Silver Lake Campground

The Withlacoochee River passes through here and opens up to create a nice lake for fishing or kayaking and boating. It's right off of I-75 so there is some road noise but the scenery makes up for it. The Withlacoochee Bike Trail is at the entrance and is an excellent paved bike trail.

The Silver Lake Campground offers shady campsites from large oak trees and plenty of grassy understory. Most of the sites have views of the water. Includes picnic tables and fire rings at each site, with restrooms, showers and dump station located nearby. Access is down some back roads so check your maps.

Crooked River Review

Feb 17-19, 2017
Site 66

This area was GREAT! Lots of privacy from site to site (some more than others depending on which site you get). It is the farthest camping area of the Silver Lake Recreation Area. The first two are camper & tent camping with water & electric; Crooked River is tent camping only, no electric, but with water at each site.

We were at Site 66 - no site across from it & to its right was an open field about 1/3 the size of a football field with two covered picnic tables - it is NOT a camping site. Not sure what its purpose is since Crooked River is a camping area & no day use allowed; but this open field provided more privacy since no one can camp to your right. Site 65 was to the left, but there was enough space & dense growth to provide plenty of privacy.

Each site has a fire ring with a movable grill & an uncovered picnic table.

Tip: secure food, etc. First night there We didn't secure the cooler (2nd night I pushed it underneath seat of picnic table). Came out first morning to discover we fed raccoons who were able to open the unsecured cooler & help themselves to a package of bologna & hot dogs - found the evidence (empty packages) not far from the cooler.

Other sites are closer together but all together all the sites seem to have lots of space & each site had its own water faucet.

Sleeping - The first two camping areas at Silver Lake Recreation Area, Silver Lake Campground & Cypress Glen Campground, are close to I-75; Crooked River is not. So you can't hear the I-75 traffic but for the engine braking of a rogue 18-wheeler every now & then. Even the aircraft we saw - either headed to or from Tampa International Airport - was high enough not to produce noise we could hear. Nighttime was pleasantly quiet.

Fishing - we were quite close to the Withlacoochee River; it flows north into Silver Lake, then continues north to other camping & day-use areas. It was less than a 2-minute walk from our site. We saw a few people canoeing & we fished; didn't catch anything, but we got some bites. Saw turtles & a 5'-6' gator. Someone else we saw fishing told us the waters contain crappie, bluegill, catfish, mud fish, & bass. Water was cool & clear, but bottom is dark, so can't see much.

Canoeing - we didn't but watched others who did. Nice area to launch & retrieve.

Hiking - we hiked with the two grandkids (5 & 7) along an old road parallel with the main loop from Site 66, then the trail turns away from the camping area towards the river. It is a well-worn trail through dense forest & marked. If you follow it all the way to the end, you end up at a U-Turn in the river where it opens up to a nice sandy area. Very beautiful. Toward the latter part of the hike, you can even see the river on your left & your right as you hike along the trail. It only took 15 minutes to hike all the way; then 15 minutes back. So a nice 30-minute hike.

There are other hiking trails, but we didn't explore them.

Firewood - not much around so better take your own. We were there for two nights & most of Sunday & used almost a trash-can amount of split oak.

Other Camper's behavior- quiet time is 10, but people began to really quieten down 'round 10:30 PM. While we where there, two separate Boy Scout troops were group camping & it was still nice.

Restroom & Shower Facilities - [men's] Two urinals, two toilet stalls, & two shower stalls. HOT water in which to shower - how wonderful is that! But bring your own soap; there was none provided neither for showering nor for hand-washing. We also cheated & had a self-contained marine porta pottie with us - a MUST for those with small children; otherwise, you're walking to the restrooms often, but they're not too far away.

Camp Host - we only saw him on the Sunday we left-not a problem with us. We saw the forest ranger ride through at least once every day. When we did speak to the camp host, he was very friendly & he & his wife were walking with trash bags & picking up trash as they found it along the loop.

We really enjoyed it & will be back again. I recommend for those who need no electricity & want a true tent-camping experience.

We had a great stay at Silver Lake Canpground. The sites are well kept, come with picnic table, fire ring, hookups. Not super secluded from other campers, but enough space. Our site was on silver lake (quite a few sites are lakefront), so it was quick and easy to kayak. There’s also a paved boat ramp. Silver lake connects to the Withlacoochee River, so there are miles and miles of kayak trails. Within the park, we hiked over 5 miles of easy trails that follow the river- saw some great wildlife too! Bathrooms are clean, 3 toilets and two hot showers. This place would have been 5 stars except for its extreme closeness to a major highway. Unfortunately our site was the closest site, too. The noise was inescapable and really put a cloud over the stay. You can see how close the highway is in my campfire photo- the lights in the background are cars. I’d come back, but I’d make sure to get a site closer to the entrance. Also within this park is cypress glen campground and it’s even further from the highway.

This was our first state park that we have stayed at for quite a long time, the spacing of sites is adequate for privacy. The loop closest to the interstate was very noisy, luckily the site we had didn't have as much noise. The restrooms where older but clean. The lake provided a great opportunity to try out our kayaks for the first time and has a boat ramp. Saw several alligators. There is another campground a little further back which would be a better choice for being quite, just doesn't have a dump station, you have to drive up into the Silver lake campground to dump. The road that leads back to the other campgrounds makes for a great walk in the mornings.

Road in is paved but rough. I think they should have left it dirt & scraped it level now & then. There was no one at check-in station when we arrived or any other time we went through. Since we had reservation just proceeded to sight & set up. There is a gate that is locked from 8pm to 8 am. Truly locked. It does not swing open to exit campground either. This was not an issue for us until Sat am when we tried to leave a few minutes after 7. Called the tel # on website. It's basically a recording telling you if emergency call 911. So we and others sat & waited til about 8 when someone came from outside the campgrounds to unlock it. If there were an emergency not sure how responders would get through.
In spite of that, I will say if you are in a tent definitely camp at the Crooked River tent only section!! It is beautiful. Road noise from I-75 was barely noticible. Sites are large and most are quite private with space & growth between them. The shower/restrooms are old but clean. We drove up from the Silver Lake section to use those showers.
The Cypress Glen section is rv/tent & has electric & water hookups. Sites seemed spaced enough, though very few looked level. Road noise from I-75 may have been slightly less than the Silver Lake section. Bathroom/showers could use some updating but were clean enough.
The Silver Lake section was area we were set up. Sites are large & angled in such away that you get some privacy from neighbors. Sites are very open. The website warns of road noise but its truly worse than we expected. We naively thought it would settle down at night & fan or AC would mask it. Neither of those were true. It's a constant roar. The bathroom/shower needs updating & cleaning. I checked them daily & sometimes the trash had been emptied. A few times some of the dead bugs were cleaned off the sink counter, but I don't think it ever got a real cleaning while we were there. Like I said previously, we drove up to tent area to shower & used camper bathroom.

Some nice hiking trails and a nice lake. Spots were spaced fairly well. I don't recommend 32 unless you have a sub-25 ft rig. It's not even close to level front-back (Jacked the front of my trailer to the limit with as many blocks as I could fit and it still wasn't quite level), but would be more manageable with something shorter than my 30 footer. 32 wasn't the only spot this way; quite a few were sloped significantly. Access road was a little rough, but not too bad.
Cypress Glen was far enough away from the highway that it wasn't a bother. The general traffic noise was just audible at night.

Nice place to walk and hike, but note that NO ALCOHOL is permitted!!

Not specific to this campsite, but oh how I wish people would learn that their neighbors don't want their "cute" LED exterior lights shining all night...for once I'd like to be able to sleep at a campground with my shades up and windows open and not have the inside of my camper look like a rainbow! Turn off your lights, please!!

This is a great campground to stay at. This is Silver lake. We have stayed in Cypress Glen as well. This one is closer to I75 so I take a star off for road noise. Pet friendly. Someone posted that you are locked in overnight. You are not. The gate code is on your email receipt. Good cell reception.

Great campground with nice hiking trails. This campground is right next to i-75 so be careful which site you pick. My personal preference, I would pick site 6 next time. All the sites looked shaded and well kept but 6 seem to have the most room on either side without neighbors.

This campground has plenty of charm among Live Oaks with a partial view of Silver Lake. The campground and sites are spacious. The Withlacoochee State Trail (paved 46 mile rail trail) is within walking distance of the campground. This was a convenient stop off of I-75 with lots to explore in the surrounding area, but the road noise is substantial. Our site and the campground roads are big rig friendly.

Stayed here for two nights during lovebug season which I do not recommend… (early May) ;) Beautiful breezes off Silver Lake, lots of gorgeous birds. Nice to hear sounds of wave runners and boats while you’re sitting by your campfire. Maybe only 20% of the campground sites were full so it was immensely quiet (other than the highway) and devoid of human noises. Beautiful Live oaks with Spanish moss create a nice canopy of shade in many spots. My site (# 6) was very, very UNlevel and no matter how many blocks I had with me, it was not enough. Nothing like staying someplace where your refrigerator door slams into the wall every time you open it. Electric and water are spaced relatively far from the site so even though you have plenty of room to back in, I had to park my 21’ trailer near the front of the site to reach the hookups. I have a 15-foot electric cable and I still had to park 20 feet from the back of my site. This is partly due to the grade and also due to reaching the hookups. Took a nice paddleboard paddle on Silver Lake and saw a few medium-sized alligators. At dusk, I would take my chair down to the water’s edge and watch all the wave runners race around. Nice breeze! I work remotely and it was a little bit of a challenge to get more than two bars on Verizon so I had to go into town to download some files. Not a big deal since Dunkin’ Donuts is only 7 miles away (Free wi-fi). And I got a doughnut. I would stay here again but I would choose a spot that was more level before I set up camp. I cannot review the bathrooms since I use my own in my trailer. I drove by the dump station and it looks serviceable.