Best Tent Camping near St. Augustine, FL

For those of you who find yourself hauling your vacation behind you and / or looking to rent a cabin in a small corner (er, intersection, actually) in the country’s oldest city, and don’t mind a completely pre-fabricated outdoor experience in the midst of an otherwise strip mall environ, then look no further than St. Augustine KOA. While there’s a lot of qualifiers here, I understand, one of the huge upsides to this otherwise overcrowded 2-lane 115 slot filled faux campground RV-slanted outpost is that it places you closest to St. Augustine’s greatest treasure (and no, that wouldn’t be the fabled ‘Fountain of Youth’) – it’s beautiful Atlantic coastline with white powder sand and shark-tooth strewn beaches. 

As for this KOA campground itself, you’ll find this urban jungle outpost on the corner of Pope & AIA, which you’ll stumble across just a block south after taking Highway 312 from St. Augustine proper to Anastasia Island, which is separated from the mainland by the Matanzas River. But don’t worry, for any of you who break out in hives at the thought of leaving civilization when upgrading for a night underneath the stars (which BTW will be drowned out by the light pollution here at this KOA), you will be comfortably surrounded by all the creature comforts of the materialistic surrounding you (pretend) thought you were trying to escape, as there’s a CVS, McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and Domino’s Pizza in a single stone’s throw of where you are ‘camping out in nature’ here at St. Augustine KOA. 

Amenities? Well, it’s KOA, so get ready for the massive download on what this camping theme park has to offer: heated pool w/ neon color lounge chairs & umbrellas, 50 max amp back-in RV slots, cable TV, KampK9 (that’s a doggie park in KOA speak), laundr-O-mat, thin tree lines, tetherball, picnic tables, dilapidated wooden fence, fishing (don’t ask me where or how good), firewood (for sale, of course), BBQ, ticks, fire frills, WiFi, propane refilling station, gift shop, tour shuttle, playground, little moat, paddle boats, fleas, banana bikes, automatic key-card security gate, designated trash dumpsters, showers & restrooms (quite in need of some decent cleaning and refurbishment IMHO), micro-swamps, deluxe cabin rentals (a dozen or so) and (the ever so marked-up KOA) convenience store. 

Insider’s Tips? Here’s a few: (1) This is easily the most outdated, run-down KOA I have ever had the unfortunate experience to visit. While I would EASILY recommend MANY other places to ‘drop anchor for the night’ and to have a REAL outdoors camping experience (just drive 3 minutes away to Anastasia Island SP or 15 minutes away to North Beach Campground), if it’s late at night, you’re tired of looking around and are excited to be this close to the beaches, then check-in, grab a coozie and chill at the pool until sunrise when you can leave; (2) While you may be tempted by some of those pretty un-amazing fast food or ‘hole-in-the-wall’ local joints, I would encourage you to drive just a little bit for some otherwise excellent restaurants, including Fillin’ Station, Beachcomber, La Cocina or Sunset Grille; (3) If you’re a tent camper like myself, you’ll be incredibly disappointed by this place, although they do offer up 10 or so designated tent sites (inconveniently located right near all the swooshing car traffic and honking on Pope Road; (4) While you might be living the blues while staying at this KOA, you can actually just head up the street and listen to the blues at probably one of the coolest outdoor venues in the country at St. Augustine Ampitheater; and (5) Make the most out of the fact that you are literally only ¾ mile from St. Augustine Beaches, so while this KOA is not ideal (to say the absolute least), you will relish the fact that you can leave it as early and return as late as you want to experience one of the best white sand beaches in the Sunshine State. 

Happy Camping!

Fantastic campground and recreation area. Over 150 campsites, one area full hookups with all amenities and other area for tent camping. Sites have lots of space and majority have shade trees with moss flowing in the breeze. All sites have picnic table, lantern pole, grill, and fire ring. We have 2 golden retrievers and had plenty of space to spare. Beautiful stars out at night. Bathhouses are large, clean, hot showers. Trailer sites were full and only a few tent campers this time of year. Tent sites are complete with Bear boxes at each site. Camp hosts and management were very friendly and helpful.
Saw manatees kayaking in the spring and river on premises. Spring area has a boardwalk around it. People swam with them too. Saw bald eagle catching fish, lots of birds, some fish, etc. Has a small boat launch and marina. Can tent kayaks. Great place for bikes. A few hiking trails were well maintained.
Convenient location to lots of springs to visit and things to do. Visited Silver Springs, Blue Springs, Juniper Spring to name a few. All within 1 hr drive.
Not sure how summer time is, but this late February time was Awesome. 40-50 at night and 60s in the day! This is a must stay place.

**Campground Review: **

Bayard Conservation Area is located in Green Cove Springs Florida and is maintained by the St. Johns River Water Management District. It is a track of land that has many hiking trails that traverse through shaded pine forests, hammocks, marsh, and river areas. 

We have day hiked here many times, but this trip we were going to do some primitive camping at one of the campsites. There are several areas to park and then hike in. The campsites are a few miles from the parking area. They include a fire ring and a picnic table. The campsites have several different settings, but we chose the river view. On our way to our campsite we were able to spot many animals including: deer, otter, turkey, and wild pigs. 

The area is kept clean and is quiet with the exception of a bit of noise pollution from the surrounding area. However, this does not distract from the experience. We enjoyed our overnight backcountry trip and highly recommend Bayard.

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**Product Review: **

As a Dyrt Ranger I receive products from time-to-time and this time I am testing out the Pureland 30L Guard Backpack sold by Outdoor Element. 

There are so many things to love about this backpack. The extensive cording and hooks on the outside made attaching extra items a breeze. I was able to store my trekking poles and Jetboil on the back with no problem. The hip pockets were an added plus and fit my cellphone inside of it easily. The room inside of the backpack was able to hold everything I needed for an overnight trip– including my bulky sleeping bag. The only two things that took away from the backpack was the inside zipper and the water pouch. The zipper on the inside of the bag came off the track with only a light pull while the bag was empty. It did not have the integrity that the zippers on the outside had. My 3.0L reservoir would not fit all the way in the provided pouch and hung out the top a bit. After the whole trip, I sincerely love this pack and will be using it for all of my hiking and primitive camping needs!!

Easy to get to and close to everything! If you’re a beach lover, this is a great campground. All of the sites are shaded with fire rings, water hookups, picnic tables, and lantern holders. Most sites offer a fair bit of privacy for you set up camp properly. Each loop has a clean restrooms, laundry facilities with a clothes line and Coquina (the loop we stayed on) had a playground.

Would recommend bicycles to get to the beach and either SUPs or kayaks to paddle the salt run at high tide. I’d you don’t have your own, they rent them there. There’s also a beach grill and convenience store by the beach.

If you’re an early bird, watching the sunrise from the beach is quite a nice way to start the day!

PROS

A camp host came to our site immediately after we unhitched to advise that our one tow vehicle tire on the grass will get us a $250 fine from US Forest Service officer. Funny, we never ever saw a USFS officer patrolling the campground. 

Entrance gates closed at 8pm requiring code to enter 

Immaculately maintained park. A small army of maintenance staff always working. Even one night at 930pm in the bathroom. 

Saved $156 with America the Beautiful pass 

Site 32 shady 

Asphalt parking pad surrounded with sandy gravel 

Moveable metal picnic table 

Pedestal BBQ grill 

High sided metal fire ring with 2 unremovable cooking grates 

One hook lantern pole 

Campfire wood for sale at registration office 

No street lights in campground so good dark sky viewing if neighbors have their rig lights off which most nights they were lit up which also lit up surrounding campsites 

Able to get T-MOBILE signal on our T-MOBILE WIFI device 

Many squirrels ate from our hand 

CONS 

In 8 days never saw a USFD vehicle drive thru the campground

$8 fee to make on-line reservations 

Site 32 not level 

Absolutely no privacy from any other site 

In 20 degree exterior temperatures, both campground bathhouses had windows open, whole house fans operating in full capacity and ceiling fans operating on high. Obvious park maintenance does NOT want anyone taking a shower when interior bathhouse temperatures were in the 30s and the bathhouse was a freezing wind tunnel! It was even difficult using the toilet. 

Loud and rowdy campers all weekend long—day and night. Quiet hours not enforced

Highway 19 traffic noise 

USFD clearing project on east side of campground. Heavy equipment noise for 9 straight hours day after day!!! 

No notice water outage for 2 hours 

No park WiFi 

No T-MOBILE cell service 

No public phone for emergency calls

 This is an urban type campground in St Augustine Beach, which is a small town across the water from St Augustine. The back of a strip mall protects you from the sights of A1A on one side. There's a neighborhood across the pond on the other side. Enter on West Pope Road, exit on 16th street. Traffic noise is loud during the day. Quiets down some at night. 

We spent the extra money & got a site overlooking the pond. We were at site 73, which is also by the bathrooms/showers. The bathroom/shower combos are aggressively cleaned at least twice a day.

 We didn't use the pool. 

The pond is very nice & there were turtles, friendly ducks & fish! My husband caught several, one a nice size bass. Catch& release only. There was a hawk's nest way up in one of the pines by the pond. 

It's a short drive to the beach & many restaurants. 

There's a free shuttle if you're using the St Augustine Trolley Tour Company, which is VERY convenient.

We stayed 4 nights. All in all, I would recommend this campground. Yes, the sites are close together, but so are many private campgrounds. We aren't in our site during the day anyway.

Florida has many many different camping options.  I was looking for something unique and different from what I'd done before and this place popped up on my radar.  Definitely Different and Unique for Florida. And the perfect place to review my icemulecoolers.com 

Campground Review:

Camp Chowenwaw is located in Green Cove Springs, FL adjacent to the St. John's River and on Black Creek.  It was a Girl Scout Camp for 70 years and is now owned and operated by Clay County, FL (https://www.claycountygov.com/departments/parks-and-recreation/camp-chowenwaw-park).  There are many different styles of camping available here with lots of privacy between the different sections.  

I chose to camp in the Treehouse Point for a weekend where there are 9 Treehouses available for camping.  A group of us went and had Treehouse #4 and #5.  Each screened in non electric Treehouse slept 4 in bunk beds.  There were several central fire rings with a picnic table/benches throughout the unit.  A shared bathhouse with toilets, sinks, lights, and hot showers was available in the unit also.  There was a central dining hall for all of Treehouse Point with electric, lights, fans, inside fireplace, stove, refrigerator, sink area, and porch with outside charcoal grill and picnic table.  

Even with sharing the dinning hall with other campers it was great since it was big enough and everyone was friendly.  The Treehouses are spread out with some trees in between so they are semi private.  The pool is available but doesn't open til 10 am where as we were all ready to go earlier since it was HOT.  It was very enjoyable but HOT in July with no electric in the Treehouses.  We had no issues with mosquitoes or yellow flies and the frogs serenaded us every night loudly, so that was a cool experience.  We had decided not to take kayaks since there was a bit of a walk into our area and we didn't want to leave them in the parking area on our vehicles, which turned out to be a good decision because the kayak launch was under repairs.  They are planning on upgrading a lot so it should be great soon.  They recently upgraded and replaced the fishing pier and its awesome.  We are planning to go again in the Fall when its cooler.  I would recommend this place for a unique experience.  On a side note:  Green Cove Springs has a pool also in a community park on the St. John's River that is spring fed and would be a cool stop.

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Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products.  A Camp Chowenwaw I tested the icemulecoolers.com.  I got the ICEMULE Pro XL (33L which equals 24 cans plus ice) in Camo.

1.  What I loved about the ICEMULE was that I could wear it like a backpack and be comfortable and free my hands for something else.

2.  I loved that the straps were wide and comfortable.

3.  I also loved that the chest cross strap could be moved up and down to make it more comfortable for women to use the chest cross strap.

4.  The straps had lots of room to make smaller or larger so it will be great fit  for a variety of people and body styles.

5.  It kept my ice solid for three days in the FL heat.

6.  It has a port to add air to enhance the coolers insulation.

7.  It holds A LOT!!  I had 9 bottles of Propel water and 2 bags of grapes and 1 whole bag of ice.  It wasn't too heavy and there was room for much more.

Only draw back I had was that the camo style is fabric and tends to sweat a lot.  The other colors are vinyl and don't seem to sweat.

I'm ready to use my ICEMULE Cooler again.  I even want to take it kayaking and get some more accessories for it from their site like a dry bag and a waterproof box.