Date: 1/18/13 – 1/20/13
Location: Osceola National Forest (Near Lake City, Florida)
GPS Coordinates: 30.239501, -82.436620
Campsite number: 31
This has been our third trip to Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola Nation Forest since we’ve bought our trailer. We arrived Friday evening after leaving work and driving the 90 minute trip to the campground. We were lucky enough to find an open spot on the water, but all the electrical spots were taken, This was ok as we like the sites without electricity better than the ones with power. On Saturday we drove around the Big Gum Swap wilderness area and came across the West Tower campground. This is one of the trailheads to the Florida Trail, so we decided to do a hike, In the afternoon, after resting at camp awhile, we did some kayaking on Ocean Pond. The weather was amazing, cool and clear. Not too cold and not too hot!!
Sunday we did another short hike on the Florida trail starting at the Turkey Run trailhead which is a short drive from the campground. Even though it was a three day weekend, we decided to only camp for two days. Before we packed up and left, we did some more kayaking on Ocean Pond heading down to Hog Pen campground and then back. Nothing too strenuous!!
Since I’ve reviewed this campground previously, I won’t bother doing it again. Here’s the link to the previous review.
Yep, we are in the boonies. A sign we saw as we were driving around the the Gum Swamp Wilderness area
West Tower Campground
Florida Hiking Trail trailhead
Boardwalk along the Florida Trail
Florida Trail through the pine forest
Spot # 31 at Ocean Pond
Kayaking by ocean Ponds beach and playground area
Julie kayaking in the weeds!
Julie at a Florida Trail Shelter
Some wild animal we encountered while walking the trail!!
Our hike on the Florida Trail starting at West Tower trailhead
Florida Trail starting at West Tower Campground trailhead at EveryTrail Our hike on the Florida Trail starting at the Turkey Run trailhead
Florida Trail starting at Turkey Run trailhead at EveryTrail Kayaking Ocean Pond
Kayaking Ocean Pond at EveryTrail
Date: 3/2/2012 – 3/4/2012
Location: Ocala National Foresr
GPS Coordinates: 29.076640, -81.583269
Many years ago (before kids!), Julie and I used to do a lot of camping around the state of Florida. We would frequently camp at the many campgrounds in the Ocala National Forest since it was relatively close to Gainesville. Probably the most visited campsite for us in this area was Hopkins Prairie, which was a location with no water or electricity at the sites. There used to be a “lake” that surrounded this area where we used to canoe, but the water level is down quit a bit and now the area is pretty much dry.
Since we now have a trailer (no more sleeping on the ground for us), we decided to give the Ocala National Forest another try. It has only been 25+ years since our last visit. We took off Friday after work, but being in the early spring, the days were still short and we didn’t get to the campground until after sunset. This would be our first time setting up in the dark. There are no hookups at the sites, so we had to take on water first and then locate our site. With a little difficulty backing into our site we finally got situated.
This campground is nice and has a beach and canoe/kayak launch on the Alexander Spring run. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our kayaks, so couldn’t check out this river. There are a few short hiking trails, but nothing too strenuous.
Since it had been many years since we had been to Ocala National Forest, we decided to take a ride around and check out some of the campsites and do a walk down memory lane for the places we had been before. By the end of the day we had decided that there were not many campgrounds that we would be interested in coming back to camp at. They really can’t compare to the Florida State parks.
We also did a long hike at Farles Prarie (see map below) where the Florida Trail crosses through the forest. This was a good hike along some wetlands and ponds. But be careful in what roads you take to get there.Most roads are sand and several require four wheel drive. We almost made the mistake of taking a road where we would have definitely gotten stuck. We did make that mistake many years ago in this area and it took us hours to dig our way out.
Our Review of the campground:
Campground: Alexander Springs
Campground Website: http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/southern/ocalcmp.htm#alexander%20springs
Site Number: 61
Price: $21 night
Date visited: 3/2/2012 - 3/4/2012
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 4
Campsite space between sites: 4 (varies by site)
Campsite privacy between sites: 4 (varies by site)
Campsite level: 4
Campsite parking: paved pad
Campfire permitted: yes. Fire ring on each site
Campsite picnic table: metal
Campground Facilities: 3.5
Campground access to hiking: 4
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 5
Campground access to biking: 4
Overall Campground rating: 4
Notes: Campground is very nice. There is a road that runs parallel to the campground and some car noise can be heard at some of the sites. Especially site #61 (our site). There's not a lot of traffic, but car noise can be heard.
Alexander Springs Run
The hike we did on Farles Prairie
Florida Trail - Farles Prairie at EveryTrail
Date: 11/4/11 – 11/6/11
Location: Osceola National Forest (Near Lake City, Florida)
GPS Coordinates: 30.239501, -82.436620
I hesitate to write about this campground as it is not well known and does not show up on many campground searches. My wife and I used to camp here many (many!) years ago, well before we were married. With the purchase of our camper recently, we decided to give it a try again. There are two loops to this campground. One has water and electric hookups and is more open. There’s about 10 – 15 sites that are right on the water edge of Ocean Pond. The second loop does not have hookups and is more wooded. I believe this is the original location where we camped years ago.
Obviously there are many water related activities that you can do at this location. There is a small beach and playground. Also, there is a boat ramp for launching boats.
For hiking, the Florida trail comes right through the campground. You can pick many different offshoots of this trail to hike right from the entrance of the park.
Here is our Review of this campground:
Site Number: ??
Date visited: 11/4/11 - 11/6/11
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 5
Campsite space between sites: 5
Campsite privacy between sites: 2 (varies greatly depending on site and area of campground)
Campsite level: 5
Campsite parking: asphalt
Campfire permitted: yes in fire ring
Campsite picnic table: metal (moveable)
Campground Facilities: 4.5
Campground access to hiking: 4.5
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 5
Campground access to biking: 3.5
Overall Campground rating: 4
Sunset from our campsite on the water.
Main road leading into the campground
Our campsite, not much vegetation between sites, but they are huge.
Our camper at night.
Looking out at Ocean Pond
Julie relaxing by the lakes edge
Here’s a link to some other pictures
Here’s a hike that we did:
Ocean Pond - Florida Trail at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Jacksonville, Florida
Ocean Pond - Florida Trail at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Jacksonville, Florida
