Buck’s Pocket State Park

Buck’s Pocket State Park is publicly owned recreation area located on Sand Mountain in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Alabama, 2 miles north of the community of Grove Oak. The state park occupies 2,000 acres surrounding a natural pocket (canyon) of the Appalachian Mountain chain along South Sauty Creek, an upstream tributary on the east side of Guntersville Lake. The park is known for the sweeping views of its rugged, seemingly untouched landscape provided from the heights of Point Rock.

The origin of the name “Buck’s Pocket” has been variously attributed to the presence of large herds of deer, the legendary death of a buck who leapt from Point Rock after being trapped by Cherokee, and a man named Buck Berry who used the area to hide from the draft during the Civil War.

A persistent story dating from the 1940s holds that unsuccessful Alabama politicians go to Buck’s Pocket after being defeated at the polls. When specifically they go and what activities they pursue while there is not specified, but left to the imagination.