Clear Creek (al)

The Clear Creek Recreation Area has become one of Alabama's most popular recreation areas and has many repeat visitors. The Bankhead National Forest's largest recreation area, Clear Creek is in Winston County about 13 miles north of Jasper, Alabama, constructed on the shore of Lewis Smith Lake and giving direct access via the day use boat launch to boating, water skiing, personal watercraft use and fishing for largemouth bass, striped bass and crappie. It offers facilities for individual and group camping, picnicking, swimming, boat launching, hiking and biking. Check-in is no earlier than 2:00 pm and check-out no later than 12:00 pm — a two-hour window that allows staff adequate time to clean and maintain each site. The campground has four paved loops with paved parking spurs and offers 102 RV campsites, including 32 double sites, 11 of them pull-through. Each campsite has water and electrical hookups with both 50-amp and 30-amp service, a fire ring, picnic table and lantern post. All sites are level and spacious; single campsites accommodate up to six people and two vehicles, double sites up to twelve people and four vehicles. Each of the four loops has a bathhouse with flush toilets and showers, and there is a trailer dump station within the recreation area. No garbage dumpsters are in the campground; users are required to pack out trash and deposit it in the dumpsters by the dump station. An entrance station with an electronic gate controls access to the campground. Two group camping areas, available by reservation only, accommodate up to 25 tent campers each and share a bathhouse with flushing toilets and showers. All facilities are wheelchair accessible. The day use portion of the recreation area focuses on the swimming beach, served by a bathhouse with flushing toilets and showers. Next to the beach is a 50-person group picnic pavilion with a flush toilet, and on the other side of the beach lies a picnic area with 53 family units, all connected by newly paved paths. On the point, adjacent to the lake, are two more 50-person picnic pavilions served by a nearby flush toilet. Use of the picnic pavilions is by reservation only. A year-round boat launch is available with an SST vault toilet and boat/trailer parking. A 1.5-mile paved bicycle trail connects the campground to the day use area, and the recently paved 2.5-mile Raven Cliffs interpretive trail runs through the day use area. The campground also has a basketball and volleyball court and a horseshoe pit, and interpretive programs are hosted during the summer. The lake provides excellent fishing for Kentucky Spotted Bass and Hybrid Striped Bass. The 180,000+ acre Bankhead National Forest is in northwestern Alabama, and its prominent feature is the Sipsey Wilderness. Known as "The Land of a Thousand Waterfalls," the Sipsey is at the juncture of three separate geologic areas — the Appalachian Plateau, the Cumberland Plateau and the Coastal Plain — whose vegetation blends into a remarkable diversity of species. Its 12,726 acres hold swift streams, waterfalls, sandstone cliffs, undisturbed gorges, majestic hardwood forests, wildflowers, birds and animals, as well as Alabama's largest tree, a tulip poplar with a 21-foot circumference at its base. Lewis Smith Lake, formed in 1961 when Alabama Power Company's 300-foot dam impounded the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River, has a surface area of 21,200 acres, 500 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth of 264 feet. Elsewhere in the forest are the Little Natural Bridge, the longest rock arch east of the Rockies; the 19th-century Pine Torch Church, one of the oldest churches in Alabama and one of only four surviving log churches; and the Houston Civil War Jail, built of hand-hewn logs filled with nails to prevent prisoners from "sawing their way to freedom".