We stayed at Rainbow Springs State Park in Dunnellon, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A very nice state park campground.

Dates:

• Check in: 2025-01-12
• Check out: 2025-01-19
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Partly sunny, some rain
• High temps 57-68°F, lows 38-48°F
• Little wind, gusts to 21 MPH, sheltered amongst trees

Noise:

• No road noise
• Occasional distant train horn noise
• Little neighbor noise

Site:

• #9, back-in, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
• Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel driveway about 75 feet long by 15 feet wide
• 40 feet to neighbors on both sides
• Thick trees and bushes between sites, nicely private
• Picnic table
• Fire pit and charcoal grill
• Tall trees
• Clean site
• Elevation 50 feet, front facing SW

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 40 PSI water, conveniently located
• Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 50-140 Mbps down, 15 Mps up, 30-40 ms ping
• Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5-10 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• AT&T: 1-4 Mbps down, 0.01-1 Mbps up, 86 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 750 ms ping, unreliable
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Beautiful state park

We enjoyed our stay here and wish we could’ve stayed longer. The sites were spacious and private, with good hookups. It was quiet most of the week, with just some noise from the weekend crowd. You do have to drive a bit to get to the Rainbow Springs headwaters area, but it’s worth checking out. The river access at the campground is nice enough on its own, with kayak rentals at the main store/ranger station. We camped at Rainbow Springs State Park in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: If you’re new to Florida and looking for manatees, this is not one of those springs. It is an easy daytrip down to Crystal Springs, however, where we saw tons of manatees….

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our nicely secluded site:

Can’t see any other sites from the living area of the site, though there is a path behind the sites that occasionally has a walker or bike:

Utilities:

Other sites:

Bathrooms, with a washer & dryer just out there:

RV check in area:

Basic camp store in the building with the check-in office:

Picnic shelter:

A very moss-draped tree:

The Rainbow River:

Rental kayaks:

We’d be very happy to stay here again, and for longer.

We stayed at Ozark / Fort Rucker KOA Journey in Ozark, Alabama. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A one-night stop on the way south. KOA Journeys are usually an easy choice when we don’t want to untoad.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-12-21
• Check out: 2024-12-22
• 1 night

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temp 51°F, low 30°F
• A little wind, gusts to 15 MPH

Noise:

• Some highway noise
• Occasional nearby train horn noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #19, pull-through, concrete
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
• Somewhat level site; high on driver side and back; used hydraulic leveling, since on concrete
• Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by 10 feet wide
• 16 feet to neighbors on both sides
• Picnic table on concrete patio
• Some tall trees
• Clean site
• Elevation 330 feet, front facing West

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 65 PSI water, conveniently located
• Didn’t use the sewer connection, but it was conveniently located, with two ports

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 363-421 Mbps down, 12 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• AT&T: 55 Mbps down, 1-2 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
• Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Pool

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Convenient stop

We stayed one night on our way from Red Bay to Florida. This was a very convenient in-and-out place to stay. The friendly and helpful staff guided us to our spot and made sure we were good to go. There was a bit of road and train noise, but not too bad. Our site was a long enough pull-through that we didn’t need to disconnect our tow vehicle or fuss with positioning. The only downside is if you’re headed south when you leave, you have to wait a while for a decent break in the traffic as there isn’t a merge lane across the divided highway. We camped at Ozark / Fort Rucker KOA Journey in a Motorhome. 

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Other sites:

A nice little pond area:

A decent one-night stop.

We stayed at Leake County Water Park in Lena, Mississippi. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice county park.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-12-13
• Check out: 2024-12-15
• 2 nights

Weather:

• Mostly cloudy
• High temps 59-65°F, lows 42-55°F
• A little wind, gusts to 25 MPH, but sheltered amongst trees

Noise:

• No road noise
• No train horn noise
• Some neighbor noise (kids and dogs)

Site:

• #15, back-in, concrete
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
• Somewhat unlevel site; high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
• Concrete driveway about 50 feet long by 10 feet wide
• 50 feet to neighbor on driver side
• About 180 feet to neighbor on passenger side, though a path about 30 feet away
• Grass and occasional trees between sites
• Picnic table
• Fire pit
• Tall trees
• Mostly clean site
• Elevation 310 feet, front facing SW

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, very conveniently located
• 65 PSI water, very conveniently located
• Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 65 Mbps down, 3-8 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
• AT&T: 10-22 Mbps down, 0.05-0.3 Mbps up, 125-780 ms ping
• Verizon: 2.5 Mbps down, 0.1-7 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Pool

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Quiet park under the trees

This was a great stop for a couple of nights on our way through Mississippi. The road to get to it is a bit sketchy (it’s more pothole than road), but once you get in, it’s peaceful and the sites are nicely spaced out. There is a short walk to the day use area, which wasn’t very busy in December, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We camped at Leake County Water Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Day use area near our site:

Bridge to primitive camping area:

Floating dock:

Trees and other vegetation in a little bay off the river:

Boat ramp to Pearl River:

Fish of Pearl River:

Other sites:

Playground:

Swimming pool:

We’d be happy to stay here again, and for longer.

We stayed at Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, Louisiana. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice state park, at least until our site flooded; we moved to a different site for the last night.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-12-08
• Check out: 2024-12-13
• 5 nights

Weather:

• Rainy at first then sunny
• High temps 56-74°F, lows 35-64°F
• A little wind, gusts to 26 MPH, but sheltered by trees

Noise:

• No road noise
• No train horn noise
• Little neighbor noise

First Site:

• #27, back-in, asphalt
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
• Mostly level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
• Asphalt driveway about 65 feet long by 10 feet wide
• No neighbors on either side (over 100 feet through trees)
• Lots of tall trees between sites
• Scraping branches
• Picnic table on 24 by 10 feet wooden deck
• Charcoal grill and fire pit
• Lantern hook
• Mostly clean site
• Elevation zero feet, front facing South

Second Site:

• #6, back-in, asphalt
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
• Level site; used air leveling, since only one night
• Asphalt driveway about 70 feet long by 10 feet wide
• 75 feet to neighbor on driver side
• 120 feet to neighbor on passenger side
• Some tall trees, but only grass between sites
• Picnic table on small concrete pad
• Charcoal grill and fire pit
• Lantern hook
• Clean site
• Elevation 10 feet, front facing SSW

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located behind site
• 42 PSI water, fairly conveniently located behind site
• Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Verizon: 3-5 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 25-45 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 5 Mbps down, 14 Mbps up, 24 ms ping, unreliable
• AT&T: 2-9 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 85-1300 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Boardwalks

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Surrounded by the bayou, sometimes in it

This is a beautiful state park amidst the bayou, but it became a problem because it had rained heavily before we got there, and the river started to rise. We woke up one morning to see that our deck area was surrounded by water and our power pedestal was partially submerged. A very nice ranger came by, ensured we were okay, and offered to help us disconnect the power when we were supposed to depart the following day. However, the water continued to rise throughout the day, and we weren’t comfortable with how high it was getting, so we opted to move to a dryer site for one night. Two other helpful staff put on their waders and disconnected us so we could move. While the rising water was problematic, and the access road is a bit narrow, we would happily stay here again. We camped at Tickfaw State Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our first site was delightfully private, surrounded by trees:

Utilities:

Deck, in the rain… hey, what’s a little rain when staying in a bayou?

Oh, that’s what… we woke up to a flooded site on our last full day:

We kept an eye on it, but the water level kept rising, submerging the power cord from our Watchdog… not great, Bob:

So we made the call to ask to be moved to another site for our last night.

Our second site was more open, not quite as nice, but also not underwater, so that’s a plus:

Other sites:

If we stay here again, this might be a slightly better site, #29:

Glamping tent:

Cabins:

Group camp, cabin style:

Another group camp, tent style (used by scouts):

Dump station:

We were very glad we made the call to change sites; our first site was completely submerged the following day, on the day we departed:

Yowza!

Despite the flooding, we’d be happy to stay here again. If we do, our first site (#27) would still be a reasonable choice (if no recent or expected rain!), though site #29 might be an even better site.