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Walt
For Hardee Lakes County Park: What a great place to stay. This is definitely not a place for someone who requires local restaurants or local activities. There is a Super Walmart about 20 minutes away in Wachula, Florida. The campground has no washer or dryer. The restroom is clean and so are the showers, there are no ceiling fans or air circulation of any kind so it's pretty humid and hot on a Florida summer day but as far as campground restrooms go, not too bad.
The campground itself is maintained pretty well, the sites are close together with little vegetation in-between sites. There are two areas that have 30/50 amp service, the area near the lake, sites 37 to 60 are all pull through sites, this makes getting in and out an easy task. Sites 10 to 36 are all mostly back in sites and some of the areas are low and during rainy season have soft or wet ground. Definitely try to get into the sites 37 to 60 which will give you views of the lake from almost every site.
There are 4 lakes here, I am on my 4th day at the campground and fishing for bass. Nothing so far using artificial and spinner baits. It's been extremely hot and the water is warm so I am guessing many of the bass have moved to deeper water and holes.
There are roads that go around the lake, mostly hard packed roads and there are areas that are a little rough. I have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and have only used 4 wheel drive once. You can mostly drive around both lakes number 1 and 2. Lake number 3 had a lot of wet ground on the west side because of recent rains.
The hard packed roads are great for bicycling, they seem to be well maintained and graded on a regular basis. The roads inside the campground are not paved but all are hard surfaced without any soft spots. The folks at check-in were very friendly and helpful when it came to information on the area. I am one of three campers here in the entire park, I LOVE IT!
If you need a lot of activities this is probably not the place for you. But if you like wildlife there is plenty of it here. There groups of deer with as many as 7 at a time all over the park. Owls and armadillos as well. I've managed to capture some great pictures.
The folks at the office tell me the weekends are busiest with the winter months being the most crowded. Mostly all people from Central Florida come here with a lot of locals. This is not a place that snow birds venture to much because there are no amenities and the maximum stay is 14 days. You then have to leave for at least 7 days before coming back.
I liked this park so much I've made 3 more reservations. You get a price break for a one week stay. Also, they only take cash here so be prepared. The office/camp store carries very little but does have a few essentials like ice which at the time of this review was $2.00 plus tax.
This will be a regular stop for me as I am out of Tampa, Florida and all the campgrounds get booked near Tampa by folks coming down for the winter from up north. What a great gem of a campground this was to find.
Posted Aug 17, 2017 by Walt from Tampa, Florida. This is the subjective opinion of a traveler and not of AllStays LLC.
Mike
For Hardee Lakes County Park: I stayed here on 3/11/17 thru 3/14/17. I thought the park was nice. I camped in a 30' trailer. I used a 30 amp site with a water hookup. I wish the sites were a bit more private as there is very little foliage between sites. Everyone that camped there was very nice. If you have a side by side or golf cart, bring it. The horse trails are really cool. The dump site was very clean and so where the bathrooms. The camp store doesn't have much of anything in it. I would definitely camp here again since it is only 39 miles from home and great for a quick getaway.
Posted Mar 21, 2017 by Mike from Florida. This is the subjective opinion of a traveler and not of AllStays LLC.