Santos Trailhead & Campground

A pleasant little campground. The sites are large and nicely spaced around a paved loop. There is minimal vegetation between the sites for privacy, but they are far enough apart that this wasn't an issue. There are about 24 RV/tent sites. All have water & electric but no sewer hookups. There is a dump station on the way out. We used this as an overnight spot while traveling through the area. There is a little road noise from a State Highway nearby (not an Interstate!) but this was not overly intrusive and didn't detract from the experience.

If you are a mountain biker this is a must stay campground. It is adjacent to the Cross Florida Greenway and the Santos Bike trails which comprise about 80 miles of mountain bike trails. There are many trails with different levels of difficulty from beginner to Evil Knieval.

We will definitely return in the future and stay awhile with the intention of exploring some of those mountain bike trails.

If you have a bicycle, and you enjoy trails - this is a must stay.

But first, the campground, which we absolutely loved and would come back to even if we didn't have bikes and wanted to be in the area. Any of the outside campsites are all wonderful offering a great deal of site separation and privacy. The inner sites (closer to the bathhouse) don't offer much privacy at all, but are also nicely spaced.

The campground is nicely maintained with onsite friendly hosts - and is run by the Florida State Park system. They do lock the gates at sundown, so if you're arriving late make sure to call ahead to get the code.

But the real reason for being here is the Trailhead, which is just around the corner. It's a network of trials maintained by the OMBA (Ocala Mountain Bike Association) offering trials of varying skills. The Yellow trails are suitable for just about any bike (we took our folding electric commuter bikes on them). The Blue trials are a bit curvier with some obstacles (we did mostly fine on them) and the Red are absolute insanity going in and out of sink holes. There's a bike shop right across the street that rents bikes too.

The campground is located right between Ocala and Bellview, with plenty of access to shopping. We were able to get usable cell signal on all four carriers.

The only ding we can think of is there is some road noise, but you do feel nicely sheltered by the trees surrounding the park.

Santos is a bit out of town so if you don't have another rig to get around in I'd make sure to have your provisions with you. Once you're here it's a great little spot - the campground isn't very big and the sites aren't private but if you're a mountain biker you'll be stoked to wake up in the morning and be able to hit the Santos trails in less than a minute.

Sites are a bit small and have limbs that may scrape your roof, FYI.
Some road and train noise as well.

Santos is a very nice small campground with plenty of room to spread out and not be on top your neighbors. We stayed in site 21 on the outer loop and 20 on the inner loop and both were comfortable, shady and spacious. The bathrooms are clean with plenty of hot water, but there are only 2 showers and toilets in both the men’s and ladies for all 23 sites. While they are clean, they are not pristine and likely not maintained throughout the day like a private campground. There is no camp store, laundry or other amenities but it is a lovely, quiet park with a lot of trails for hiking, biking and equestrian use. We enjoyed biking the paved trail which was fairly flat and mostly shaded and we passed a lot of mountain bikers, walkers and folks on horseback sharing the trails along the Wayne. AT $22/night it’s a great value

Quick note: AT&T coverage is only 1-2 bars here. This mattered to us, not sure who was able to get 3 bars (as shown in Campendium) but without a booster, the entire area is 1-2 bars for AT&T

Moved up to Ocala from south FL trying to get away from Eta, but weather forced us to leave after 1 day

Campground review: Check in was easy - campground was very nice and quiet (road noise as mentioned, but not too loud). I have mountain biked here before so I was really looking forward to getting out on the bike. WIll definitely be back,

Santos is at the eastern end of the MHC Greenway and there is a lot to like about all three of the campgrounds (Ross Prairie & Shangri-La being the other two). Santos is all about the trails (fewer horses here for the most part vs. the other two campgrounds) but two huge parks for mountain bikers of all skill levels. An offshoot of the Pine Tree East trail goes to the Santos Bike Shop which is a great resource to have for supplies and repairs. And you can access the linear section of the trails heading west.

Enough about the trails, this is supposed to be a campground review. Two things stand out about this campground vs. the others: the road noise and the poor cell service (AT&T & T-Mobile in my case). Even though this campground is much closer to Ocala than the other two, I immediately noticed significantly slower speeds when I arrived here. At one point I even used the booster. And Hwy 301 is a major 4 lane road, though separated by tall trees, is surprisingly loud at rush hours and during the day. Much better at night which is all that really matters I guess.

Otherwise, this campground has 25 numbered sites (one of the hosts is in 24) with 1-18 on the inner loop which follows the treeline, and 19 - 25 on the outer loop, which has shade trees but is much more open. My guess is that based on older reviews, the sites have been renumbered at some point. There was everything here - from tents, truck campers to vans, class A, B, C. So plenty of room for everyone. Many people were here with bikes to use the trails - the trailhead is just in the next parking lot to the west. There is a central bathhouse, a dump station near the entrance, and 20/30/50 plus water at each site, nearly all of which appeared quite level. Sites 6 & 20 are paved (accessible).

The hosts were very low key, essentially no interaction with them after checking in. Oh, the gates for all 3 of these campgrounds get locked about 6 PM so always call ahead to get the combination if you're arriving late. As for cellular, it was highly variable with download speeds up to 20-30s at points and upload from 1-4 MBPS. This whole side of town was screwy in that department.

April 6 2021. Class B RV

Pulled into campsite at 4pm. Friendly staff and very clean and updated bathhouse.
Site 18 was very level and private, only downside was the abundance of tussock moth caterpillars and their cocoons over everything, especially the power pedestal. They are slightly poisonous being irritating to the skin. Only bad in April apparently, lucky us.
Easy back in to site, lots of campers are here to bike so watch out for them on the campground roads.
Many trains come through at night nearby and if you’re in a tent or popup you might be woken up several times.
Two bars with ATT cell, and picked up several local tv stations with our antenna.
Clean and well kept campground with convenient dump station.

The above rate reflects the nightly rate of $22, plus the reservation fee and taxes averaged over the 2 nights we stayed.
A perfectly fine campground here with fairly large, level sites. Plenty of separation on the exterior row with foliage between most sites - not so much on the interior sites. Decent shade on the outer sites if you come here in summer, which we did. Bath houses have been updated with tile. Didn't use the facilities, but the showers looked roomy and clean. We had no trouble getting a signal here on both Verizon and Consumer Cellular (which uses mostly AT&T towers). Phone and data were fine. Interior roads are certainly large enough to maneuver a good sized rig. Electric and water at each site and a dump station located near the entrance.
Most campers here come for the mountain bicycle trails, though there is also a really good, paved walking/biking trail here as well. Plenty to do in the Ocala area as well. Even though the campground sits just off a major highway (441), we found it to be mostly a non-factor as far as noise is concerned.
One thing all the Florida State Parks which we have stayed at do a really good job at is keeping the camping areas dark at night. The only lighting is around the bath houses. If your site is away from them, you will have total darkness surrounding you at night.

Very nice campground. Clean restrooms and grounds. Very small, but great hiking and biking.

If you are a mountain biker you already know this is a great campground. But I don't bike and I love it too. Clean park with friendly hosts. Lots of grassy areas. Backs up to Marjorie Carr Greenway where you can walk or do a leisurely bike ride for miles. Florida Trail passes on side of campground too for off road hiking. Lots of restaurants nearby and great antique shops close by too. Great campground for tents or RVs. Lots of shade.