E.G. Simmons Regional Park Campground

On a Thursday afternoon with no reservations, I happened to roll into Tampa Bay on spring break weekend.  Much to my dismay nearly all the public campgrounds were full. After several minutes of roadside phone calls and a chain of referrals to other places, I called here. E.G. Simmons was the only place with walk-in spots available. My salvation!

Expectations were low as it was the last place available, so imagine my surprise to find a beautiful, well kept, tropical oasis. This park happens to be an excellent fishing, boating, paddling, cycling and beach combing park with white sand beaches, palm trees and manatees. Nearly all the campsites have water access and there are several picnic shelters, playgrounds, and a boat ramp. On spring break weekend this place was perfectly chill and just what I needed. I love it when serendipity results in a discovery like this.

The only con is that it's a bit removed. Although that could also be a pro depending on your agenda. You're looking at about a 45 min drive to get to downtown Tampa, St. Petes or Sarasota.

No reservations taken, yet Over 100 sites on the water with water & Electric, no much privacy yet an amazing place to camp. We parked our Travel Trailer sideways looking right out on the water. Great campground for Kayaking & fishing following the mangrove trails to Tampa Bay you can see downtown Tampa, St. Petersburg, The Rays stadium, and the Skyway bridge all in one view. Great sunset view in the park at the beach.

The campground is pretty quiet except it fills up on the weekends yet they all leave Sunday it quiets down again.

We stayed at this campground overnight in late October 2018. It was a weekday and there were plenty of spots to choose from despite being first-come, first-serve. With the cost and location, I can imagine it would fill up during peak season. I believe you can stay up to 5 months at the park at a time which is surprising. There were a few people who seemed to take advantage of that and their areas were a bit overrun and trashy. Overall though the park was clean and well-maintained. We stayed on spot #25 on the west campground. We did not have to level and we did not unhook since we were only staying one night. That spot was away from everyone (all others were empty) and was nice and shaded. All spots seem to be right by the bay, but you do not have a good visual because of all the overgrowth. That was a bit disappointing, but it is a conservation park, so I’m sure they keep it that way for habitat. We walked the entire campground and park when we arrived. The west and east campgrounds seemed very similar. I would not say there was a better side. They have a nice boat dock area and we were able to see St. Petersburg and Tampa from there. There are several fishing piers and a beach as well. The beach was a little run down when we were there, but several hurricanes had come through the area recently, so it was understandable. Tons of osprey and shorebirds throughout the park. We enjoyed watching osprey eat their fish dinner. We didn’t use the Verizon hotspot so cannot speak to it, but we had good signal for AT&T. We also had a good number of TV channels over the air. Each spot has water and electric and there is a dump station at each side of the campground. Any size RV should be fine to stay there as well. Overall, it was an excellent place for an overnight. Easy access to Tampa if you want to explore it while you are there. We would stay again if ever in the area.

Round one we had a fellow camper threaten to beat my dad up out of the blue. His wife made him back down when I started to call 911. Later discussion with staff made it clear staff they were aware that this person was unstable and chose to do nothing.

Some sites are huge. Neighboring site 19 is about 60 by 90 feet or more. I had a new neighbor move in. He was unable to figure out how to back his 20 foot trailer onto the site, and therefore decided to simply pull his rig across the front of my site and plug in— with only the back half of his trailer on his site. I went to the front office, who called the “head ranger” who decided to let it slide. Kids and loose dogs all over the rest of my site ensued, with outside speakers at full blast. I'm contesting the charge on my credit card and leaving tomorrow.

Cell service was very poor the 12 days I've been here, on both verizon and t-mobile, with voice calls being iffy at times. Hotspots totally unable to work.

We rolled into the Tampa area and found all the state parks booked to capacity. I called and talked to Steve who told me there was two spots left at the park and to hurry over. We were so happy to see how nice our spot was and the clean facilities, not to mention how great the paddling is here. There’s a canoe trail that you’ll love if you bring your boat.

Overall I think it’s a tremendous value in a great location.

First come first served but plenty of sites to choose from. Overall not too much vegetation, but sites are huge (we camp in a 38 ft motorhome) & some are more level then the others, all with hookups. We stayed at site 68, access To water, very level. As a COVID response, they rent only even-numbered sites.

We loved the large spaces at this park and the access to the water for kayaking. Also liked that it was first come first serve, and we had no problem arriving late morning on a Monday in late October, even with them only using even numbered sites due to COVID (you drive around after being given a map of which sites are available then come back and tell the office which site you want), but the bugs were INSANE! The noseeums(?) ate my husband alive even during the day!! I got bit too but not as bad. Sad as we loved the water access, rate (seniors are 55+), and quietness of this beautiful park. Maybe they're fewer in the winter, but not in late October. We stayed in the east campground in site 74 I think. Showers were good but water was hot and no way to control. We had one bar Verizon that worked well enough for emails and some Internet access but was slow at times.

We were told we could stay up to one month.

Well run park. No reservations. Site 74 had a nice live oak tree for shade though we did not need it while we were there. Bath houses clean. No privacy between sites though the sites were big. On Tampa Bay. Beach was closed because of Covid. Kayaks available to rent.

We have family nearby who told us about it. It is a great place. West side has 50 amp service. East side 30. All have water. No sewer at site but dump station within 100 yards. Big sites on both sides. A lot of osprey nests as it is a nature preserve. Which also means a lot of raccoons.

Some sites were tight and some had lots of room. There's a small private beach and roads to ride your bike on. It was close enough to several things in the Tampa area. Also it was great for kayaking in the mangrove trees. However, you can't make reservations here. Which may be a good thing if you are in the Tampa area and don't have a place to stay. The time of year I went most other inexpensive camp sites were already full so this worked out well. I would stay again.