Rainbow Springs State Park

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:

Rainbow Springs

An interactive map:

Our nicely secluded site:

Our 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:

Our site

Utilities:

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Bathrooms, with a washer & dryer just out there:

Bathrooms, and washer & dryer just out there

RV check in area:

RV check in area

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

Office and camp store

Camp store

Picnic shelter:

Picnic shelter

A very moss-draped tree:

Tree

The Rainbow River:

River

Rental kayaks:

Kayaks

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

Video

Video: Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 203 miles from Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida.

Travel from Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida

We drove our coach 203 miles, about four hours of driving, from Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:

Route

An interactive map, with potential stops marked (we actually only stopped once, at Rocky’s 98):

Toading up at Ho-Hum RV Park; we miss that view:

Toading up at Ho-Hum RV Park

Why does their bear sign look like a polar bear?

Goodbye Gulf Coast:

Goodbye Gulf Coast

Lunch stop at Rocky’s 98 gas station:

Rocky's

They had convenient big-rig-sized parking:

Convenient parking

A kitchen with various food options:

Food options

We just grabbed some super-healthy stuff for lunch (and fudge for dessert later):

Lunch

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

Turning right in Perry:

Turning right in Perry

Paladin was feeling very snuggly on this trip:

Snuggly Paladin

“Follow That Dream Parkway”:

Follow That Dream Parkway

Arriving at Rainbow Springs State Park; we had to wait for several minutes for another RV blocking the entrance, presumably because they didn’t have the gate code; this park is unusual in that you need a code to get in even before checking in, which they provide via email beforehand:

Rainbow Springs State Park

Check in parking:

Check in parking

Office:

Office

Our site:

Our site

Custom desk tweaks

While in Red Bay we got Cody Poores of Cody’s Custom Cabinets to do a few tweaks to the custom desk he previously built for us.

As a reminder, here’s the pull-out desktop he originally built. It was fine, but had a few things that bothered me:

Old desktop

Firstly, the front edge was flush with the cabinet below, making it harder to open, which also meant that when it was extended the desk chair would have to be on the edge of the carpet. Secondly, the ends of the sliders were exposed, which was untidy. Thirdly, the piece of Corian next to the desktop didn’t match the height of the others:

Old desktop

And lastly, the desktop was sloped towards the back:

Old desktop

He removed the old desktop and side piece, and had new ones made:

Removed desktop

The new desktop addresses all of those issues — it extends four inches in front of the cabinet, so is easier to pull out and the chair doesn’t have to go onto the slide carpet; it has a wider front to hide the slides, it isn’t angled, and it has a lip on the back to prevent things falling into the monitor lift area:

New desktop

Plus the piece to the right of the desktop now also matches better:

New desktop

The desk in use, with the monitor raised:

Desk

Much nicer.

Video

Video: a peaceful timelapse of one day from a waterfront site at Ho-Hum RV Park

Watching the sun rise and set while the tide comes in, recorded from a waterfront site in our favorite Gulf Coast campground, Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, on the panhandle of Florida.

Video

Video: a peaceful timelapse of a couple of weeks from a waterfront site at Ho-Hum RV Park

A peaceful timelapse watching the sun rise and set while the tide comes in over a couple of weeks, recorded from a waterfront site in our favorite Gulf Coast campground, Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, on the panhandle of Florida.

Florida’s Forgotten Coast

While staying at Ho-Hum RV Park, we did a few drives along the Forgotten Coast, in the panhandle of Florida. Amongst other things, we saw all four of the lighthouses on the coast.

A pamphlet for the lighthouse driving tour, with information about each lighthouse:

Lighthouse driving tour pamphlet

The first drive was west of the RV park, with lunch at the Blue Parrot Ocean Front Cafe (they have a live cam you can view, too), then St George Island Lighthouse.

Here’s the route on an interactive map:

Bridge to St George Island:

Bridge to St George Island

Blue Parrot for lunch:

Blue Parrot

St George Island Lighthouse; unfortunately the museum was closed when we visited:

St George Island Lighthouse

St George Island beach:

St George Island beach

Further west, the Cape San Blas Lighthouse in Port St Joe:

Cape San Blas Lighthouse

The second drive was east of the RV park, to St Marks National Wildlife Refuge, St Mark’s Lighthouse, and Publix groceries on the way back.

Here’s the route on an interactive map:

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge:

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge

The refuge visitor center, with info about the lighthouse too:

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge visitor center

The wildlife refuge:

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge

St Marks Lighthouse:

St Marks Lighthouse

The third drive was to have lunch at The Fisherman’s Wife restaurant in Carrabelle, then visit the nearby Crooked River Lighthouse.

Here’s the route on an interactive map:

The Fisherman’s Wife; we wanted to eat here last year, but they were closed for the holidays. They were closed again most of the time we were at Ho-Hum this time too, but opened a few days before our departure:

The Fisherman's Wife

Crooked River Lighthouse, the tallest of the four:

Crooked River Lighthouse

The old lighthouse keeper’s house, now a small free museum:

Crooked River Lighthouse

Crooked River Lighthouse museum

Fascinating stuff. We really enjoy this area of Florida; much more laid-back than the more touristy and populated parts.

Video

Video: Ozark, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida motorhome travel timelapse in 360°

A silent 360° timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 155 miles from Ozark, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida. Drag to look around anywhere while playing the video.

Ho-Hum RV Park

We stayed at Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our second stay here, again over the holidays. Still one of our favorite RV parks.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-12-22
Check out: 2025-01-12
21 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny, some drizzle
High temps 50-69°F, lows 33-62°F
Some windy days, gusts to 39 MPH

Noise:

Some highway noise
No train horn noise
Some neighbor noise: dogs, and some kids (this is really not a place for kids, but weekenders will be weekenders)

Site:

#45A, pull-in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Somewhat level site; high in front and passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 55 feet long by 22 feet wide
Just gravel between sites
Picnic table
One tree
Clean site
Elevation 10 feet, front facing SE

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
30 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)
Dangerously fluctuating power for a day due to a corroded connection; used generator until fixed

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 27-55 Mbps down, 11 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: 7-11 Mbps down, 0.5-3 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
AT&T: 6-28 Mbps down, 0.05-0.12 Mbps up, 90 ms ping
Starlink: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Waterfront (gulf)
Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Hidden Gem on the Forgotten Coast

This was our second stay here, and I would happily come back again and again. There’s no better view than watching the water and gulls from the front of our coach. The atmosphere is laid-back and inviting, and the staff is helpful and friendly. There was a power issue part of the way through our stay, but they kept us updated on the status of repairs and understood when we needed to run our generator during the outage. This is not the beachfront place for partying and carrying on; it is the beachfront place for quiet contemplation and chilling. We camped at Ho-Hum RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

With RVs on either side, as it was most of the time (often a trailer on the driver side, which is preferred over a motorhome, since their living area is away from us; fortunately we didn’t have a trailer on the passenger side, which would have been facing us):

Our site

View from our site:

Our site

View out our windshield:

View out our windshield

We enjoyed watching the various birds, including sandpipers, pelicans, cranes, ducks, and others:

Birds

Paddling:

Paddling

Gentle waves:

Waves

Foggy:

Foggy

Sunset:

Sunset

Night

Partway through our stay (on New Year’s Eve) our Power Watchdog reported electrical issues, saying the voltage was dangerously low or high (actually both), and neutral reversed:

Electrical issue

I wasn’t sure if it was just us or a wider issue, but talked with some neighbors who also had the issue. So after further diagnostics and talking with the RV park owners, I unplugged the power, and we used the generator. The next evening (New Year’s Day), the electrical company came out and repaired a corroded pigtail; hazards of a waterfront RV park!

Electrical repair