Best Tent Camping: Florida: Your Car-Camping Guide to Scenic Beauty, the Sounds of Nature, and an Escape from Civilization

by Johnny Molloy

Overview

Perfect Camping for You in Florida!

Best Tent Camping: Florida will guide you to the quietest, most beautiful, most secure, and best managed campgrounds in Florida. Painstakingly selected from more than 1,000 campgrounds in the forest, in the swamps, and on the coast, each campsite is rated for beauty, noise, privacy, security, spaciousness, and cleanliness. Each campground profile provides essential details on facilities, reservations, fees, and restrictions, as well as an accurate, easy-to-read map, making the campground easily accessible.

Well-traveled outdoors writer Johnny Molloy has used his wealth of experience and scoured the entirety of Florida for this updated edition—choosing only the most pristine campgrounds that include great locales for tent campers and feature fun outdoors activities nearby, most as close as your tent door.

Whether you are a native Floridian in search of new territory or an out-of-state vacationer, Best Tent Camping unlocks the secrets to finding and enjoying the best tent-camping experiences in Florida.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634040488
Publisher:	Menasha Ridge Press
Publication date:	09/13/2016
Series:	Best Tent Camping
Edition description:	Fifth Edition
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	1,073,127
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Johnny Molloy is a writer and adventurer based in Johnson City, TN. He has written more than 40 books about the outdoors, including hiking, camping, and paddling guidebooks; comprehensive guidebooks about specific areas; and true outdoor adventure books set throughout the Eastern United States. Molloy writes for various magazines and websites, and he is a columnist and feature writer for his local paper, the Johnson City Press.

Read an Excerpt

Big Lagoon State Park Campground
Big Lagoon State Park Campground was built on an ancient, wooded sand dune, which accounts for the varied campsites you find there today.
Beauty: 4 stars
Privacy: 4 stars
Spaciousness: 4 stars
Quiet: 3 stars
Security: 5 stars
Cleanliness: 4 stars

KEY INFORMATION
ADDRESS: Big Lagoon State Park, 12301 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola, FL 32507
OPERATED BY: Florida State Parks
CONTACT: 850-492-1595, floridastateparks.org; reservations 800-326-3521, reserveamerica.com
OPEN: Year-round
SITES: 75
EACH SITE: Picnic table, fire ring, water, electricity
ASSIGNMENT: Self-assignment via Reserve America, otherwise assigned by ranger
REGISTRATION: By phone, online, or at park entrance booth
FACILITIES: Hot showers, flush toilets, dump station
PARKING: At campsites only in campground
FEE: $20/night
ELEVATION: Sea level
RESTRICTIONS:
PETS: On 6-foot leash; proof of vaccination required
FIRES: In fire rings only
ALCOHOL: Prohibited
VEHICLES: None
OTHER: 14-day stay limit

Located on the Intracoastal Waterway, Big Lagoon is Florida’s most westerly recreation area. The water-dominated park has fishing, boating, hiking, swimming, and camping. Nearby Perdido Key Recreation Area features a white-sand Gulf beach. Big Lagoon’s campground has a mix of sites to suit any camper’s desires. Look over the campground before you pick a site, or you’ll miss out on a campsite that you wish you could have had.

Big Lagoon Campground was built on an ancient, wooded sand dune, which accounts for the varied campsites you find there today. A very long and narrow loop road runs along either low side of the dune. This setup makes for a rolling campground with vertical relief, unusual for Florida. Differing degrees of forest cover make for both sunny, open campsites and hidden, wooded campsites.

Tall slash pines tower above the campground, but the more prevalent pine is the low-slung sand pine that favors sandy coastal regions like Big Lagoon. Live oaks grow about, but they don’t reach the heights seen farther inland. Plants like dune rosemary combine with wax myrtle, winged sumac, and palmetto to form thick campsite buffers that shield you from your neighbor.

Enter the loop. The campsites on the right-hand side of the loop are higher and have less-dense woodlands. The other side of the loop backs against a marsh and has campsites cut into moist woods. Still other sites are cut into the dune and have wooden walls to hold back the sand.

The sites in the back of the campground are better suited for tent campers. Quaint wooden fences separate some of the campsites and protect fragile buffer vegetation. This area is the highest in the campground and has many appealing sites: adequate space and privacy can be found at nearly every one.

Three clean and modern comfort stations serve the campground. Campground hosts and on-site rangers make this a very safe place to camp.

Park recreation is just a walk away. Two nature trails leave the campground via boardwalks and connect to the waters of the Intracoastal Waterway. There are two swimming areas: East Beach and West Beach. Neat, wooden picnic pavilions offer refuge from the sun between playtime in the water. East Beach has an observation tower overlooking the surrounding Gulf beaches and waters. Quality saltwater fishing for sea trout and flounder is available. Boaters have a boat ramp to launch their craft. Hungry campers can even go crabbing in Big Lagoon.

All these nature trails connect to make nearly all park areas accessible. The Yaupon Trail meanders right along the Intracoastal Waterway. The Grand Lagoon Trail connects East Beach to West Beach and has a side trail to Big Lagoon itself. The 3.5-mile Cookie Trail is a one-way trek that starts near the park entrance station. It passes through open pine woods and nearly impenetrable thickets gnarled from the salt and wind of the maritime weather.

It is about a 15-minute drive to Perdido Key from Big Lagoon. Perdido Key State Park is a 247-acre enclave of protected Gulf coast. There are more than 1.4 miles of beach to enjoy. Clear waters meld into white-sand beaches, which become rolling sand dunes covered with sea oats. Several boardwalks crisscross the environment, making for safe passage across the fragile sand dunes. To access Perdido Key, turn left out of Big Lagoon and then take your next left onto FL 292; follow it a short distance to the state park.

Big Lagoon was a pleasant surprise for me. I really enjoyed the unusual campground stretched along the ancient sand dune. The park recreation and that of nearby Perdido Key offer any tent camper ample reason to give Big Lagoon a try.

Getting There
From Pensacola, take US 98 West from Navy Boulevard 6 miles to County Road 293 (Bauer Road). Turn left on CR 293 and head south 5 miles to dead-end at Big Lagoon State Park.

GPS COORDINATES N30° 19’ 15.2” W87° 24’ 13.2”

Table of Contents

Overview-Map Key
Florida Campground Locator Map
Map Legend
Best Campgrounds
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction

FLORIDA PANHANDLE
1. Big Lagoon State Park Campground
2. Blackwater River State Park Campground
3. Camel Lake Campground
4. Dead Lakes Park Campground
5. Falling Waters State Park Campground
6. Florida Caverns State Park Campground
7. Grayton Beach State Park Campground
8. High Bluff Campground
9. Ochlockonee River State Park Campground
10. Pine Log State Forest Campground
11. Rocky Bayou State Park Campground
12. St. Andrews State Park Campground
13. St. George Island State Park Campground
14. St. Joseph Peninsula State Park Campground
15. Torreya State Park Campground
16. Wright Lake Recreation Area Campground

NORTHERN FLORIDA
17. Anastasia State Park Campground
18. Fort Clinch State Park Campground
19. Gold Head Branch State Park Campground
20. Hammock Campground at Jennings State Forest
21. Little Talbot Island State Park Campground
22. Manatee Springs State Park Campground
23. O’Leno State Park Campground
24. Ocean Pond Campground
25. Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park Campground
26. Suwannee River State Park Campground

CENTRAL FLORIDA
27. Alexander Springs Recreation Area Campground
28. Blue Spring State Park Campground
29. Chassahowitzka River Campground: Indian Ridge Loop
30. Clearwater Lake Campground
31. Hillsborough River State Park Campground
32. Hog Island Recreation Area Campground
33. Hopkins Prairie Campground
34. Juniper Springs Recreation Area Campground
35. Lake Eaton Campground
36. Lithia Springs Park Campground
37. Mutual Mine Recreation Area Campground
38. Starkey Wilderness Park Campground

SOUTH FLORIDA
39. Bahia Honda State Park Campground
40. Bear Island Campground
41. Caloosahatchee Regional Park Campground
42. Cayo Costa State Park Campground
43. DuPuis Campground
44. Elliott Key Campground
45. Flamingo Campground
46. John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Campground
47. Jonathan Dickinson State Park Campground
48. Long Key State Park Campground
49. Long Pine Key Campground
50. Oscar Scherer State Park Campground

APPENDIXES AND INDEX
Appendix A: Camping-Equipment Checklist
Appendix B: Sources of Information
Index
About the Author