At the end of February, we decided to take a couple of nights and go over to Colt Creek State Park, located at 16000 State Route 471, Lakeland, Florida.  But, don't let the fact that is says "Lakeland, Florida" make you think that it's in an area where there is well, great cell service?  (no, at least not with Verizon) or even a close by store or gas station (no - unless you think driving for 10 minutes or more is close).  This is probably not one of the most visited state parks but wow it's a great campground!  And the wildlife - well, it's there for sure.  

This park has a small campground of 33 campsites with water and electric.  There are 2 dump stations as you exit the campground, but no sewer hookups at the campsites themselves.  There is 1 bath house serving the campground which is a fairly new structure and well maintained with the help of volunteers.  They also have 1 washer & dryer should you need to do laundry.

There are a LOT of people from up north camping down here in Florida during the winter months.  When we did our reservations at the beginning of the year (January 2025) we were not able to get a campsite for 2 nights - so our first night was campsite #9 and our second night was campsite #29.  After we got there we noticed that campsite 33 was available the whole time, so next time I will probably check just to make sure someone hasn't cancelled.

Campsite #9

Campsite #29

Each campsite came with water hookup, electric hookup, picnic table, campfire ring, campsite grill.  All sites were gravel and all were fairly large in size.  Most of the sites were kinda an "L" shape so you have some privacy in most of the sites.  A few were pull through sites and they didn't have the privacy I saw in the back in sites.

Things I liked about the campground:

1) it's quiet

2) all sites are gravel

3) sites are surrounded by Florida natural plants and grass (yes, grass!)

4) bath house was clean, functional and well located

5) trash cans throughout the campground make it much easier to get the trash 'taken out' like at home (both of our sites were really close to a trash can)

6) wildlife is abundant

7) it's a fairly dark sky unless you're close to the bath house (which is lit up big time)

Things I didn't like about the campground:

Nothing! sorry, there wasn't anything I didn't like - we loved our couple of nights there!

There is a separate area towards the back of the campground that is for tent camping.  By the tent camping is a small parking area for about 6-8 vehicles.  This area looked to be pretty full also during our stay.

Wildlife

Shortly after we arrived (checkin time is 3pm) I took the dogs for a walk around the campground loop.  We (and the dogs) saw a gopher tortoise crossing someone's campsite.  Dogs went nuts barking.  Never saw another one while we were at the park.

Marsh rabbit(s) - campsite #9 has a little trail that goes back to the 'group camp circle'.  A marsh rabbit showed up for dinner (or maybe just to tease our dogs).

Deer - each day we drove around within the park and we saw a lot of deer when we were out at dawn and dusk.  Actually saw a young buck this time too.  Most of the time I see just the does.

This deer was just about outside my window when I took this photograph.  At first, I was using a Nikon 70-200 and photographing through the windshield of the truck because we saw them along side the road when coming back from the ranger station.  This one kept munching on food and walking right towards my side of the truck until I was almost looking straight at it.  I think that's when the deer realized the truck was between her and her buddies on the other side of the road, so she went and joined them.

Shortly after sunrise, we saw this young buck from the truck and stopped to get some photographs.

Alligator - the first day we went to visit one of the lakes off the dirt road near the entrance to the park - there were several large gators hanging out in the lake.

Birds - there are a lot of birds at this park.  It's the time for robins to be in our area.  Also saw other song birds and a few larger water birds (egret, ibis, heron).

Night Skies

During our time camping, there were several planets out that were 'aligned' so we took a few minutes to try and see them.  This is when we found out how much light the bath house actually shines into campsite #9 - so we didn't get the 'dark night skies' we had hoped for.

When we moved over to campsite #29, the bath house wasn't so much an issue - and we had found that the lakes off the dirt road would be a perfect place to go, but the clouds moved in and we couldn't really see the night skies.  So, we retired a little early and decided we would get up for the sunrise on our last morning there.

Trails

Trails - this park has a lot of them!  We walked 2 different trails while we were there.  The first trail that we walked appears to be a small portion of the 'red trail' based on viewing the map provided by the rangers.  This part of the red trail is just before you reach the family campground (if you were coming from the entrance to the park).  We enjoyed this part of the trail because it was shady and had lots of various types of plants - some were flowering.  

Please be aware that this park does allow for equestrain (horses) camping and many (if not all) of the trails could have horses and horse manure.  During our stay we didn't see any one camping with horses so we didn't have to concern ourselves with fresh horse manure. Our second day of hiking we were on trails down by the equestrain campground on the blue and red trails - we walked for about an hour, the dogs loved it. 

Florida State Flower - Tickseed (above) 

Blue Eyed Grass (below)

Sunsets/Sunrises

Sunset by Little Lake (near the butterfly garden where parking and a restroom is available).

Sunset by Little Lake

Ollie enjoying the sunset by Little Lake

The next morning, we were getting up while it was still pretty dark outside.  Here's the dogs thoughts on this! Rue is all snuggled up in the bed, under the blankets. 

Rue looks like she is saying, "What - you want to get up for sunrise? It's dark outside and I'm pretty comfy here."

Not so sure I want to do this, perhaps a little more sleep.

And on the other bed, Ollie looks like she is up and ready - her eyes are wide open.  Abby on the other hand, is still in a sleeping mode (just like Rue).

But, they all did get up once we were closer to getting ready and we did see the sunrise.

This is along the road between the family campground and the Equestrain Campground.  It was a little foggy and beautiful!

It's a wrap, heading home

Soon our stay at this beautiful park was ending and we would be heading home - but it was a great experience.  Hopefully, in the future we can return again since it is close to home. 

One thing to note, none of the family campground sites are shaded except when the sun is lower in the sky. Once the sun is higher in the sky, you will have full sun.  That might be pretty hot during the warmer months here in Florida.