We absolutely loved this place! While there is not a lot of the "extra" kid type things to do, there is a playground and the kids loved checking out everyone's horses. If you're looking for a place to get out to the middle of nowhere, look at the stars, enjoy the country, and not worry about city life, this is your place. Goethe State Forest is across the street and we enjoyed walking the trails. The onsite store was a big plus and we enjoyed every one of the staff members. The only drawback was the ticks we brought back from the walk in the forest and then followed us home. Just be careful and you get rid of them quick. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
This is, by far, the best campground that I have stayed in. The sites are huge, with a wonderful concrete drive leading to each site. Its way out in the country, across from the Goethe State Park. They have wonderful facilities for horses, so you can vacation with your horse, and have 120 miles of trails right across the road. The stars are bright at night, as there are no city lights nearby. The place is great for bicycling, hiking, trail riding, horse events, and just for quiet getaways. The folks here treat you like family. The campground is pristine. Its beautifully maintained and clean. The campground is new, and is just gorgeous. The horse stalls and facilities are wonderful. You can take care of your horse yourself, or for a fee, they will take care of it for you. If you don't ride, but would like to, there is a trail ride group up the road. There are beaches not too far away, as well as quaint small towns. There are rivers and lakes with boat rentals. A major city is within 85 miles for serious shopping, theme parks and other city stuff. This place has it all! Call them for more info, or go to their website. You'll be glad you did. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
This is a new RV park that specializes in Horse events and trail riding. Check out their website for more details. Pros: The sites are huge. The driveways are concrete with grassy sites. The park is located in the country and is very peaceful. There is a well stocked convenience store on site. The folks running the place are very friendly. Cons: Some of the sites are fairly unlevel, although I had no problems with my 38' coach. Not much going on around the property when I was there. May be a little boring for kids. I enjoy peace and quiet and being able to view wide open skies at night. This is the place for doing just that! Major shopping is within 15 miles of the campground. We camped here in a Motorhome.
If you transport horses, this is the campground for you. Its a no frills CG but makes up with natural beauty. 100 acres of farm land with (horse) trails leading to a state park plus horse corrals and a barn to exercise your horses. There are no restrooms/showers or pools but the quietness, the relaxation and natural beauty that surrounds you well makes up for it. Bring plenty of food/necessities since its a trip into town. At night you can unwind by a campfire! The owner is an amazing woman whom immediately will become family. The sites are just right, no shade, but you will feel comfortable and secure. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This is our first visit. The campground, which was renovated over the past year or so, will be a standard by which I will compare all other campgrounds! The sites were very large with a long driveway and a large square "yard" offering plenty of room for seating, bikes, kayaks, another shelter etc. The outside site we booked had excellent privacy with low level shrubs and palmettos. Except when looking out the front, we could barely see another camper. The sites have water, 30 and 50 amp service and sewer. The shower and bathroom facilities were new, spotless, and had plenty of hot water. There is a rec building which we did not use and a swimming pool which we also did not use as the temps were in the 50s-60s. I bet it is popular later in the spring. The park had a small nature trail, access to the Rainbow River for excellent kayaking and access to the Rainbow Springs Headsprings section of the park a few miles away which had beautiful gardens, swimming in the springs, canoe/kayak rental. There was adequate cellphone signal which we also used for Internet access. TV signals were poor using our antenna but that is no big deal. About 20 miles to Ocala and 5 to Dunnellon for groceries etc. Not much to do in the immediate area but a beautiful relaxing place to visit. We will definitely stay here again. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
A bit pricey for a state campground and they're not completely done with the renovations yet. That said, we are talking about a full hookup campground in central Florida with very large sites. Lots of families on the weekends so expect kids running around. It is a beautiful, clean park which once the trees grow in a bit will be a shining jewel in the state park system. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
This was the first time we'd visited this campground in several years, and since their major renovation since last year or so. It has great promise! We had a nice site and able to get satellite service and cell phone service. Most, if not all sites have 50 amp service and sewer hookups, added recently. The only drawback is the lack of trees and small brush. Time will bring it all back though. We definitely will be back. Rainbow Springs used to be a private attraction and the outflow is the Rainbow River, a very popular stream for tubing and swimming. What beautiful, clear water!! We camped here in a Motorhome.
We camped here for four nights and stayed on site 7, which was a great site. If you are considering camping here and have not been there before, the sites along the outside ring are the best and most private (sites 6 thru 25). The sites on the "interior" are not private and pretty close to one another. Only a couple of sites have shade trees, so summer camping here might be a little problematic. The Rainbow River runs along the park and is a beautifully clear spring fed river. You can rent canoes and kayaks at a very reasonable price about 6 miles away (via car) at the other part of the Rainbow Springs Park complex called the Headspring. This area is also beautiful and admission is free to campers. Over Christmas, the Headsprings park was open at night and it was decorated with thousands of Christmas lights. Santa was also there for the kids. A third part of the park complex rents tubes for floating down the river during the summer. We will definitely try this park again next winter as well as giving it a shot this summer to enjoy tubing down the river. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Seems to be a newer park. The sites are deep and they offer full hookups. The bathroom was spotless and bright with big hot showers. We camped in site # 10 and it offered privacy. Good location to get to Crystal River to see Manatees and also Ocala. Great for family camping. Staff was very helpful. Close access to Rainbow River. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This park has just reopened after renovation so needs some time for the landscape to grow back.The camping spots are really nice other than the landscape being bare between a lot of sights. The staff is great. Finding a pool at a Government park was a surprise. Now for the bad: if you take a kayak, it is a good walk down to the river. They do have a cart for you to haul it on. The other thing is that to get to the springs you have to drive out of the park and come back in on the other side which is a good little drive. You can not swim over the spring itself as it is roped off but has a swimming area; as does the camping side.The park itself is an old tourist park from the 1930's and is a nice walk through it. We will go back. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
The park has been recently re-done. The beauty of this location is Rainbow Springs/River. It's walking distance to river: tubing was amazing. Park has very large sites, sewer, some shade. We stayed in Site 52. Huge and paved, but the sewer was not thought out well, it was uphill and at the back of site. Overall this park has a lot of potential. I'd recommend staying in the B or C loop. Most sites you can back into easily, some of the widest roads I've ever seen in a state park. C loop has some shady sites. Also on the B and C side there appears to be no tent sites. Two negatives, Loop A has tent sites, our stay in Site 52, was marred primarily due to the drunken parties being held across from us. Why no rangers said a word is beyond me. There appeared to be minors getting blasted along with the parents, liquor bottles, very loud music, etc. Am still shocked this was allowed in a state park. Other than that, bring your own lawn mower, as they don't seem to like to use them. But, we will go back. The river is too beautiful to stay away, we just won't stay near the tent sites. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Review Rating
[ 6 / 10 ]
July 2009
$30
We just came back from camping at the newly renovated campground. I had never camped at the previous campground but have read the reviews. There are now three loops. Two of the loops are in the field that is south of the office or store. One of the loops is north of the store. There is very little shade anywhere in the campground. They have planted small trees and they will grow up someday. The roads have been paved and the sites are pea gravel. The people who designed the loops obviously do not camp. If you are on the back sides of the loops from the very nice restrooms, there are no paths to the front of the restrooms without walking all the way around the loop or cutting through other folks campsites. It is the same story for getting to the office or the river from the back sides of the loops. Folks don’t seem to want to walk all the way around the road and were constantly walking 3 feet or less away from the campers or tents while cutting through campsites. The bathrooms on the south loops were very nice and had large ceiling fans to help keep them cooler than the usual 4th of July temperature. The bathroom on the north loop was a single stall and shower compartment for each sex but folks could also use the restrooms by the swimming pool. All of the sites now have full hookups which is very convenient. This is a great campground for tubers. You park 2 miles south of the campground at the parking area, ride the concessionaire’s shuttle to the river launch and then tube back to your cars. I don’t know the cost. That being said, the concessionaire has made it extremely annoying and difficult for anyone who brings their own kayaks or canoes. They have blocked off the road to the river with a gate near the office which only the shuttle buses can drive through and anyone else must haul your kayaks or canoes down to the river with your own cart or borrow the one and only cart at the office. This distance is more than a little carry; it is about a quarter of a mile. I don't plan to go back until they make putting in a kayak or canoe more reasonable. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Camped here for two nights; however, at check-in, we were told that the campground will close in January 2008 for renovation. According to Reserveamerica, the campground will be closed until August 30, 2009. Check the website for updates. We camped here in a Motorhome.
We stayed at the state park campground for five days/four nights on Thanksgiving 2007 weekend. There were three other camper units in our group. The campground was sold out the entire weekend. If you look at the Reserve American site for the site map, one area is closed completely. There are two smaller areas that were still open but will close in January. In fact, the whole campground will be closed until renovated. At that time all sites will have fullhookups available. The area had not had much rain lately and it was pretty dusty, especially from the dirt roads to the sites. There were a lot of tenters in the area and many staying with other people with camper units. So the bathrooms were constantly busy and I was glad I did not have to use them. I asked the woman at checkin about a internet connection and she really wasn't to smart about that. She said there was a computer in the rec room and some kind of connection for the internet but not on that computer. It was simple, a dialup connection outlet. Bring a local access number with you and enjoy the 49k connection. The walkway from the campground to the river is landscaped nice and very clean, much nicer than the campground. Another thing to remember is, the campground is on the opposite side of the Rainbow River from the state park. You have to drive about 6 miles to get to the other side entrance. From the campground on the other side of the river are homes so you cannot just go straight across even in a canoe or kayak. We may try this again in a couple of years because they have no clue when it will be open again once it closes for renovations. Also, if you are going west on S.R. 40 the sign to turn off on is very small, it's under a huge sign indicating for the Rainbow Springs State Park Headsprings (Straight ahead - but the campground requires a left turn on 180th Ave. Road). Over by the state park entrance is a Wal Mart, Winn Dixie and a few fast food restaurants and gas stations. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Here is an update on this park. The entire campground up by the river is closed while they upgrade the camping area. I talked to the ranger 3/07 about the progress. The only presently available camping is out by the office which is basically a grassy field with little shade. In the future they are going to totally refurbish the campground into two loops much like the newer state park campgrounds in Florida (like Silver River). They were supposed to be done by now but spent the funding on the new tuber takeout. In the future you will be able to float tubes down the river to a point and then a tram will take you back to the park. They have built the tram road through the woods so that part is done. Originally they were to have the campground improvements done by now but the ranger said they have no idea when they would be completed. This park has great potential they just need to complete the work so we can camp there again! The old campground up by the river will be changed to pavilions for picnics. It is one of our favorite places and we miss camping there. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
We enjoyed this campground. The setting is beautiful and the town of Dunnellon is quaint. The section we were in (sites 58 and up) which are nearer to the river, will be closed in June 2006 and the area turned into day use only. So the roads in that section were in poor condition. The other facilities were fine. The only campsites will be at the front of the park, which don't have any shade. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Nice pool and playground. Sites are close together with the front section (1-57) of the campground having little to no shade. The rear section (58-105) has shade, but small sites. Roads are sand/dirt. Sites have some grass. The campstore is well stocked. Firewood is available to be delivered to your site. This would be a really nice park if they could find a way to link it to the Rainbow Springs Park without having to drive seven miles around the spring/river. Roads are in poor shape. They need to be regraded or paved. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
A beautiful, well maintained park. Large level sites on grass in the upper areas, more shaded sites on grass, dirt and gravel in the lower area which is closer to the Rainbow River. Area is very quiet, park personnel are extremely helpful and friendly. We chose this park because it's one of the relatively few Florida State Parks that allow pets, but i t was also one of the more enjoyable places we stayed. We will definitely stay here again. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Even though we didn't have horses they were kind enough to offer us a horse site in order to accommodate our 40' motorhome. The bathrooms/showers were clean. We loved it here. The sites are spacious but with no shade. There is 50 AMP hook ups and water but no sewer. The charge for the sewer dumping is $5.00. We had my parents with me so they charged us for the night senior discounts. Its beautiful and quiet here a must if you are in the area and enjoy nature!!! We camped here in a Motorhome.
Well maintained site. Half price for over 65 or handicapped Florida residents. Spacious gravel sites, well drained. Everyone we met was friendly. Host campers well informed. Extremely quiet. Some sites reserved for horse trailers. Also facilities for day equestrians. Lots of horse trails. One of the best kept secrets in the Ocala area. We will camp here again. We camped here in a Motorhome.