Alafia River State Park

This state park located in the suburbs of Tampa, Florida is one of the smaller Florida State Parks Campgrounds. There is an area for equestrians with stables and riding paths. There are several paths for bicyclers. The sites are very large and far away from each other. The sites located on the inside of the loops are pull throughs, those on the outside of the loops are back in. There is 30amp and 50amp, as well as water. No sewer hook ups, but a dump station is easy to access. There are a lot of trees, great for shade and also a lot of wildlife to see. There is a small pond that you can sit by, with a newer pavilion for use. This campground has picnic tables (that are a little on the rough side) and fire rings at every site. It's a great campground, however, there are several others in the area that have a lot of activities that this campground doesn't have. It doesn't have a pool, canoeing or kayaking like other state parks. It is a very quiet and private campground.

We stayed here in late April for one night as we needed to break up our drive north. Nice pull-thru site with shade. Relatively quiet, except for road noise. Saw four osprey nests in a row on top of telephone poles - very cool and saw one armadillo! The hiking and mountain biking trails looked great. Nice rangers - we got here early, but they didn't seem to mind.

This was our 3rd stay at Alafia and it has changed a bit as have probably a lot of other public campgrounds where it has become a place to live as opposed to recreate. The camp hosts did a good job trying to keep things clean as sites opened up, but the dump ended up being closed due to someone putting clothes/trash/etc. down the dump and clogging it up.

Covid may have affected volunteering at Alafia also as some of the bridges on the trails had rotten boards that needed replacing and the hiking trails were more overgrown.

One of the volunteers told me that they have people booking the sites under multiple email addresses, so they are staying well beyond the 2 week limit and that so far, there is nothing they can do about it. There are also people booking sites and not showing up leaving them empty but unable to be rented to someone else. This is not unique to Alafia.

We still love Alafia for the beautiful campsites and trails and hope it can retain the things that make it special.

Even though we stayed here during the heat and humidity of summer, we had a terrific experience. The camping areas (there are two separate loops) are laid out beautifully to allow each site a great deal of space and a good amount of distance from neighboring sites. We were in site 18 which is best described as a site which sits on the side of the road which is simply driven into making for simple access and set up. The back-in sites were laid out at a good angle to the loop road which would make those sites a snap to get into as well. The electric and water hook ups worked as they should. There is a dump station between the two camping loops.
While the camping is excellent -- with an added bonus of little to no light at night for star gazing -- the trails are what make this park. There is world class mountain biking here with courses rated much like a skiing area to indicate the difficulty of each trail (there are many trails for any skill level of rider). In addition, there are also miles of equestrian trails which can also be utilized for hiking. We took advantage of both the biking and hiking and really enjoyed doing both. Bike helmets are required on the bike trails. If you don't have one, free loaner helmets are available at the gate house for the duration of your stay.
The bath houses were clean and the showers offered ample water pressure and hot water. Driving here was easy with ample signage along the way. One of the loops is listed as "equestrian," but that loop is certainly available for camping for those who don't have horses.
The park is located close enough (some 40 minutes) from Tampa for a day trip.
No real downsides here. A fabulous park with great campsites and hiking and biking trails.

Alafia River State Park is best known locally as a hot spot for mountain biking. Whether you are there to bike or not, the campground at Alafia River State Park is a relaxing and beautiful place to stay. The sites are very spacious with plenty of elbow room between neighbors. Some are pull-through and some are back-in, but they are very well laid out for either configuration. The bathhouse was clean and functional but there's no laundry facilities. We particularly enjoyed the clear and quiet night sky. It's Florida, so bring bug repellent. Check-in was simple and quick; no hassles. Verizon cell service was excellent -- the serving tower is either on or adjacent to the park itself.

Note that the hiking trails are not connected to the campground.

Built into the remains of a phosphate quarry, this is a unique park that is best described as a theme park for bikes. Which is precisely why we came here with our new eBikes.

There's a connector trail right at the campground in the horse loop, that is gorgeous on its own. Trails vary in difficulty from easy to insane. We stuck to the 3 green easy trails, which were perfect for our skills and bikes. Just challenging enough and lovely. We had a blast!

Loved that the park is multi-use for bikes, equestrian and hiking - but the trails are all kept separate. Biking trials are one-way as well, except for the connectors. And the hiking trails are quite excellent too.

The campground itself is just lovely - big huge well spaced sites. We were able to snag Site 6 in the equestrian loop (they allow non-horse campers to use this loop if there are no others available - there was only one site with a horse on the loop during our stay). The horse loop is open space between sites for grazing, but the RV only loop has more underbrush for separation.

Love this park, and would definitely return. Ample cellular speed on both AT&T and Verizon for getting work done and streaming video at night. Not that we had much time for work, we were out on the trials playing!

This is a great little park. Two loops - Lonesome Lake sites 1-12, and Alafia Lake sites 13-30. The host was in site 13. Sites on the inside of the loop are all pull-through, those on the outside are back-in. Easy access off of Hwy 39 and far enough back from the road that there is no noise at night (except for the large family who thought it was party time on Saturday night :-), sites level with electric and water, very large and well-spaced. The smaller loop was more open with site lines between sites. Site 9 was listed as a horse site online but there is no way. The horse sites are on the outer side of the loop (sites 8,10, 12) as they have room for a corral.

Loved the trails though as previously reviewed, they are not nearly as flowy as the Santos trails. The provided map of the trails was very helpful as there a lot of intersections, but everything is pretty well marked. Hidden Rivers, Rock Garden, and Sand Pine trails, with a few drops at the ramps and finish on the North Creek trail was quite a good workout. The multi-use and connector trails are really helpful with getting around. The weekend was packed with advanced bikers who were friendly and willing to lend encouragement and skills advice.

The main bike and horse trailheads are completely set apart from the camping area so it remained very tranquil throughout the weekend. The nesting osprey provided a continuous show with fishing and feeding. Not really sure I can find anything not to like about my stay. Cell speeds were variable - T-Mobile 15-20 down and 3-4 down, AT&T 40 down and 4 up, but sometimes it dropped out completely.