Story By John Mann
All across the country state parks were celebrating the start of 2026 on Thursday as they hosted First Day Hikes, and Lake Guntersville State Park was no exception as they held hikes on the Benny Bobo and King’s Chapel trails.
“It feels great,” Park Naturalist Anna Crow, who led the hikes, said. “My first program was a First Day Hike last year so it feels so full circle to come back and do another one and to have such a great turnout. I think we had almost forty people in attendance for King’s Chapel, it’s just a great time and I can’t wait to see what the new year holds.”
The day began with the Benny Bobo trail hike at 830 am, a half mile ADA accessible hike to the overlook near the boat launch. The hike was followed by the King’s Chapel hike at 10 am, which followed a longer 1.5 mile round trip with the midpoint being the King’s Chapel Cemetery.
Crow led a presentation at the cemetery during the hike, sharing information about the historic site that serves as the final resting place for many old families in the area including the King family, for which the cemetery is named, and the Terrell family.
There are between one hundred forty and two hundred graves in the cemetery with the oldest dating back to 1850 and the most recent from 1980. There are sixteen members of the King family buried in the cemetery, which was connected to the King’s Chapel Methodist Church. The church itself no longer exists, having been destroyed by fire in 1933. While on the hike Crow also showed off the site of the Terrell house, all of which remains are the fireplace and hearth stones.
“We did the King’s Chapel trail which is about .7 miles out to the cemetery and then another .7 to get back,” Crow said. “Our middle point was of course the cemetery and we talked about the people that lived here in the 1800s who worked this land and had claim here before it was a park.”
Benny Bobo and King’s Chapel are only two of the walking trails open to the public at the state park. Lake Guntersville State Park currently boasts thirty-six miles of biking and hiking trails in the main part of the park as well as eighteen miles of horse trails at Town Creek.
The First Day Hikes were just the beginning for the park’s activities in 2026, notable of which is the upcoming Eagles Awareness weekends at the end of January. Crow says that the park wants to take what was successful from last year and expand on it in the coming months.
“I think this was great, we had a great turnout and I think next year will be even better,” she said. “I only did the one last year out at Buck’s Pocket State Park but we came in strong this year. We had great attendance in the park in 2025 and I’m really excited to keep growing that, we’ve really hones in on what people enjoy and have added lots of eagle programs, lots of guided paddles, fishing and hiking, all of the fun outdoor recreation kind of things.”
To find more information about upcoming events at the state park you can visit alapark.com and selecting the events calendar, where you can find both Lake Guntersville and Buck’s Pocket State Parks. You can also find the park on Facebook under “Lake Guntersville State Park – Alabama.” Some upcoming events at the park include “Campfire Talk: The Travels of William Bartram” at the outdoor classroom on January 9 at 5 p.m., and a Shoreline Eagle Watch on January 17 at 9 a.m. You can register for those and other events through alapark.com.
