Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, Florida

We spent five days camping at Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, Florida.

The park, considered to be Florida’s first state park, was built from 1934-1941 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Overall, the park, which has numerous hiking trails, an off-road biking trail and a paved loop for driving or biking is great. And to be frank, the RV campground is merely adequate.

The campsites are very close together with little vegetation between. We stayed at site 41, which — fortunately for us — appeared to be the largest one there. It was open without any shade, but there was space between us and the next site.

The best thing about Highlands Hammock State Park is the rest of the park. One day, we rode our bikes on the six-mile off-road trail (suitable for bikes with fatter tires) and the three-mile paved loop. Other days, we rode on the paved trail, parked our bikes, and walked most of the hiking-only trails.

Our favorite trail was the Cypress Swamp Trail, on mostly boardwalks through an ancient cypress swamp.

We definitely would return to Highlands Hammock State Park for the biking and hiking. And one benefit to it having a merely “adequate” campground, is that it’s a bit easier to get camping reservations there.

Campground Details

Campground Name: Highlands Hammock State Park
Location: Sebring, FL
Campground type: Florida State Parks
Number of sites: 138 RV sites; 16 primitive sites for tents only.
Hookups: 30 and 50 amp electric; water
Connectivity: On T-Mobile, we got two bars of LTE in the campground. Not good for streaming, but enough for everything else.
Bathrooms: In the RV camping area, there are three small, old bathhouses (built by the CCC) with toilets and showers, and a newer — and handicap accessible — bathhouse with toilets, showers and laundry. There is one solar outhouse in the primitive area. I used one of the old bathhouses. It was dated and worn, but clean, and the shower was hot with good pressure.
Campground amenities: CCC Museum, a camp store that also sells gifts and firewood, dump station, tram tours. There is a very nice three-mile paved loop trail and a six-mile off-road trail for biking, and several hiking-only trails through hammocks and cypress swamps.
Reservations: Visit reserve.floridastateparks.org to make a reservation. Florida State Parks take reservations 11 months in advance.
Campground rating: 3 out of 5

Nearby

• Sebring International Raceway: Sebring is famous for its race track, located about 30 minutes from the campground. Vic and I aren’t into auto racing, but if you are check out the events going on there.
• Military Sea Services Museum: This is a small museum dedicated to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines and U.S. Coast Guard. It’s staffed by retirees from all services, who are very happy to show you around and provide commentary on all of the items in their collection. During our visit, everyone was very nice, but it was hard to explore the museum on our own. Admission is free; donations accepted.