Camping at Falling Waters State Park (second time) - April 2026

We are back at Falling Waters State Park – this is our second time camping here.  If you have been following our blog posts, then you may recall the first time we camped here for 1 night – shortly after Hurricane Milton had come through our hometown and left a mess behind.  This time instead of travelling the entire 355 miles from our house, we made a stop at Paynes Prairie State Park, then travelled from there to Falling Waters State Park – a shorter drive of approximately 244 miles.  Lessons learned, doing 355 miles is a lot of miles for a single day when pulling a camper (driving slower) and setting up camp, fixing dinner, walking dogs when you get there.

Park Details

Address: 1130 State Park Rd, Chipley, FL 32428

Phone: (850) 638-6130

Open 8am – 7pm

Campsite Details

We stayed in campsite #17 

Water/Electric (has dump station)

30amp/50amp

Picnic table, Fire ring

Back in sites

Shady

Bathrooms/showers (they also have ‘family bathroom/showers’ which is unique and kinda nice!)

Check-in is 3pm

Checkout is 1pm

Quiet hours from 11pm till 7am

Campsites 17 and 15 are very close to each other.  To the left of Campsite 17 are tent sites.

First Walk

Our first walk this evening after setting up our camp was to catch a glimpse of the lake which is also the local swimming hole for visitors.  The dogs enjoyed having a few minutes to walk and smell the sites.  It’s a familiar trail to me and can be caught by going to the end of the campground (near the tent sites and site 20) which was close to us.  There is a sign "Trails of Wonder - Falling Waters Trail System" at the entrance of the trail.

This visit to Falling Waters was to get together with our friend and her pup, Ranger.  Our girls had to get use to Ranger – but soon they were ok with each other – we just kept an eye on the girls, especially Abby who is fine with other dogs as long as they don’t get in her space.

Early Morning walk

Each morning the dogs and I would head out for a short walk to allow them time for their 'business' - and often Jim would start cooking breakfast while we went out.  Falling Waters doesn't really have any great places that I found for taking sunrises/sunset.

After eating breakfast, the dogs and I headed over to the waterfall - note that the upper overlook for the waterfall is still not repaired - perhaps someday.  So we took the trail to the lake crossing this bridge and then headed up the hill to the day use area and then down to the waterfall area.

Once you get to the day area, you will see signs that will take you towards the waterfall.  Since it had rained just a few days ago, the waterfall was flowing pretty good.  This morning walk was just the girls (Abby, Ollie and Rue) and I.  The second day Jim joined us on the walk - but Abby had a rough time coming up the stairs so we stayed up top and let Jim go down and enjoy the waterfall.

Where the water flows from......and then where it goes (down into the sinkhole!).

Both of these photos are from the lower platform for viewing the waterfall.

This photo below was taken when the dogs were waiting for Jim to come up from the stairs.

Jim down at the bottom....

A couple of people have pointed me to a YouTube video for "Tallest Waterfall in Florida" as apparently they were doing their video while the dogs and I were at the bottom of the platform and we are in it (at about 6:38 into the video). In case you're curious.

On our way walking back and forth to the waterfall, we shared a few moments with the dogs.

On one of the walks that Abby decided to nap instead of joining us, Peg (my friend) and I came across a 'water hole' - not sure exactly where the water was coming from but it was bubbling up from the ground creating a wonderful (if not muddy) water hole that I knew Abby would just love.  So next time we were out walking, I took her to the water hole - and she didn't waste time!

We were all getting a bit hot and none of the rest of us were playing in the water hole with her. So, after about 5 minutes we asked her to come along so we could continue walking back to the campground.

We didn't see much wildlife, although I did hear a good number of birds.  They do have this nice carving hanging on one of the trees heading to the campground.

And the dogs had a great time just being with us....

Photos of us (rare!)

The dogs, Ollie, Rue and Abby and me sitting at our friend's campsite (photo courtesy of Peg)

Photo of Jim and I - courtesy of Peg (thank you!)

Ranger

Here's a cameo appearance of Ranger (really sweet guy!)

Maps

In case you are wondering where Chipley, Florida is - about 85 miles west of Tallahassee, Florida just a short distance from Interstate 10.

Map of the campground.

Map of the park.

To see all the photographs from this park, click Here.

To see the blog post from October 2024, click here.

That's all for this camping stop - more coming soon!