In this blog, we’ll review Rickwood Caverns State Park, just 30 miles north of Birmingham Alabama. While the main draw to the park is the caverns tour, there are also some very interesting hiking trails to explore both within a forested setting and among the limestone hills of the park. While the campground is very small with only 13 water and electric sites, it is a good place to stop over an explore on your way north or south on the I-65 corridor north of Birmingham.
Rickwood Caverns State Park is mainly about the underground cave tour where the natural wonder goes 175 feet below ground and stays between 58-62 degrees year-round. As of this taping, the tours run four times a day and cost just under $20 per adult and just under $10 per child ages 5-11. There are also social distancing requirements and limited capacity policies in effect, so please call the park office before booking.
There is one very small campground with only 13 campsites that have city water and both 30- and 50-Amp electric service. The sites can accommodate RVs with a maximum length of 40 feet. Not all campsites can accommodate larger RVs, so you will want to be careful to pick your campsite accordingly. There is one dump station at the campground, so the ratio of 13:1 is excellent. Given this ratio, you likely will not have to wait long to dump tanks upon departure. The campsites also have picnic tables and fire rings and are basically level. We did not see laundry machines at the campground.
There are five criteria we look at when rating a campground. First up, Hospitality and Check-In. We give this a 4 out of 5 as it was easy to check-in. We did have to leave our vehicle and enter the main building to confirm our reservation and receive our site tag, but it was simple to do.
Next in our review is Infrastructure & Amenities which we are giving a 4 out of 5. The main roads were in very good condition, and it was easy to maneuver with the RV. The buildings, facilities, seasonal pool, and dump station all appeared to be in good shape. There was also a security gate at the park entrance for entering after hours. Really the only thing we did not see were laundry machines. Be aware that the campground is very small, and the park is more tailored for day-use visitors who are coming to take the cavern tour.
Site Quality gets a 4 out of 5 as the campsites were in fine shape, yet generally close together without bushes or berms between the campsites. In this regard, privacy was somewhat limited. The sites themselves are well defined and in good shape with a quality gravel base. Given the angle of the sites to the wide campground road, it was very easy to back into our site. The utilities on the site worked fine, although a reminder that there are no sewer connections available at each site.
Our Exercisability rating is only a 3 out of 5. Probably the best opportunity for exercise at the park is hiking the shorter yet interesting trails. The roads within the park are very limited for running and biking and one would need to leave the park to accumulate any significant mileage. Our favorite hike was the Fossil Mountain Trail as it weaved between very unique layers of large limestone and had decent elevation gains and drops along the way. There is also a large public pool at the park which was not open when we visited in early April. Besides the playground and cave tour, there wasn’t much else in terms of exercise to mention, as there isn’t a water sport option at the park.
For our final rating, we are giving a 5 out of 5 for Workability as the bandwidth for AT&T and Verizon were both exceptional. We think this may be because the Park is in the hills and there may have been a large cell tower nearby, based on the stellar bandwidth. Using an iPhone 10, we had outstanding speeds of 123 Mbps down and 5.93 Mbps up on AT&T. Using our Verizon 8800L Mifi, we experienced fast speeds of 87.1 Mbps down and 3.79 Mbps up.
Overall, we enjoyed our short stay at Rickwood Caverns State Park given the variety of hiking and small but good campsites. Our visit was while in transit along the I-65 corridor in northern Alabama, and it worked out well for a short stop. While we did not get a chance to do the cave tour given the timing of our visit and the restrictions in place, it was still a nice stop over while traveling and we would consider staying there again.
All the best in your camping endeavors!
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