Faver Dykes State Park Campground

It's been a while since we were here - our first time being back in 2007 right before we went full time together. The sites at this park are nicely spaced and private. And if you have a chance to hit the kayak trail, it's pretty great.

There's not a lot to do here - the hiking trails all have strong 'BEWARE OF TICKS' signs.

But it easy access from the interstate and a great rate.

Cell signal can be faint here and will require some antennas and/or boosters to play around with to get usable speeds.

Very long drive to a secluded quiet rustic park. Plenty of brush between the sites. Very quiet park. But beware of the ticks. They are everywhere. The ranger knew we were camping with two dogs and two cats and did not warn us about the horrible tick problem. We spent hours picking ticks off the dogs and can only pray the tick preventative works to help kill the rest. Must have gotten over 100 off the dogs (8 lb dogs). I won’t mention how many were on us.

Our site was spacious and had great vegetation for privacy. The Rangers were helpful and the campground was clean and very quiet. BUT — and this is a HUGE but — our campsite and the park in general was infested with TICKS! One short hike around the campground loop dirt road covered us and our dog! The counts were 6 for my husband, 1 for me and 12 for our dog.
In the morning we all got covered in “Ben’s” Bug spray/wipes before going outside. Our poor dog managed to attract 6 more ticks just laying in our campsite. We packed up and left early.

Faver-Dykes State Park, St Augustine, Fl. $18 per night with 30A, water and available campground dump station for one night. Primitive roads but not that primitive. Newly renovated bathroom/ showers. Sign by bathroom said boil all water used for consumption. Found out when the State renovates the campground bathrooms they have to test the water afterwards 3 times for Chloroform Bacteria. The water had already been tested twice and passed but the 3rd test they had been waiting a week for the results from a University that does the testing. I figured it is Spring Break and that is why the late results which the host said usually just take one day. We put our hose away and are using our fresh tank water. Ant hill about 15 feet from the RV, sprayed ant killer around the tires and shore line cord. Only one bar of Verizon. 8 MB/s download without Weboost Cell Booster, 3 bars, 23 MB/S download with Weboost, still only 700KBS upload even with Weboost, might try AT&T if I can't upload photos. We camped in a 26 ft., Class C Motorhome.

We were very surprised to learn that there are no paved roads in the state park. Packed sand mostly, but can be thick and soft in some parts. The campground had been closed since last fall as they were replacing their water pump and restrooms/showers. It just reopened on March 1, the day we checked in, and were surprised to be told that they hadn’t got the results back from their water test, and we were supposed to boil water. While we enjoyed walking the trails, we would not come here again as the campground has a lot of soft sand in various locations due to the construction of the restroom. Also, be sure you bring lots of bottled water to drink, wash your dishes, brush your teeth, etc.

This campground is located down some sand/dirt roads in a beautiful and lush forest area with palms, magnolias and pines. Sites are a decent size and have decent privacy from neighbours. There are also a few trails to hike right by the campground with lookouts over the marsh surrounding the creek.

The highlight is the wide Pellicer Creek, an estuary and an aquatic preserve, where you can paddle a good ways from the boat launch in the day use area in either direction. Canoe rentals are very reasonable at $25 for the day. Good wildlife viewing on the creek, including herons, osprey, river otters.

Very affordable for the location - maybe a 20 minute drive to the ocean with St Augustine a little farther up the road.

The road getting to Faver-Dykes is perhaps the biggest negative for this Florida State Park. Our stay at other State Parks have revealed that this particular park and campground is much more rustic and inconvenient than most others. It's located about 25-30 minutes from the historical downtown of St. Augustine, but if Anastasia is booked up it's a decent second option.

The campground itself is well-kept and the sites are very secluded. There is a long hiking trail that leads down to a river, which we walked a couple of times.

Nearby, there are several smaller beach communities, where we drove to have dinner and walk along the beach. Even though St. Augustine isn't especially close, there are plenty of fun beach towns to checkout.

All-in-all, we enjoyed our site and our stay here.

This campground is well off the paved roads. Each site has water and electric, and there's one dump site for the whole camp. There's a nice nature trail that winds through the area where one can catch glimpses of armadillos, wild pigs, and rare birds. It's quiet for the most part. The roads in were narrow and a little bumpy, but potholes weren't that bad at all. Perhaps they fixed them. Although, I'm sure they're much harder to navigate in the rain.

At night, it's pitch black. You feel like you're much farther from civilization than you really are.

Cell reception was spotty at best.

Beautiful natural setting. Quiet, water and 30 amp. Very private. We watched armadillos play from our front porch. Nature trail, amphitheater. Gate that closes the park down at 5pm, call ahead if you are running behind to get the code. Only downside was we stayed here to visit downtown St Augustine and it was a longish drive to the beach and downtown. 20 min or so. It was right off I95 though. Great back up plan if Anastasia SP is booked up.

Site #16 was private and spacious but I just didn't enjoy this park that much. I think in general I am not in love with Florida state park system. It seems like all the roads are narrow and spaces are tight. Perhaps because most of the parks are older and most people didn't have big trailers or Motorhomes back when the campgrounds were first built. The sites here are fairly private, but the access roads were not very good. No real hiking around the campground.

I rated that I would camp here again because there was no "Maybe." You should never say never, perhaps I would if I wanted to see St Augustine and do other touristy things. But again, just not in love with Florida State Parks.

Verizon very poor.