Deerlick Creek
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:03 UTC
- A night
- $20–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 46All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Deerlick Creek Campground is located on Holt Lake on the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway northeast of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The facility is in a beautiful forest along the shoreline, providing campers and day-use visitors with access to water sports, boating, fishing, swimming, hiking and biking. Keep reading
Recreation
Campers can explore the lakeshore using the campground's hiking trails as well as a paved bicycle trail. The waterway is popular for fishing for bass, crappie, bream, catfish and more.
Facilities
Deerlick Creek has 46 campsites with water and electric hookups, six of which are designated tent only. There is also one group picnic shelter that can be reserved for day use. Families with children have the convenience of showers, a multi-use court and swimming beach.
Natural Features
Holt Lake was created by the damming of the Black Warrior River. The campground is situated amidst a mixed pine and hardwood forest, which displays colorful foliage along the riverbanks each fall. Deer, squirrel, wild turkey, migratory birds and blue birds, all live in the Holt Lake area. The Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway consists of six lakes with a total length of 457 miles and 39,800 surface acres of water. Temperatures range from the 80s to 90s from April through September, and annual rainfall averages about 60 inches.
Nearby Attractions
Deerlick Creek is 17 miles from the University of Alabama where you can find sporting events, museums, and other attractions. Deerlick Creek is also located 13 miles from Ol' Colony Golf Course home to the University of Alabama golf teams as well as a disc golf course. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (205) 388-1111.
What the agency tells you
Park Attendants will NOT be making reservations at the gatehouse. All reservations will be made via the recreation.gov app, recreation.gov website, or by calling 877-444-6777.
Gates are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Hiking trails, bicycle trail and group shelters are for registered guests only.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Limit of two vehicles per site.
Electric and gas scooters must be licensed and street legal
Park attendants cannot perform site transfers Thursday-Saturday or on holiday weekends during the peak season
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
No ATV or UTV use is allowed.
For more information, visit: https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Recreation/Black-Warrior-Tombigbee-BWT-Lakes/
ALL Visitors must exit the park by 9:30 p.m.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 46 · 6 tent-only
- Hookups
- 46 electric, 45 water, 3 sewer
- Longest rig
- 175 ft
- Paved pads
- 29 of 46
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 40th darkest of 41 in AL
- Bortle 5
Full this Saturdayread 16:03 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:24 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 43 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 32 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:03 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:24 UTC
- Burchfield Branch ParkBlack Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes · 13 mi · 4 of 66 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:03 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
47 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 47 mapped sitesAll 47 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 46 of the 47 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LRID | 12 | standard electric | 81 ft | 50 amp | 115 ft | 288 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 13 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 151 ft | 164 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 14 | standard electric | 99 ft | 50 amp | 134 ft | 172 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 15 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 178 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 16 | standard electric | 99 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 158 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 17 | standard electric | 99 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 142 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 18 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 126 ft | 120 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 19 | standard electric | 99 ft | 50 amp | 154 ft | 250 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 20 | standard electric | 175 ft | 50 amp | 133 ft | 287 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 21 | standard electric | 74 ft | 50 amp | 140 ft | 310 ft | $28–$30 | |
| LRID | 22 | standard electric | 140 ft | 50 amp | 201 ft | 388 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 23 | standard electric | 94 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 457 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 24 | standard electric | 89 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 432 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 25 | standard electric | 115 ft | 50 amp | 84 ft | 360 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 26 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 401 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 27 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 346 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 28 | standard electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 310 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 29 | standard electric | 73 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 292 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 30 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 293 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 31 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 195 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 32 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 201 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 33 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 267 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 34 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 167 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 35 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 88 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 36 | standard electric | 83 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 92 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 37 | standard electric | 93 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 83 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 38 | standard electric | 71 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 63 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 39 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 71 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | 40 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 157 ft | $28–$30 | |
| RBLU | GS1 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 84 ft | 365 ft | $25 | |
| SCAM | 41 | tent only electric | 50 amp | 111 ft | 460 ft | $20 | ||
| SCAM | 42 | tent only electric | 50 amp | 111 ft | 379 ft | $20 | ||
| SCAM | 43 | tent only electric | 50 amp | 149 ft | 282 ft | $20 | ||
| SCAM | 44 | tent only electric | 50 amp | 135 ft | 168 ft | $20 | ||
| SCAM | 45 | tent only electric | 50 amp | 134 ft | 180 ft | $20 | ||
| SCAM | 46 | tent only electric | 50 amp | 134 ft | 305 ft | $20 | ||
| TPIN | 01 | standard electric | 87 ft | Electricity Hookup | 126 ft | 504 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 02 | standard electric | 83 ft | 50 amp | 126 ft | 534 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 03 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 167 ft | 369 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 04 | standard electric | 100 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 366 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 05 | standard electric | 99 ft | 50 amp | 157 ft | 218 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 06 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 385 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 07 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 362 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 08 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | yes | 90 ft | 260 ft | $28–$30 |
| TPIN | 09 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 320 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 10 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 419 ft | $28–$30 | |
| TPIN | 11 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 421 ft | $28–$30 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 47 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Burchfield Branch Park13 mi
Payne Lake Recreation AreaTalladega National Forest · 26 mi
Lock 832 mi
Finches Ferry37 mi
Jennings Ferry38 mi
Lock 643 miFrom I-59 in Alabama, take Exit 73 (MacFarland Boulevard). Go west on MacFarland Blvd./Highway 82 for approximately 4.2 miles. Veer right onto Rice Mine Road. At the stoplight turn left onto Rice Mine Rd. Then, turn right at the stoplight onto New Watermelon Road and follow it for 3.4 miles. Turn right at the stop sign onto Lake Nicol Road, and follow Lake Nicol Rd. for 3.4 miles to Deerlick Road. Turn right onto Deerlick Rd. for approximately 3.2 miles to Deerlick Park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tuscaloosa, AL
Typical weather
Typical October night 53°F, day 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Deerlick Creek is in Alabama’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Robert Aderholt (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyRobert B. AderholtU.S. Representative · Alabama’s 4th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationKatie Boyd BrittU.S. Senator · Alabama
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTommy TubervilleU.S. Senator · Alabama
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Deerlick Creek, Alabama
Dear Robert B. Aderholt, I’m a constituent in Alabama’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Deerlick Creek, Alabama, and couldn’t. All 46 sites at Deerlick Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 43 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Deerlick Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Deerlick Creek. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Deerlick Creek (Alabama) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Deerlick Creek, Alabama
Dear Katie Boyd Britt, I’m a constituent in Alabama. I tried to camp at Deerlick Creek, Alabama, and couldn’t. All 46 sites at Deerlick Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 43 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Deerlick Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Deerlick Creek. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Deerlick Creek (Alabama) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Deerlick Creek, Alabama
Dear Tommy Tuberville, I’m a constituent in Alabama. I tried to camp at Deerlick Creek, Alabama, and couldn’t. All 46 sites at Deerlick Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 43 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Deerlick Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Deerlick Creek. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Deerlick Creek (Alabama) via campanac.com