Camping near Tampa Bay?

[dudeijuststarted]

Update: In the last several weeks I have car-camped at:

- Juniper Springs: beautiful spot. quiet camping area. enjoyable short nature trail with plenty of wildlife. first outing in a while, very refreshing. nice facilities.
- Fort Desoto: beautiful waterfront sites. incredible beaches. Very clean facilities.
- Little Manatee River SP: loud campground. OK facilities. Not much to look at inside the campground. Trailheads are off-premises as far as I could tell. I drank beer and ate brats.
- Fort DeSoto (lower numbered sites the non-waterfront / cheaper sites invite a different brand of clientele. very loud neighbors, not particularly peaceful. Recommend waterfront sites with a sprawling lawn.

Investigating some of the hikes noted above. Can I do Citrus Tract in 2 nights? Seeing different data on this.

[jbwood5]

If you are looking for a developed campground. Tillis Hill in the Citrus Tract is pretty nice (just SSW of Inverness). This time of the year it can get a little crowded but I generally find that there are a few tent or RV spaces available on the weekends since it is not quite as popular as Holder mine or Murual mines. I believe you still have to call the Withlacooche Forest office to get a spot at Tillis Hill (i.e. not walk ins, unless it has changed recently). They have hot showers and power at many of the sites and you see a mixture of RV's and tents. The call in requirement makes it a little less popular. I go there often to just day park and hike the FL Trail which can be accessed by either a road walk of 3/4 mile or a horse trail out the back side of Tillis Hill. There are a couple of hiking loops that can be acessed for long day hikes. Right now it is hunting season, so I prefer to wait until January (only small game at that time). The trails up there are beautiful, but as mentioned by Ladytrekker, there is no water unless you detour to one of the 3 established campsites. Also as mentioned, there are the two backpacking primative sites just off the main trail (again, no water). You may be able to find a map online or you can check out this one at:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...map40mirun.jpg

Just ignore the color coding. The outside perimeter is blazed in orange and the spur trails are blazed in blue. Not shown is an orange blaze spur that leads up to near Inverness on the NE leg (part of the statewide FL west trail). The Florida Trail Association in Gainesville is your best bet for the most recent maps, but this will give you a rough idea of the trail system and size of property which is the largest continuous (non-State Park) tract within 1-1/2 hours of Tampa.