Alley Spring

Great week. I just wish you could stop the river from washing away camp sites

The pavilion was dirty and had not been cleaned in some time. We spent over an hour just cleaning before we could even attempt to use.

Our campsite was nice, easy to back in and roomy. We liked having water at the site which I feel like is rare for state parks. No attendants on duty, all self-serve. Water access within walking distance. The shower houses were clean but unbearably hot due to lack of A/C and ventilation, it almost made showering pointless because we sweat so much changing. We liked how the shower rooms were separate from the bathrooms though. Because no enforcement present, the next campers coming into our site on check-out day showed up 2 hours before we had to check out, very awkward encounter, they said they know they were early but then we felt rushed.

I've been staying at Alley Spring for over ten years now. It's a very pleasant campground. Sites are reasonably big. If you are tent camping, take a close look at the photos on the website, as some sites are more tent-friendly (in terms of elevated, dry, grassy areas to pitch a tent) than others. It does seem to me that the reservable loops are more RV/trailer oriented than the non-reservable loops down by the river, which have larger grassy areas for tenting. The new (2017, I think) shower building is really nice. There is one loop with electric service, which has usually worked for us. It tends to book up well in advance, though. Cell service is effectively nonexistent.

Eminence has a decent grocery store, a couple gas stations and a few restaurants and bars that tend to change from year to year.

Paddling the Jacks Fork is a great experience, but word to the wise: a few times each summer you share the stretch below Eminence with (horse) trail rides... which cross the river... and horses do what horses do. So you may want to check the town website and schedule accordingly; i.e., the week before the trail ride rather than during or immediately after.

Nice Campground. Clean restrooms and shower house.
Lots of things to do and see in the area. We visited Rocky Falls, Klepzig Mill and Alley Spring and Mill all part of the NPS. Floating available on the Jack's Fork River which runs alongside the campground.

Loved it all, EVeryone friendly. Bathrooms clean, Ranger presentations in amphitheater great.

We always have a good time and this year we had grandkids there that haven't been there for a few years. The only thing is is that the mud in the campsites was very slick and a few of us fell and got scraped up. You cancelled our sites on us right before we came. I called on Thursday July 11th to change the dates from Sunday, July 14th to Tuesday , July 16 because they were closed for clean-up, which was okay and they assured me everything was good to come in on Tuesday we still had our sites. Then on Sunday, I get an email saying they cancelled our sites. I was able to get back on and book 2 of the sites but someone had already booked the other 2, people we booked for were not happy, so they didn't come. We don't believe you should cancel someone's bookings without them cancelling them themselves. It's alright to maybe change the days like this time we had to wait 2 extra days, but that was okay but don't cancel them without the person doing it themselves.

We visited many springs in the area during our visit. This was a good place to use as a "home base". The campground was clean. I looked in 2 of the bathrooms and they were clean and stocked. Our site was level. We went to the ranger program about cicadas on Saturday. We went on the hike to the overlook and it was clearly marked. We visited the mill twice. It is a pretty scene and relaxing with all the water flowing through.

The pad was full of mud. We had to try and spray it off to be able to walk without slipping and falling. The fire pit was full of old wood and trash. Never saw that they were cleaned out. Grass was very tall.

Nice and clean and peaceful