Done the camping thing in the backyard with my son a handful of times but looking to do a small weekend trip within 4 hours driving distance of NoAL around end of October. Any recommendations?

Prefer more on the primitive side that’s accessible by truck.

Brushy lake in the Bankhead forest is nice 12 site primitive campground with a pit toilet. Or camp anywhere in the forest just off the side of the road.

Bucks pocket state park near Guntersville. It's beautiful in October. It has nice bath houses, plus an atv tail of you have a atv or side bybside.

Those are two good suggestions.

Savage Gulch up in TN is pretty nice for primitive camping / hiking

Martin-Skyline WMA.
Cathedral Caverns State Park , near Woodville
Davy Crockett State Park, near Lawrenceburg TN might work.

Depending on what part of NoAL you're talking about, a 4hr trip could include GSMNP. I've always wanted to camp in the park...either in Elkmont or Cades Cove (or both). I think Elkmont is seasonal, and I don't think they have bath houses...I believe Cades Cove is year round but don't know about facilities.

I took my kids camping at cheaha state park a couple of years ago and they really enjoyed it.

Just remember we open up bow season Oct 1 and you wont be alone in these campgrounds in October.

Cherokee NF along the Ocoee river in SSE TN. Going to be a little cool that time of year for rafting.

Prairie Creek in Lowndes County (I'm not kidding) is really nice and they have a big to do for kids close to Halloween. Don't let the fact that it is close to White Hall, which is a retirement community for the old Black Panther Party, scare you away. Really nice and popular.

There are some pretty good places there to camp and not be overrun with people.

Joe wheeler state park. Guntersville state park. If you want to rough it. Wheeler refuge.

And it has primitive camping both in the campground and down trail.

get on the Pinhoti trail between Cheaha Mtn and App. Trail in N GA. hike as far as you want and tent camp. there are some shelters on the trail you can sleep in. lots of places the trail crosses roads for access. Oct-Nov great time to be up in the mtns

Sorry for taking so long to get back to everyone, been slammed with work.

Some great suggestions so far, I’m going to start looking into them and see what I can find.

Growing up (many years ago) my dad, mom and 2 brothers spent a lot of time at Davy Crockett Campground.
Not sue haw much has changed since then but we always had a good time there!

We.like Ft Mountain in Georgia, you may see a few bears. We really enjoy the area plus you can run down to Elijay. The have a good barbecue place and my wife loves the little shops in town

Pine Glen inside of Choccolocca WMA. There's a nice little clear creek (Shoal Creek I believe) running through a flat hollow in the mountains. The Pinhoti trail runs right through there and Sweetwater Lake is just a mile or two up the trail or the road. Beautiful mile or two hike along the creek in the Fall to either Sweetwater lake one direction or Highrock lake the other way.

My son and I did a 3 night camping trip at DeSoto state park a few years ago. He was 10 or 11 at the time. It was good “starter” trip for him