MONTGOMERY – James Hansel recently surprised his wife, Joy, with a glamping trip to Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin to celebrate the couple’s 47th wedding anniversary.
Joy didn’t know anything about the trip until the night before the couple’s departure from their home in Theodore, just outside Mobile, but her first glamping experience left such a positive impression that she wants to go back again.
“The glamping sites were impeccable. It was just a delight, really, to me,” Joy said. “It had a lot of amenities that made glamping comfortable. We’d camped out, but this was the first time we’d ever glamped out, and so that was a neat experience for us.”
One of the best amenities, they said, was the ability to rent kayaks for the duration of the trip, which allowed them to explore the beauty of Lake Martin and the state park at their leisure.
“It just had everything we needed,” Joy Hansel said. “We enjoyed it. It was beautiful there. We can’t say anything bad about it because it was so great. It was an amazing experience for us.”
Wind Creek, in April, became the first of Alabama’s state parks to offer glamping, a form of camping featuring more luxurious facilities than those associated with traditional camping. Glamping has since been added and is now available at Lake Guntersville State Park, Chewacla State Park in Auburn, Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville and Cheaha State Park.
Alabama State Parks partnered with Timberline Glamping to operate the glamping sites. Timberline co-owner Rebeka Self said the Hansels’ experience at Wind Creek mirrors the feedback the company has received from others.
“It’s just been pretty overwhelming,” she said. “For being a new location, it’s kind of blown all of our expectations away. I think the weekends are booked out well into the fall, and they’re booking a lot of weekdays as well, which is always a good sign. They’ve already had some guests come and stay and then book again for their next trip and want to bring friends.
“That return guest is what we want to see,” Self added. “We want people to come and enjoy it, but we want them to enjoy it so much that they want to plan their next trip and come back to see us again.”
Alabama’s 21 state parks offer a wide variety of overnight accommodations, including resort-style lodging, picturesque cabins and chalets, modern RV hook-ups and primitive camping. The addition of glamping provides another option for guests looking for a combination of rustic and luxury.
“Our goal is to make every guest have a memorable stay at an Alabama State Park,” said Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship, “and the new glamping sites definitely deliver a memorable experience. We’ve been careful and thoughtful about the best parks to offer glamping, and it’s exciting to see this new amenity expand from one to five parks in such a short time. This has been a fantastic addition to our state parks.”
To make reservations for glamping at Alabama State Parks, visit the Timberline Glamping website, www.timberlineglamping.com. Information on glamping at each of the five state parks where it’s available is also available online:
Wind Creek: https://www.alapark.com/parks/wind-creek-state-park/glamping-safari-tents
Cheaha: https://www.alapark.com/parks/cheaha-state-park/glamping-safari-tents
Monte Sano: https://www.alapark.com/parks/monte-sano-state-park/glamping-safari-tents
Lake Guntersville: https://www.alapark.com/parks/lake-guntersville-state-park/glamping-safari-tents
Chewacla: https://www.alapark.com/parks/chewacla-state-park/glamping-safari-tents
“It was very easy to reserve,” James Hansel said. “It was very easy to schedule all the things we needed, like firewood. All that was so easy.”
Added Joy Hansel: “I thoroughly enjoyed it. We did hiking. We did the kayaking. We took our bikes with us and went biking. We went swimming. We even played putt-putt there. And there was a lot more to do, so we definitely want to go back.”
