This park located near Tampa is a gem. The activity lover in you will enjoy the over 13 miles of trails available in and adjacent to the park, the ability to launch your kayak near your campsite, large 1/2 acre pool on park grounds and 2.2 mile multi use path with exercise stations… WOW.
Here is the link to the Hillsborough River Park Website You can access the link to Reserve America if you are interested in making a camping reservation for RV, Tent, primative or Group Camping at the park. There are no cabins here.
Campground- The campground loop roads are a packed gravel like surface and are in good shape. The sites here are mostly firm hard packed sand and there are a couple of gravel sites. This area is very low lying so it is prone to flooding quite easily and if you look at the campsites in the video you will notice that since there had been storms in the area the week before. The sites are nice size and most have nice large shade trees. We saw many trailers and RV’s larger than our 34 foot Class A maneuver the loops. You will have 30/50 amp electricity and water. There is a dump station at the park. There are two designated camp areas one called Rivers Edge sites 1-78 with two loops and Hammock Circle with one loop. Reserve America labels the loops–> Loop 1 is the Hammock Circle sites 82-114 and Loop 2 are the sites at Rivers Edge 1-40 and loop 3 are sites 40-78. I feel the loops 1 and 3 had a bit more options on more secluded campsites. We camped in site 23 (loop2- closest to river access) which was nice size but did not have any foliage to separate us from our neighbor on our awning/front door side. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring BUT many of the campsites on the loop 3 also had a grill and the newer bath house! Our wifi reception with our sprint phones is not that good and without the wifi booster and our verizon jetpacks reception would be a challenge to work remotely. We got about 18 good channels on our antenna even though our tv said we got 48. There is a publix 2 miles like a crow flies but you will be driving or in our case riding our bikes 8-10 miles to get to the nearest grocery store. There are three bath houses- one in each loop and the one in our loop 2 is older but clean and functional with a total of 4 toilets and 4 showers. There is also a coke machine and washer/dryer which will probably utilize before the end of the week because lack of sewer means we don’t use our RV washer. Children in the camp area had a blast riding their bikes around and around and around and around the loops. The park also has dumpsters and recycle bins handy to campers.
Hiking– There are over 13 miles of hiking trails in and adjacent to the park. The River rapids trail has a connector directly from the campgrounds next to the kayak launch which is a picturesque hike along the river and extends the official river rapids trail by another 1/2 mile. You can also extend the river rapids trail by continuing to walk on the unofficial part of the river rapids trail up river, you will end up walking under the bridge of 301 and you will arrive at an entrance to Fort Foster. I enjoyed walking around the fort WHICH IS NOT OPEN except at various times of the year for inside guided tours. It was a 2.4 mile hike one way from the campground to the Fort.
I am not going to describe in depth the park trails because there are plenty of resources that have described every twist and turn on the various trails. One resource that I use to investigate trails in Florida is Florida Hikes. I have linked Seminole trail to that link because that was a longer and more challenging hike than the river rapids trail. Be sure to ask at the Ranger station or front gate if there has been rain lately because my experience hiking on the Seminole and Baynard trail was a very wet and soggy experience and my shoes are still drying on our picnic table. What I found was that while there are 4 official trails in the park there are endless trails that meander along both sides of the river and the plants and wildlife are abundant. The wetlands restoration trail will take you to Fort King Trail road intersection which will allow you an additional 6.7 (over 13 round trip) mile trail to John B. Sargent Park or this wetland trail dead ends at the Dead River County park entrance. (I think this trail would be a better bike ride than hike but I will wait until cooler weather to hike this trail.)
Here is the video I did on finding a trail connection from this park to Dead River County park that is downriver a couple of miles.
You can also click HERE to be taken to the complete article on that trail and one that will lead you to Fort Foster too.
River and Water Activities–
Kayaking/Canoeing– There are two kayak/canoe launches in the park. One at the campground and the other closer to the day use area. There are also rentals available. Yes, we did see alligators minding their own business along the sides of the river. {Sidenote, if you watch our youtube video on this park you will hear grunting noises in a section of the video …. those are alligators!!! AND those are not in the river, I took that video along the multi-use path that loops the park in a low swampy area that was just beautiful to view.} The current was not strong when we were here even though it was obvious there had been recent rains and the river was higher than usual. Bottom line- paddling up river was still a pleasant experience with the only real effort exerted was going up river through the class 2 rapids. Side note: You are not encouraged to go on the rapids because the park does not want the rocks dislodged for a variety of reasons that I can understand. I could imagine that this river will have many very shallow spots without frequent rain due to all the fallen trees in the river and areas of rocky bottom. You can paddle from here to the Dead River park which is where the Dead River and the Hillsborough river meet and could be a nice place to do a picnic lunch and then paddle back to this park. You will paddle about 1 3/4 miles past the park boundary sign as you paddle downriver. You will know you are at Dead River County Park when you see the Red bridge and this will also give you access to Dead River. Dead River County Park is technically closed but still can be used as a picnic place and it also has the nice 2 mile river hike as seen in my hiking video. Hillsborough River is part of the Hillsborough River Trail which has multiple public launches from Crystal Springs Recreation Preserve down to River hills Park. Apparently, many parts of this river are quite technical so please be sure to read this guide about the river and the sections before you make your plans. Click here for the guide.
Pool– This park has a 1/2 acre pool with a Cafe snackbar and campstore run by a concessionaire. While I think that $4 per person, in addition to $6 a day for those day use folks is super pricey- it sure is nice to have this as an option on a hot summer day. The pool appears to be open year around with life guards on duty during the summer months. The pool is unique in style because it has a more shallow area around the entire perimeter. Lots of places to picnic around the pool area and nearby. This is also where you will pay for bike rentals and canoe/kayak rentals. In addition, they have a full service snack bar along with their campstore basics and other camping and water toy essentials.
Biking- There is the 2.2 mile paved park loop road that once could even enjoy rollerblading on. I mentioned before that the campground loops are more of gravel surface. The 1.6 mile wetlands restoration trail is also available to bike as well as hike and this is the trail that will connect you to the Fort King Trail which is a 6.7 mile trail that goes to John Sargent Park. While the last 2 miles of the Fort King trail are paved, you may find some sections of this trail to be a muddy, wet and buggy with some fallen trees at this time. So proceed on this trail with caution, I biked this trail but I will hike it in cooler temperatures in the future. Keith biked on hwy 301 from the campground to the 2 mile paved section of the Fort King Trail and enjoyed it immensely. There is a decent shoulder to ride on hwy 301.
Time after time we have found that having a mountain bike or hybrid is more useful and safer than our road bikes. We both have hybrid Specialized Bikes that have been everything we want. We are not doing a lot of single track and when we do we tend to seek out the less root and rocky types of paths. I attached the video of this ride from the wetlands trail to the Dead River County Park River trail in the hiking section of this review. I found the off road biking to be very enjoyable. The trails I rode were technically easy double and single track types of trail that did require me to hoist my bike over felled trees several times and to avoid muddy trenches. Road biking to Dead River County park was very enjoyable also- go right on 301 upon leaving park for 1.5 miles onto Dead River Road then 2 miles to County park entrance, hoist your bike over the chain at the pedestrian gate and ride 2 miles a very scenic and smooth canopy gravel/dirt road I have been on!
Surrounding Area Attractions-
Fort Foster – this is the only authentically reconstructed fort from the era of the Second Seminole Indian War (pre-1840’s). This has VERY limited guided tour and if you are a history buff be sure to plan your visit around the tour times. I mentioned earlier that you are able to hike to this location from the River Rapids trail…just continue up river!
Downtown Tampa is 21 miles away. Several mall areas within 15-18 miles.
We had a great time camping here for 11 days. Even though it was officially summer (late June) we were able to beat the heat with early morning hikes and paddles and the pool during the day. We will put this on our list for cooler months but it is nice to know that we can have fun here in the sweltering heat and not get eaten by bugs!!!
