Camping at Ochlockonee River State Park

We have arrived!  This is our second visit to Ochlockonee.  We were here last summer after it was recommended by my friend Birdie and we all really enjoyed it plus the drive here is great!

We obviously aren't the only ones who like this park although we were here on the weekend and there were still some open spots.  There were a lot more tent campers here this summer but it was still nice and quiet.

There are numerous parks in this region of Florida and most of them are nestled in among state forests and refuges.  Of course one of our prerequisites with the kids is a place to swim and, water in the state of Florida, does not always mean a place for people to swim.

It is a little drive in to the park from the main road.

The rangers are only at the gate between 3 and 5 pm so, if you have a reservation, you go to your site and come back to get your tag OR if you are a drive in, you find an unreserved site, and go back and check in between 3 and 5 pm.  Check in time is 3 pm and check out time is 1 pm.  There is a campground host and nice flush toilets and showers in the campground.  The kids got to walk the dogs while Steve and I parked the RV.  I apologized to the very quiet tenters down from us for the noise while we were parking and sending the kids away from the site with the dogs.  The lady said "think nothing of it, they were hilarious, and my kids aren't here at our site right now so that is why it is so quiet!"  Once settled in, all was quiet again.

I debated when reserving because these sites on the outside of the loop looked a little closer together than the ones on the inside.  Steve thought the ones on the outside would be better and he was sooooo right.  You could barely see the neighbors on each side while the other site would have placed the back of my RV looking right out onto the next sites which both had tenters at least one night.  This is our oh so beautiful site.  Helen drove in Friday evening after going to school in Tallahassee.

This is the view out of the back picture window of the RV.  Fabulous!

And this is a look into our site from the path along the river.

Here is another site also very nice.  Most of the sites are very nice and have at least some shade.  The only thing I found unusual is that the hookups seemed to be on the wrong side in many of the sites (like ours) and some would have been much easier to get into if you were going the other direction on the one way loop.  I always carry an extra water hose and electric cord so no problem. Most sites were 30 amp although there may have been a couple with 50.  Check the online site.  There are also 2 or 3 concrete handicap sites right near the restroom.

This path a couple of sites down from us led back towards the river and.....

...the campfire circle off behind us.  It was set up for nature programs but they didn't seem to have anything going on there last year or this year.  Still a pretty place to sit and look at the river.

Looks like a glass of tea, doesn't it?

This is the other side of the river.

Another spot along the river down near the boat launch area.  It is actually just off the Ochlockonee.

This is the swimming area which is just off the Ocklockonee as well but not anywhere near the boat launch area.  I asked the ranger about alligators.  He said they saw one after Tropical Storm Debbie a few weeks ago but otherwise no problem.  He said you could actually swim anywhere along the Ocklochonee River in the campground area but they set up this swim area here because it allowed for more of a beach.  The current is strong so you do have to watch for that and it is different depending on whether the tide is going in or out of the river.  Fortunately, our two kiddos can swim so we just had to keep a close watch on them.

The kids, doxies, and I took a walk while Steve and Helen were out running on Saturday morning.

We enjoyed the path through the woods.

Took a break down by the boat dock and watched a jet ski being unloaded.

So what else can you do in the evening after showers have been taken?  Well, you can read.

Or you can watch a movie....

When you wake up in the morning and Dad and Helen are still sleeping, you can put together puzzles.  (Grandma comes prepared.)

You can have a campfire and you can do it during the day when there mosquitoes are not out.

And once the campfire is ready....

You can cook hot dogs for lunch!

And after a hot dog lunch....you can fix s'mores!  Good, right?

Of course, one of the things enjoyed the most is the swimming.  The water is plenty deep for jumping and diving of the swimming pier.

This is Cameron "practicing" a dive.  He is actually in the air not laying on the pier but I think it was more of a falling into the water type dive.

Everyone was having a lot of fun at Ocklockonee.