Camping at Lake Griffin State Park, Fruitland Park, Florida
We finally got out again to camp a few nights over at Lake Griffin State Park. Please note that you are now in Black Bear Country and they do provide information on what to do if you encounter a black bear. Thankfully I did not encounter one – especially when I was walking the dogs. Actually, we didn’t see a lot of wildlife in this park – a few small birds and a few squirrels, but not much else – except mosquitos!
One other thing to note, there is some road noise due to the closeness of Highway 441 but it wasn’t really loud. We did hear some sirens during the day hours.
Park Details
Lake Griffin State Park
Address: 3089 Highway 441, Fruitland Park, FL 34731 (Lake County)
Park (352) 360-6760
Park 8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Park Office 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Cell phone service (Verizon) was good at this park
Campsite Details
Our campsite had 20 amp, 30 amp and 50amp electric. Most of the sites are 30 and 50 amp. A few are 30 amp only - check the map at the end of the blog post and you'll be able to see which ones are which.
Picnic table, Fire ring
Gravel campsite
Our campsite was partially shaded, campsite #22. Lot of trees in this campground providing shade. I did notice that campsites 3, 4 and 20 looked very shady and 3 and 4 are pretty large.
Water/Electric
Dump station
Back in site (They do have a few pull through sites)
Checkin is 3pm
Checkout is 1pm
Quiet hours 11pm - 7am
The bath house is centrally located in the middle of the campground. The camp sites are in a circle around the bath house. Our campsite was just about directly across from the ladies side of the bath house – but there was a bit of a hill to walk up to get to the bathhouse.
The dumpster is just outside the campground on the way out of the park. The dump station is located on a small loop off from campsites 38 and 20. See map for location.
This photograph shows that our campsite #22 was a fairly good size - we could easily fit another vehicle on our campsite without being in the roadway. You can also see that there is not much of a separation between our campsite and the one next to it. This is the case with a good many of these campsites - privacy is not available in many of them unless there isn't anyone camping next to you.
Here is another example of 2 campsites being right next door to each other -- perfect if they are with you in your camping group. The fence is separating 2 campsites (campsites 15 & 16).
The dump station between campsites 38 and 20. Note there is a facet, but there is no hose attached to it.
Glamping
They have these cute little cabins for 'glamping' in the park. They are managed by the Eco Tours company. If you're looking for a place to stay in the park but don't have a tent or RV, this might be an option for you.
Live Oak Trail
This park has a huge 'mammoth Live Oak' tree near the park's entrance. Per the park brochure, the tree is documented as the second largest oak tree in Florida and is likely more than 250 years old. It's huge in diameter - unfortunately it recently lost a large branch but hopefully it will remain living in the park for years to come. There is a small parking area near the park ranger station that leads you to the short walk to the large oak tree.
Day use area
The dogs were eager to take a walk so we walked over to the day use area shortly after arrival. There you will find a playground, the boat ramp on dead river, corn hole setups (2) as well as plenty of benches, picnic tables and trash cans. Since we were near the exit of the campground this was a short walk for us. I didn't take a photograph of the corn hole setups - but there are 2 of them. You can get the bean bags from the ranger station at the front of the park - they asked for our campsite number - there was no charge.
The amphitheater was along our path to get to the day use area.
A couple of unique things about this park. First, they have a food truck that has several options for food as well as firewood. The place is called “Epic Gator Bites”. And yes, we tried those gator bites and they were really good – so good we got them 2 days in a row. Jim told our dogs “Here, have a gator bite – you can eat the gator instead of the gators eating you”. They liked the gator bites too. The second day, we treated each of the dogs to a frozen dog treat from Epic Gator Bites. Another bonus – they will deliver to your campsite – we purchased fire wood and it arrived before we were back at our site.
I've always teezed Abby that she decided to put a big white spot on the back of her head to make it easy for me to figure out which black dog was her.
Rue looks like she is thinking about something and I didn't catch a photo of Ollie, so not sure where she was when I was snapping photos of the dogs chilling.
This park also has Eco Boat Tours which sound like something perhaps I will take advantage of at the ‘right’ time of year. This isn’t exactly the bird season, so I skipped it this time around. The tour guide said they usually see a lot of manatees in the lake as well – with a higher number coming in the cooler parts of the year (but not so cold they head to the springs for warmer water). They do have manatees that are year round in this lake. NOTE: The boat tours are not dog friendly.
One thing I did notice – while the park is called “Lake Griffin” – if you don’t have a boat or take the boat tour, you don’t see the lake – you’ll see water – but that’s Dead River. I was hoping to see the lake and maybe get some sunset/sunrise photographs – but that was not an option.
The yellow food truck is the "Eco Gator Bites" place. I thought it was interesting that they have a "wheelchair" swing - I don't think I have seen one of these before.
Trails
There are 2 trails in this park that are listed on the map. We did hike some of the nature trail – mosquitos are an issue even though the weather was a bit cooler (60-80 degrees). The mornings were beautiful but make sure you have insect repellant for you and any fur kids you might have.
The loop trail we didn’t hike this time – with the mosquitos and currently having a few injuries that are healing, we didn’t do that much walking (but mostly the mosquitos).
Venetian Park, Leesburg, Florida
Lake Griffin State Park is located between Leesburg, Florida and The Villages, Florida. We headed over into Leesburg to check out a park that might not have as many mosquitos. We found this park – it’s on a lake and is quite nice – dog-friendly too. So if you’re looking for a nice lake view this is a good place to go – about 15 minutes from the campground. The address is 109 E Dixie Ave, Leesburg, FL 34748
Veterans Memorial Park, Leesburg, Florida
We also stopped by this park – it is smaller than the other park, but there were turtles sunning themselves, birds along the shoreline and then, oops, let’s turn around because there is a big fella sunning himself and this time he isn’t “gator bites” we can eat – it could be the other way around. The address is 600 W Meadow St, Leesburg, FL 34748.
Downtown Leesburg - Main Street area
We decided to head into downtown Leesburg and check out the Mystic Ice Cream located at 314 W. Main Street late one afternoon. The downtown area looks like a nice area to walk around - I will say that if you're walking with 3 dogs people tend to notice you - but our girls are now seniors and they are well behaved. The ice cream was good - and we enjoyed it. There were several tables out front that we sat down at with the dogs. They also have several benches along the sidewalk that you can relax.
Tis the season to be decorating for fall or Halloween - here's a couple of photos I took while eating our ice cream.
Good BBQ.....
M&M Old Hickory Smokehouse BBQ is on Highway 44, Wildwood, Florida just off Interstate 75. If you like BBQ and you're hungry, it's good food and pretty fast service. We all enjoyed it when we stopped here on our way to Lake Griffin State Park. 7993 NE 7th Dr, Wildwood, FL 34785
Be aware - the website says they are closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - so check first before heading out if you're planning to go.
Campground Map
