. Has showers, not sure if there is a washer machine there but we didnt need it. We camped here 2 nights back in May and it was beautiful. Great place to camp if you are exploring the caverns or Stephen’s Gap!

Month of VisitMay

Matthew C.