Our first multi-night trip of 2026.  Our camper is now 2 years old – we decided to put new trailer tires on it before this trip – I have not heard that Westlake tires are good for long term and ours were now 3 years old.  So, to start the year out right – new tires for the trailer!

We ventured over to the Orlando, Florida area finding a nice county park called Magnolia Park located in Apopka, Florida.  Apopka is west of Orlando and this particular park includes some lake side views of Lake Apopka – the 4^th largest lake in Florida.

Park Details

Address: 2929 S. Binion Road, Apopka, Florida 32703

Phone: (407) 254 9046

The hours 8am to 6pm (when we visited)

Park Office hours are 8am – 6pm

NOTE: The reservation site only allows you to make reservations 45 days in advance.

This park appears to be a little remote but is actually very close to some decent shopping.  1 mile to a couple of gas stations, 2 miles for Publix (grocery store) and other stores. 

The park staff is super nice and are very willing to be helpful – so if you need something – they are there to help.  We did ask about firewood, but they were currently out.  He mentioned they did have some scraps at the office and would be happy to bring it to our site.  Thank you!  That kept our fire going while we (my niece and I) took a 2-mile ride up to Publix and purchased some fire wood to have a cookout and campfire.  Jim stayed to keep the fire going for us and keep the dogs company. 

At 6pm the gate is locked and you must have the access code to get into the park and campground.  The campground bath house uses the same access code as the gate, so if you’re there for any length of time, you’ll have that number memorized very quickly.

Campsite Details

We stayed in campsite #3 which was fairly well shaded on the outside of the loop near the entrance to the campground loop.

Water/Electric (has dump station)

30 and 50 amp electric

Picnic table, Fire ring

Back in sites

Shade/paved area for the picnic table and the RV; area between the picnic table and RV was gravel

Bathrooms/showers

Checkin is 2pm

Checkout is 12pm

Quiet hours I believe were from 11pm till 7am (but this campground was very quiet overall)

The Peacocks…..

When we first arrived, we were greeted by about 5 peacocks.  Now, our dogs have never seen a peacock, and I suppose you can imagine the amount of barking that started as soon as they saw them.  A lot of barking.  We were working to quiet them down while I started chasing the peacocks out of our little piece of land for the next 3 days.  Thankfully, the peacocks decided that they would stay out of our area for the remainder of our stay.  They moved over to the day use areas close by.

I am trying to hook up the water and this peacock is being very nosey.

In general, the campground loop is full of trees. Many are oaks with some cherry laurel and palms.  Some sites are pretty close together without much in terms of privacy but overall the campground (and park at this time of year) is very quiet and everyone pretty much kept to themselves.

Early Morning walk

We arrived at Magnolia Park just days after a freeze, several nights of freezing temperatures (in the 20s) left many things in the park looking dead – so the scenery wasn’t the best.  We are pretty much in the dry season, so the pond was very low in the middle of the day use area.  We walked around the day use paved area, among the oaks and enjoyed that no one else was out and about.  There are not any trails that I saw to take the dogs on near the campground.  There are lots of big oaks on the property.

Sunset on Lake Apopka

The sunset on the lake across the street (still park of Magnolia Park) is stunning.  We were able to get over there and watch the sun set the first night we camped and it was worth it.  It is a short walk should you want to walk over but with 3 dogs in tow, we decided it might be safer to keep the family together by driving.

Rue watching the sunset and I noticed to capture this wonderful photo of her.  Gotta say, the sunset was really nice....we must have taken a zillion photos of it before we finally left.

Newton Park, Winter Garden, Florida

We drove about 20 minutes over to Newton Park which is along the shore of Lake Apopka.  There are a lot of birds here at this lake, so if you’re a birder it’s a great place for you to come visit.

High at the top of a tree without leaves (remember, it's winter) sits a black capped chickadee.

High at the top of a dead palm tree sits a hawk looking for it's next catch.

Along the water's edge is a great blue heron looking for it's next meal (seems all the birds are busy looking for food!).

Looking up, I see the cypress trees converging into an interesting pattern.

Turtle hanging out catching some sun on this sunny yet chilly morning.

Lots of wildlife, mostly different birds, can be viewed from the sidewalk along Lake Apopka.  There is a playground and other areas further into the park.

Other things

There is a trail over on the lake side of the park.  It was in between two bodies of water, and with it being Florida I didn’t feel comfortable taking the dogs down this trail.

There is a biking trail that is 18 miles in length on the lake side as well for those of you that have bicycles.

If you’re there over the weekend, and like wildlife you might want to consider the Apopka Wildlife drive which is very close to the park (Friday, Saturday and Sunday only).  We have done this in the past but didn’t get a chance to do this time – highly recommend it as a chance to view a lot of Florida’s wildlife from your car.  Just note that once you start driving this loop, I don’t recall that you have the option to do anything other than continue forward (no turning around – it’s 1 way loop).

The shortcut to the bathhouse from our campsite (#3).

Snooze time after a long day! (Ollie and Abby)

The pond is very low due to the drought going on in many parts of Florida - this is the center of the day use area.

They have several different playgrounds in the day use area.  They also have sand volleyball courts and a basket ball court.

The boardwalk to the boat parking spots that are on Lake Apopka across the street from the campground and day use areas.

Bird life is plentiful in this area - they appear to be a lot of birds with Lake Apopka.

Map

We apparently misplaced our map of this park so I have included a copy of the campground map from the county website here for your viewing.

To view all the photographs from our stay during this trip, click here.