Gay Camping?

I’m not for sure I would actually go through with this, but I would love any advice you guys could give me.  I have been considering taking a weekend vacation by myself, just to get away for a few days.  With little money to spend, I was considering going camping.  I can borrow some camping equipment (a tent and air mattress) from my sister, so it seems doable.  As I was looking at campgrounds, I found that there were four gay campgrounds here in Alabama.  Each is clothing optional and secluded.  Here are the four campgrounds and a description of each:

Spring Creek Campground 

Private, membership only GLBT campground. 18+. Clothing optional, secluded, heavily wooded 40 acres. Mostly men, women welcome. Offering seasonal sites, tent sites, RV sites (some are pull through) with full hook-ups (30/50 amp electric, water & sewer) and cabins. Dump station, laundry, showers, swimming pool, hot tub, campfires. Clubhouse & Cabana Bar and Grill. Weekend DJ. TV Lounge. Day passes available.

Bluff Creek Falls Campground 

Male only, 21+. Gated and secure clothing optional members only retreat on 44 acres in the Appalachian mountains. Open all year, membership is $15.00 for an entire year. Mix of singles & couples. Located atop Chandler Mountain, accommodations range from tent sites & bunkhouse, to basic cabins and deluxe cabins, pull thru RV & camper sites, with or without hook ups. Sites are available daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally & yearly. Day passes are also available. Club house, swimming pool, shower house plus outside showers. Fifty minutes from Birmingham.

Black Bear Camp Men’s Retreat 

A private retreat for adult men in a serene, stress-free environment. Lodge & camp located on 33 secluded, wooded acres two hours by car from Atlanta or Birmingham. Camp features trails and primitive tent camping sites, one RV hookup 30 amp electric & water, no septic dump (suitable for small RV or pop-up – this is not an RV camp.) RV campers and tent campers have access to kitchen, bathrooms, hot tub and swimming pool. Open weekends for day visitors. Overnight guests are welcome during the week by prior arrangement.  Drop-in visitors are discouraged – please call in advance.

Lizard Landing Camp 

Alabama’s newest private membership, clothing optional LGBT campground on 11.5 secluded acres on the Georgia border in Southeast Alabama. Lizard Landing is situated on the Omussee Creek, which feeds directly into the magnificent Chattahoochee River System. Amenities include 25 RV sites (all with city water), full septic hook-ups, and 30 or 50 AMP service. Other amenities include an in-ground pool, a clubhouse and gathering porch, plus 1850 feet of creek frontage. Guests can canoe and kayak from their docks to the Chattahoochee River (about 1/2 mile from the property). Lizard Landing is less than 2 miles from Columbia, AL, which is convenient for quick shopping trips, and only 18 miles from Dothan, Alabama. The campground is open 7 days a week, 12 months of the year.

So those are my options in Alabama.  Black Bear Camp Men’s Retreat is the closest to me, but all of them are within a 2-4 hours drive.  I’m not for sure though about the clothing optional part.  There is a large part of me who is very intrigued with the idea of returning to nature au natural, but another part of me is scared to death.  I’m not in the best shape, so will I be the only fat one there?  I know I’ve always heard that at most nudist areas, the men are not the most fit.  From what I can tell, Black Bear Camp Men’s Retreat is mostly a retreat for bears (the big hairy gay men, not the animal).  So would my out of shape body fit in, even though I’m not very hairy?  Do most people go fully nude at these places, or are their varying degrees of the amount of skin shown since it is clothing “optional”?  (Lizard Landing is the only one where nudity is restricted to the pool area only.) Also, if you go to the bar or cafe for dinner, are you expected to get dressed for dinner or go nude or nude to whatever degree?   It sounds like these places would have quite a sexually charged atmosphere, but any type of sexual activity is to be done in private, according to the rules posted on their websites.  Most have a “tool shed” or otherwise named playroom, and most have hiking trails which they each implies is for cruising.  Sexually charged or not, what do you do if you get a whopping erection?  Do you ignore it or use it to your advantage?  What is the etiquette here?  I’m very naive about these things.

I have so many questions.  I’ve researched online and read as much as I could about gay camping and the websites and reviews for each of the campgrounds above, but none of them answer my questions.  I’ve never gone to a nudist gathering, so I don’t know what to expect.  The only thing I really know about them (other than what I have read online) is from an episode of Golden Girls when they go to a resort and find out it is a nudist resort.  The ladies finally get the courage to leave their rooms without their clothes on, and they show up for dinner where everyone else is dressed.

Do any of you have any experiences with gay camping, especially in Alabama? Do you know of any other gay campgrounds in Alabama not listed on this site? Do any of you have any advice to share?  Let me know – leave a comment below.