Juniper Springs Rec Area - Fern Hammock Springs is located in the Ocala National Forest, featuring flat terrain with abundant forest cover. Temperatures range from the 40s in winter to the 90s in summer. Nearby attractions include the Juniper Springs and Alexander Springs, offering opportunities for swimming and canoeing.

Juniper Springs Campground is one of the most popular campgrounds in the Ocala National Forest. The location offers deeply shaded sites within walking distance of some of Florida's most beautiful natural springs. The surrounding recreation area has plenty of activities to entertain visitors, including swimming, picnicking, canoeing, snorkeling, hiking, birding and wildlife viewing.
This campground was named one of Reserve America's Top 100 Family Campgrounds in the United States.

The facility is divided into a day use area and campground. Campsites are arranged into three loops near the creek and springs. All sites are shaded and equipped with a picnic table, grill, campfire ring, lantern post and space for tents. There are no sites with full hookups. Other amenities include hot showers, flush toilets and dump station.
A convenience store with camping supplies, beach supplies, drinks and ice cream is nearby. Restaurants, shopping and gas are just 10 miles from campground.

Juniper Springs Rec Area - Fern Hammock Springs

Are you in need of a campground near Ocala National Forest, FL? Ocala National Forest is filled with the activities, sights, and experiences to make everyone in your crew a happy camper. Ready to plan your adventure? Check out our campgrounds near Ocala National Forest and user-submitted reviews.

Ocala National Forest

The Best Camping Near Ocala National Forest, Florida

To begin with, Juniper Springs Rec Area, boasts not 1, not 2, but 3 individual campgrounds (Tropical, Sandpine and Fern Hammock Springs) to choose from. Recently having traveled here with a bunch of camping buddies, we were able to experience all 3 campgrounds, but for this review, I’ll focus on what I believe to be the best of the 3 campgrounds to choose from: Fern Hammock Spring Camp Area. This is the only of the 3 campgrounds where only tent camping is permitted, so if you’re looking to RV or trailer camp, then you’ll have to look at Tropical or Sandpine. And no, before you ask, not all of these campgrounds are created equal. 

  

Here at Fern Hammock Springs, you are still within earshot of highway 40 (where all of the swooshing of passing by traffic comes from) and located the furthest east in the Juniper Springs campground area, but this is easily the most secluded of the 3 campgrounds. There are 18 campsites, with the least attractive sites being #61-63, #71-74 and #78 as they are connected to the main trail (and primary entrance road), which can be a bit busy with all of the hiker traffic and cars coming and going. If you have a good-sized group, I would recommend the end of the cul-de-sac here, which are sites #72-74, but hereto, the main trail passes right by these 3 sites and exits right in front of #74, which is completely oversized and can easily place 3-4 tents (although you are only supposed to have 2 tents per site – there were easily 4 when we hiked by) in this one site alone. To get away and be even more secluded, look at sites #64-70 that is made up of its own singular loop, but this area isn’t terribly private, although you will feel less like you are caught up in the ‘drive by’ hiking and driving traffic. The best area to choose from IMHO are sites #75-79, which are completely shrouded in privacy from the rest of this camp area. Our site, #78, was perfect as there is a tree line that creates privacy between its neighbor(#76), but has full open views with sites #77 and#79. Likely the very best site to book is site #75, which is completely shrouded in its very own blanket of shrubbery. 

  

Being surrounded completely by either palms or mighty tall pines in the Ocala National Forest was absolutely wonderful and apart from just a few basic amenities: flat sandy floor campsite, fire ring w/ flip grill, standing grill, massive bear-proof safe boxes (honestly, the largest I have ever seen!) and lantern post / garbage hanger. The campground also provides a fairly nice (coin free) bathroom / shower facilities along with a single oversized kitchen sink for cleaning up dishes. There’s a community water spigot (no washing dishes here though) and a dilapidated shelter that is closed (again, due to ill repair) along with outdoor amphitheater seating and a small screen for viewing (all closed while we were there). 

  

As for Juniper Springs itself, while most of the amazing natural springs scattered throughout central Florida are nothing short of fantastic attractions in their own right, I was quite disappointed to discover just how miniscule the natural springs were here at Juniper Springs Rec Area. The spring itself is really just an oversized pavilion pool with tons of seagrass apart from two very small outcrops beneath the crystal-clear water where you’ll see a bit of Sulphur bubbling to the surface. The nearby visitor center is brand-spanking-new, complete with a substantial outdoor seating and picnic area to utilize, and the spring pavilion itself is nice in that it offers up a few rows of concrete seating that surrounds the spring. Nevertheless, when compared to the many other springs in Florida, Juniper Springs is quite small and while nice with a recently refurbished old mill with a fully functioning water wheel that propels water downstream, I would easily recommend other more substantial springs like Rainbow and Wekiva Springs. 

  

Further, while I normally bring my tandem kayak everywhere I go camping, we didn’t have the time or capacity to bring it this time – and we were in luck, because the canoe / kayak launch was closed. Additionally, there were numerous hiking pathways and boardwalks that were closed down having fallen apart due to lack of maintenance with no clear indicator that the State Park was working on fixing all of the amenities that are clearly falling in disrepair. On both fronts, I was quite bummed to discover so much of the park lacking proper access to enjoy the number of amenities that I thought my camping fee was paying for. The State Park should do a much better job of communicating what amenities are not available / closed and / or consider offering discounted fees to access their park or to camp. 

  

Insider’s tips? Here’s a few: (1) There are a ton of other springs in Florida to choose from that I would highly recommend (just check out my reviews for Rainbow and Wekiva Springs) as they offer MUCH more in the way of actual natural and man-made amenities;(2) Please note that you cannot bring inflatables here to Juniper Springs; (3) If you don’t really care about enjoying the springs or having any access to a proper river to kayak or fish in and are simply looking for a nice place to camp, then Juniper Springs wouldn’t necessarily be a bad decision as the campgrounds themselves here are so amazing; (4) If you do decide to come to Juniper Springs and want to camp in Fern Hammock, I highly recommend site #74 and #75 as well as, to a lesser degree, sites #65– 68; and (5) When you get tired of digging through your cooler to figure out what the next meal will be, I highly recommend a riverfront bar &amp; grill called Drifters that is in nearby Astor and just a 20 minute drive due east from Juniper Springs – I recommend the deep fried shrimp, corned beef as well as the ice cold pints of Stella that they’re pouring. 

  

Happy Camping!

More Campground Than Springs

Juniper Springs Recreation Area:  FERN HAMMOCK LOOP - TENTS ONLY  Sites are more open in this loop.   Many trails and boardwalk are temporarily closed.  There is a challenging kayak run.  Kayaks can be rented here.  Concessionaire run. 
(Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good

(70 yr olds in 17’ trailer with a desire for a campsite that has at least some visual privacy - after the trailer is in the spot.)

Overall Rating:  3.0 
Price 2023: $  17 w interagency pass
Usage during visit: heavy during Thanksgiving weekend. Light usage by Monday.  Sounds like usage picks up on weekends.
Site Privacy:  Not great. 
Site Spacing:   Some sites are pretty open and close.  
Site surface:  Dirt. 
Reservations:   Yes
Road Noise:   None
Through Traffic in campground:    No reason for any. 
Electric Hookup:  No
Sewer Hookup:  No 
Dump Station:    Yes. 
Potable Water Available:  Scattered spigots and near the bath/shower rooms. 
Bathroom:  Flush toilets.
Showers:  Yes. 
Pull Throughs:   Yes 
Cell Service (AT&amp;T):  2 bars. 
Setting:  Juniper/ Palm trees 
Weather:  high in the 60s lows in the 40s.
Bugs:  None. 
Solar:   Some sites will have good solar. 
Host: Concessionaire run. No host.
Rig size:   Tent Only 
Sites:  FERN HAMMOCK LOOP: Tent only 
62, 61 are the best.

Tents Only

Overall it’s not a bad campground but I have no plans to ever return. 

The good: clean bathrooms with running, hot water; wild Florida flora; starry night skies.
The spring run is one of my favorites. It’s difficult and technical and challenging and I just love it.

The bad: the worst part of my experience was other campers being loud after quiet hours and the camp host doing nothing about it. While most people kept it down after 10 (as stated in the rules) one group of partiers was up til 3am, blasting music and hootin’ and hollerin’. I know the park can’t control individual’s behavior but, again, the camp host was on site and did nothing about it. I talked to other campers the next day who all lamented at their lack of sleep because of this one group. It was so bad we only stayed one night. We left the next day after kayaking the run because our home in the city is quieter.

Also, there’s a general lack of information available for visitors. There are no maps available, for the campground or the run. I had to take a picture of an employee’s personal map of the grounds which ended up being inaccurate because it listed a shower facility that doesn’t actually exist. I asked the staff at the spring run for a map and they didn’t have one I could look at. I asked “how do I know I’m at the end of the run for pickup?” She said “it’s right after the bridge.” Which was true, but it’s not labeled in any kind of way so if I hadn’t asked, I would’ve just kept on paddling forever. Their website has limited information and the confirmation email I got after booking had incorrect information. It said to call if I’d arrive after hours starting in November, so I did, and was told that policy wasn’t in effect for a few weeks. None of these things are a big deal on their own but when they’re all together it becomes a pattern.


Photos of Juniper Springs Rec Area - Fern Hammock Springs

Real photos from real campers