Camel Lake Campground

Definitely 5 stars! This campground was an excellent December 2023 basecamp for our Florida Trail day hikes and other nearby exploration to the north and south. We were very comfortable in our backpacking tent sheltered by some palmetto, with a nice hot fire nearby. There was plenty of dead and down turkey oak to cut with a small backpacking saw.

The hosts were great at checking in during morning and evening, and we had some entertaining conversations. The bathrooms were clean, and the showers had hot water. It was on the cold side for swimming (40s to 60s F), but the lake swim area looked like it would be great for the warmer months.

The loop trail around the lake was nice and would be decent for trail running loops. Our hip waders allowed us to explore the Florida Trail and Trail of Lakes segments north and east of the campground in dry luxury (there had been a large rain event a couple days prior, and water levels were just below knee level in a few spots). Hunting season does see a lot of traffic on the fire roads on the weekend, but weekdays on hiking trails was secluded (no other people, just wildlife). No mosquitoes during the cold spell, but some ticks during the warmer days (as expected).

We hope to return one day during the spring months to see pitcher plants (saw a sundew this trip!). The poor mobile signal was a plus for us, since we wanted to get away and unplug. Absolutely recommend this location!

Not enough electricity sights
Camp host very nice.
Clean restrooms
Nice lake and swim area

We had a great time. Nice location, peaceful. Some wildlife nearby - iguanas and birds. Full hookups. Nice and quiet at night. We'd visit again. We were in a 30' Airstream travel trailer.

We stayed on Site 1 and had a very great experience. The camp hosts were very helpful and friendly and made our time there just great!!

Kathy & Greg who were the camp host were fantastic very helpful

Great visit, the Camp hosts were very friendly and helpful

Beautiful place, nice people.

Beautiful campsites, very nice swimming area, picnic area & trail around the lake. The camp host was very welcoming, friendly and fun to converse with.

We came here to try out our new camper and loved it. The trail around the lake is very well kept and out camp site was very private. We'll definitely be going back.

It was July, so there was no one else in the area accept one other site that was occupied. It was an RV that was having issues with the electric hook up. It apparently blew the breakers in their very nice coach. I would be upset if I had to make repairs to my coach because the National Forest maintenance did not keep them up to standards. I overheard the camp host telling them they had put in work orders for the electric posts in our site and theirs months ago. Also that the door that was put in the restrooms was needing finished. The door had been replaced but you could see the framework still. It had taken 15 months apparently to get it replaced as it was not even finished. I think the overall disrepair of these little out of the way gems could benefit greatly by more attention from the higher ups that delegate the park work orders / money the camp hosts request for maintenance issues such as this

. This is not the only place we stayed on this trip in our National Forest locations and I am deeply saddened that our funding is not going to the smaller places like these. They need the same funding our larger more commercialized National Forest locations get.