Highlands Hammock State Park Campground

Good place for gator viewing. Don't forget the bug repellent.

This is a hard campground to review. On one hand, the majority of sites are cramped with little or no separation between you and your neighbors. The facilities are old and in need of updating, and the sheer number of tent campers and their smoky fires gets a little out of control on the weekends. On the other hand, the campground is located in the most beautiful jungle-like setting with miles and miles of trails that wind through giant trees, dense ferns, and magical cypress swamps. The trails and the forest are what bumped my review up from a 3 to a 4.

This is an older park built by the CCC back in the 1930s, which accounts for the small sites and old bathroom buildings. While I would prefer a bigger campsite, I can appreciate the history and am happy that they are preserving what was built so long ago.

A few tips for getting the most out of your stay here. Try to get a site from 114 to 138. These sites are on the edge of the park with more space and a few trees and shrubs for separation. We thought site 126 where we stayed (after switching from a previously bad site) was one of the best. Avoid at all costs sites 10-33 and anything in the 50-60 range. These are all wide open with no separation. Also, be sure to use the one newer shower building. All the others are pretty old and scary. Finally, be sure to visit the onsite CCC museum, and if you don't have time to walk all the trails at least do the Cypress Swamp Trail.

This park is nestled along the western city limits of Sebring. It is just a few miles off u.s. 27 and is really quite the special place. The previous post listed all the wonderful things that this park has to offer. It is also a focal point for the Sebring community and many events are held here throughout the year. It is one of the campgrounds that is favored by snowbirds, who rotate thru our state parks in the winter and utilize the larger sites. It can be difficult to get a site in the winter. That being said, it had a very large area for small campers , pop ups and tents and is a huge magnet for young families to camp at on weekends. Yes, it can get smokey, a little loud at times and can be a nuisance to the many retirees who want quiet and solitude. But, who cares. It is great to see the young people enjoying themselves and children being able to ride bikes, run and play like so many of us could when we were younger. I have seen 4 or 5 families plan weekends with adjacent sites just so that the kids could play outdoors. And, who knows, maybe they will all learn a little of our great Florida history and the pioneers who blazed the trail thru the brush to eek out a living in such forbidding land. Take your kids, take your parents and see a part of the "real Florida" before it is all turned into condos.

The park staff were very friendly and helpful. The bathrooms and showers that I used were clean and there was plenty of hot water.
The campsites are close together and there is not really any privacy between them. It is hard to tell where one site ends and the next begins. We had to share water/ electric hook ups with our neighbors, but I'm not sure if all the sites share. I did notice that some of the hook ups seemed oddly placed, so you might need an extra long hose or cord to plug in. Many of the campsites were shaded.
The weekend that we stayed, the campground was full of families with kids riding bikes all over and playing on the playground. We don't mind that at all, but if you are looking for peace and quiet, this may not be ideal for you. It did get loud at times.
The nature trails were beautiful for hiking. If you bring bikes, you can ride the on the road around a big loop. There is also a museum and store.
Cell service was only 1- 2 bars (metro).

We love this place, but we work remotely and there is no cell service. There is WiFi "free" at the club house a half mile from the campground so bring a bike ;)

Stunning bike paths and great park to enjoy.

There are a few spacious campground sites but mostly it is very tight. There are cars and tents everywhere and lots of people. Our neighbor’s tent is 3 feet away from our picnic table. The bath houses are OK too and they have nice new slop sinks. When we were checking in the Ranger warned us about noise at night and explained that the weekends can be very hectic. She also said that the trash was full and wouldn’t be picked up until the next morning. It’s 11 AM the next day and the trash still hasn’t been picked up. It was really hard to get into our site because it was very tight. It was a little bit hard to find because the signage really should be better. The roads should be one way but they’re all two way. We got to our site and realized we couldn’t get in to it because we need to back in from the other direction. We went around the whole entire Campground and had to come in from the opposite side. When we hooked up and plugged in the 30 a.m., it wasn’t working. I let the Ranger know right away and she sent someone over to fix it immediately, which was great. Overall it was an OK experience. It’s a very diverse campground with lots of tent campers lots of midsize travel trailers and lots of really big rigs as well.

We enjoyed a little back to simplicity this place offers. While not boondocking out in the wild, it has access to some very nice natural sights. We took the Tram tour and saw some beautiful birds as well as a picturesque alligator with her little ones. We also walked several trails--just right for novices like ourselves. Nice to not have the smallest trailer in the complex as we often do in RV parks. Lots of small trailers and tents set up and some big rigs scattered about as well. Reasonable price for state park--though the $20 fee for wilderness camping seems a bit high. Overall, we enjoyed this park a great deal and plan to return.

The hiking trails are very interesting. A lot of wild life, old trees and swamps.

Camp sites are very close to each other. They should thin out the sites and expand the area.

The bath house in the center is old and should be replaced. The bath house on the perimeter is new and very clean.

The loop drive and short hikes off the loop, as well as longer trails in upland pine areas, are beautifully preserved areas of native Florida habitat and easily accessible from the campground. The CCC museum in the park is well done, and there are lots of activities happening regularly at the park. Unfortunately, the campground itself leaves much to be desired.

The only sites that we would consider normal and acceptable for a state park are the sites along the outside of the campground, 114 through 138. Of these, numbers 114 through 122 are the only ones with a reasonable amount of foliage separating the sites and providing a little privacy. The interior sites are extremely close together with no clear boundaries, so larger families end up spilling into neighboring campsites or just having their tents literally under the windows of neighbors. Many of the sites share utility posts so half the sites have utilities on the wrong side of the rig (bring your long cords and hoses). We really liked our site (#114) and enjoyed our stay, but we would have absolutely hated being in one of the interior sites.

The good news is that there are enough bathhouses to serve the large campground, and they are cleaned sequentially so you can always find an open one. But they vary considerably in quality. The best (newest, most modern) restroom is on the northeast corner of the campground (the one with the laundry facilities). Campground roads are extremely narrow, as others have noted, and should be one-way. The dump station setup is poor, since the first rig waiting in line blocks one of the roads into part of the campground. Our stay required plenty of patience, and also planning just to pull out when our exit was blocked by the dump station line.

Larger rigs MUST NOT enter the park from the west side (Hammock Road / CR 634) -- this is an unpaved road with a single lane, weight limited bridge and lots of low overhanging trees. Enter from the east side.

There are plenty of services available in Sebring -- numerous gas stations, all the big box stores, numerous grocery stores. As you would expect given the close proximity to a reasonably large town, cell service on AT&T was very fast: Download 29.27 Mbps Upload 8.75 Mbps. However, there was very little over the air TV (reception was very poor) since this location is on the outer edge of the Tampa Bay market.

We had an overall good experience in this park due in part to our site and the staff and volunteers. The park is far enough from roads that we heard no road noise, which was a special treat for us. We loved the trails, although some of the narrow boardwalks, railed on one side only (Big Oak and Cypress Swamp trails) were unnervingly in need of attention (and questionable in design). The park offers a lot of choices for biking and hiking. The campground store was really nice with a good variety of essentials and souvenirs. The specialty orange ice cream or pie is a must try.

The volunteers are very friendly and helpful. They organized pot-luck dinners, paid breakfasts, and a dinner where they served 8-10 different homemade soups while we were there. There was live music and dancing following the soup dinner.

Other reviews have covered the site spacing issues and campground layout and I agree there is only one good bath house. Some of the laundry machines in the newest bath house need replacement. The worst part of the campground layout is the dump station. As soon as a second camper lines up to use the dump station, three loops of the campground are inaccessible from the entrance. If there is a way to separate the entry to sites 105-138 from the dump station it should be done. The entrance to the dump station is uphill and on a tight curve, steep enough that the hood of our truck obstructed my view while pulling over the top of the hill.

Because we were in the site across from the laundry and best bath house, at least once an hour someone would cut through our site, which I thought was bad etiquette for campgrounds. This is the only place we’ve experienced this behavior to this extreme, so I was disappointed in my fellow campers. If this behavior bothers you, think twice about this site.

On a side note: We went to Bok Tower Gardens (https://boktowergardens.org), about an hour north of the campground, and we can definitely recommend it if you’re up for an excursion this far away from the campground. They have beautiful gardens, a very unique stone tower, an excellent café, and a museum-like visitor center and shop. We got in half price on Saturday morning (entry between 8-9 AM). They had an excellent 4-piece jazz band playing during lunch.