Silver Springs State Park

I was very impressed with how nicely managed this campground is. *This isn't the private RV park, right across from the glass-bottomed boat tour entrance. This is the State Park campground, which is a mile or two down the road from the touristy day-visitors' area. This campground has big sites - many are pull-through. We got lucky and scored one of the sites with full H/U. Super convenient, but we also used the bath houses and they were very clean. *If you're a camper here, you need a vehicle to get a couple of miles to the Silver Springs that comes to mind - it's in a different location from the campground and it's not walking distance. But your camper tag gets you in for free - so bring it along! Inside that area, you can pay $14 for a glass-bottomed boat tour. Or you can just wander around for free and enjoy the flowers and spring views. There's also a great area where you can very reasonably rent a kayak, canoe or paddleboard. (I rented, because it was easier than bringing my own equipment over in my Class C - but if you BYO boat and you're a camper, you don't even have to pay the $4 launch fee). You'll see turtles galore and alligators and maybe even wild monkeys. Back to the campground. The sites are level and they're truly gravel - not dirt. It's very dark at night, which was wonderful. And it's filled with birds in the morning. You do hear a bit of highway noise, but it's nothing aversive. It's just not a completely silent area, due to the one road a mile up at the entrance. Nice Rangers - EXTREMELY easy check-in (they didn't make me park my rig and get out... I don't know why some places do that... just hand me a map, please, and let's move on).

Super large sites with plenty of space and privacy.

Great spot to paddle the crystal clear waters —great birds, manatees, alligators and monkeys all in view from the river.

The only downside is no swimming allowed and it is tempting.

Also a wonderful dog park about 3 miles away if you want your dogs to run wild and make friends.

Cell services was strong enough to worked and streamed easily.

Stayed for 5 nights in early December to explore the nearby Silver Springs waterway. The sites are huge and private. Very clean and roomy sites with full hookups available. Tons and tons of hiking trails with great wide open trails for hiking or biking...definitely bring your bikes. Clean facilities and laundry areas. Seems like you are in the middle of a jungle with the wild monkeys but only 15 minutes to Publix grocery store. The Springs are a short 5 minute drive down the road to the mouth of the Silver River and they kayaking is breath taking. You'll see the clearest water EVER, better than swimming pool, with Alligators, Manatees, Birds, Monkeys, tons of fish and more.

We had a reservation for three nights here but changed it to only one when the weather turned cold. Of course, there was a penalty to pay so the site actually cost about thirty bucks for one night. But it had electricity, water, a dump station close by, clean restrooms, and very clean sites. We arrived with time enough to take a short hike before dusk to the Silver River which was pleasant and in parts quite beautiful. Old Florida is amazing, and anywhere they protect this is appreciated by us. The one complaint is the lack of signs saying where the actual campground is. We had to eventually stop and ask some workers. My vehicles navigation as well as my google app took me to the main entrance to the springs which is nowhere close to the campground and on a totally different road. A few signs would have been helpful. There seems to be plenty of trails here, but warm weather beckons further south and we'll hike them on a future trip. There is a also a museum on site, a log cabin village, a children's learning center, a kiln, and a Seminole village reconstruction. AT&T was two bars and good enough for streaming.