Hampton Tract

Safe (Ranger came by within an hour to confirm our reservation/registration). Large open sites with lots of shade. Our site was clean, functioning picnic table and fire ring.

The pit toilet was in tough shape-bring your own TP-once was enough for me. Some picnic tables need to be replaced but I’m sure funding is not a priority. Road was a bit rough, but you can straddle potholes easy enough.

When you call the water mgt number a very polite and patient person answered the phone and helped us confirm we were in the right place-the entrance gate had several keyed locks-but only 1 combination lock.

Overall perfect spot that’s affordable!

Thank you for this place

This was our third place to stay in the SWFWMD properties. At first I was underwhelmed with the place. It was smaller and most of the sites were taken. It took us a bit to find a spot that would suit our needs the best. But after a day of being here, the place grew on us. We rather enjoyed our time here. Not too far from supplies if needed but far enough away for the peace and quiet. There are walking/biking/horse trails leading from the campground and they are quite beautiful. Easy to find, short drive into the actual campground on an easy road. Our internet worked fine here. We were able to park our rig in the shade yet gather some solar at the same time.

We stayed here the end of Feb. 2022

Another thing to note:
All of the campgrounds in the SWFWMD are by online reservation only. They are completely free. But you must obtain a reservation prior to arriving. A gate code will be emailed to you. Each one has a 7 day maximum stay. If staying at another property you must have 24 hours between properties. You are allowed 2 reservations at a time (example one reserved for one week and another for the following week). If you want to reserve a third week somewhere you have to wait until one reservation is complete. And lastly, no more than 30 days total at any of their campgrounds in a year.

No trash on-site, please pack it out so these places stay open. Non-potable water and either vault toilets or port o potties are available.

This was our first time boondocking for free in Florida. We've RVed before and we've boondocked before. Just our first time doing so in Florida.
I didn't know the "equestrian" sites allowed non-equestrian RVs, so we never did this. We'll have to do this again.
We collected fallen firewood from the edge of the site and had enough to burn.
We saw owls, ravens, other birds in the actual campsite. Heard loud owls at night. A raven with it's own distinctive call, unlike I've ever heard before.
Our trailcam caught a deer on one of the trails, but we never saw it in person.

Some pros:
-Free
-Easily accessible for most rigs (we’re a 30 foot class A)
-Verizon cell service 2-3 bars LTE
-picnic tables and fire pits
-gate for security
-Bathrooms
-Nice walking trails
-Quiet
-Close to towns for groceries/etc.

Some Cons:
-Very shaded (not a good spot for solar)
-Parking spots are close together and less private
-pretty crowded and busy when we were there
- Poor T-Mobile service 1-0 bars

Overall, I would still camp here again if I needed a free spot in this area as the cons aren’t really deal breakers and it’s still a great, quiet spot in nature. But it wasn’t my favorite free spot I’ve stayed at in FL so my feelings are more neutral about it, especially since it’s very shaded and more crowded than other places we’ve been.

We enjoyed our time here. A very pretty, free campground (gated with code) with lots of shade, picnic table, vault toilet & fire ring. Amazingly quiet sleeps & starry, dark skies. Some great hikes too.

The entry road was no trouble at all. Previous reviews stated it to be in rough condition. It was smooth & in great shape. Not a single pothole.

Close to Lakeland which is a very pretty place with lots to see & do. Grocery stores about 15 min drive away.

Pay careful attn to ur potential neighbours when choosing ur campsite. We had some aggressive, unleashed dogs & loud music on the other side of the CG and we were glad to be far away.

3 bars … no speed issues with AT&T

I went to Hampton Tract for two reasons: 1) Nature has been calling me for awhile to go spend time with her so I started to look for free camping here in Florida. Well this is 45 mins. from my home, awesome. I was not sure at first, reading some of the reviews. Me being me I went to find out for my self. 2) Pagan never been camping so being close to home was a good thing. Hampton Tract was way more then I expected and we will be back. You want the woods and close to the city here it is. Pagan and I will be back, this time we will spend more time.

Free Camping in Florida at the Hampton Tract comes with free online reservations, controlled gate access, vault toilets, non-potable water, and a network of hiking trails. There is cellular connectivity at the Hampton Tract. Verizon cellular service clocked clocked in at 8.42 Mbps download speed and 1.70 Mbps upload speed speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 4.17 Mbps download speed and 0.43 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 2.99 Mbps download speed and 0.42 Mbps upload speed. Grid coordinates for this free camping location at the Hampton Tract, Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve are as follows: 28.269723, -81.969480

All the campers we spoke to were very friendly, and helpful. 3- Airstreams, 3- Vans, 2 Class A's (one new one old), and a pop-up The hard pan road in was very bad with holes but for the price you shouldn't complain. The pitt toilets, we didn't use. The camping area was almost all covered in Live Oaks so solar was useless. Lots of walking / bicycle trails that we took advantage of. Loved the fact you needed a gate code to get in, making us feel safe. Beautiful clear/blue ponds ~2 miles further up the main road if you have bicycle or wanted to walk. We hope to return next year and bring the canoe for fishing back there. Bugs were almost non-existent and almost every site had access to non-potable water. Thank you Florida Water Management Area for the free, quite, safe place to stay!

Drove up to facility and entered gate code, ride in had many huge potholes. Upon arriving in camping area noticed very little privacy between campsites. Although campsites had fire rings and tables just about every campsite was covered with horse manure. This was disgusting enough but the only composting toilet look as it hadn't been cleaned or serviced in months. Many flying creatures had taken over the restroom making it unbearable for humans. Not really up to standards.

Arrive on Saturday (which I try not to do), the campground was pretty busy and the campsites are not easy to identify. Looks like most campers are just parking where were fits them best. The pit toliet had trash piled up beside it. Overall the stay was fair. The bugs are pretty bad and woke up to pile of wild bore scat right outside out camper (though never saw them while we were there).

Looks like a previous camper had been to lazy to dump their black take in an appropriate place so they just emptied it on the "outside" loop road.

As other have said the road coming in is in pretty bad shape with potholes.

Decent Verizon Signal while there