Rodman Campground

This campground is way underrated, and a perfect little tucked away gem. We've been following the Cross Florida Greenway converted from the former barge canal project, so this was an obvious stop for us. We were blown away by this little campground.

This one is along the completed section of the barge canal, and you can get sites looking right on it. We grabbed one, and wow.. they are amazing. Well spaced and amazing views.

There are two different sections, most sites in Phase II are pretty awesome. The waterfront ones being our favorites. There's a berm from the dredging of the canal a few decades ago that divides the waterfront sites from the rest of the campground, giving you lots of privacy in the back. The campground photos don't really give you that impression.

And if you like biking or hiking, there's a trail that takes you to the only lock completed for the old barge canal (go to east of the campground). It follows the canal, so water views & wildlife the entire way. You can also exit the campground and take a right, to get to the dam for amazing sunset views.

Oh, and perfectly usable cell service on Verizon and AT&T for streaming or video conferencing.

This wasn’t our first choice, but they had short notice availability on a weekend so decided to try it out on our way back home. Staff was not as friendly and the map provided was not as detailed as we had become accustomed to at other state parks (showed campground, but didn’t identify trails). Sites along the water seemed nicer, but our site wasn’t quite as wide and had the picnic table and grill in the rear with only a small pad next to our trailer and no real privacy.

We spent our time working from the trailer here and admittedly didn't get out much to enjoy our time. There is a dam just one mile down the road where a lot of fishing was going on. For just a brief section of the road leading up to the dam I found AT&T service and was able to make a phone call.

There are two sets of washers and dryers at the bathroom for $1.50 each. They looked to be in pretty good shape but we didn't need to use them.

We enjoyed our 4-day weekend stay on Campsite #55 but would have preferred Campsite #48 or #50 for just a little more space and better view of the retention pond at the rear of the campsites. Campsites #59-68 have a beautiful front view of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, but a much longer walk to the restrooms due to a 30 foot high cliff behind all the site which separates them from the restroom side of the campground. Site #62 has a large awning-side area to get some separation from the neighbors.

Campsites #1-13 are along the the road that leads to the boat ramp and all the traffic that brings. They don't offer any privacy and to us are less desirable to camp on.

We visited this campground from 01/03/19 until 01/07/19.

This is the first place we've camped that had NO cell signal at all. And I mean, not ANYWHERE in the campground or surrounding area. We had to drive out of the park and go onto the main road and drive a couple miles to even get two bars and be able to text, receive emails, etc.

I know others had trouble with their signals on other carriers. We're with MetroPCS, which uses T-Mobile Towers.

But other than that, it's a decent campground. Nice and quiet. Water and electric only. We had to walk really far to drop off our trash in the dumpsters. Dump station near the entrance. A few trails through the woods. The grounds keepers are driving around all the time in their ATV things, starting very early. Bathhouses were clean and well-kept.