Trimble Park — Attraction in Florida

This is one of our favorite go-to campsites for local camping. It has some nice sites on the water with dock access for those that like to bring a boat and spend some time boating/fishing on the Harris chain of lakes. The shower/bathroom facilities are kept clean and very accessible from all camp sites. This was also our late dog, Bella's favorite place to camp with us before she passed last December.

Our last trip, end of March 2024, was very nice except for 2 annoyances. First was the tussock moth caterpillars. They were everywhere and would fall on you from the trees at any moment. You could have them crawling on you and not notice them for quite a while. Eventually they would attach to your gear, chairs, camper and vehicles and cocoon to later release as a moth wherever your next location happens to be. Supposedly their fur can be mildly irritating to the skin, but I didn't experience that about them, mostly flicking them off myself or whatever they crawl onto next to where you are.

The second annoyance was the amount of plant growth lakeside. Before on our trips the weeds and plants like cat tails were managed pretty well, but this last trip plant management seemed out of control. The main thing about the plant growth was that it blocked access to the lake for our kayaks. Normally we would just leave our kayaks next to where we would deploy and put in from there next to our site and just pull the kayaks out and leave them there. Because the plants had overgrown in most of those areas, we couldn't deploy like we normally have and would need to cart the kayaks to the boat docks and put in from there, which isn't the easiest for deployment of kayaks .

The other thing about the growth of water plants lakeside was that they block much of the view from the campsite. It was always very nice having clear views of the water from many of the lakeside sites, especially for sunset views.

Except for the mentioned annoyances, we love camping at Trimble Park and would give 5...

We stayed here 5 nights, Monday through Friday nights. This is such a quiet little place to explore during the week! we and our dog loved it here! We walked the boardwalk/nature trail every day at least once. The wildlife is always so active and fascinating. The husband took the kayak out and enjoyed it. And it's close to Mt. Dora, too, if that is of any interest to you. The sites are sized generously and restrooms were always clean! Lots of trash recepticals throughout the park and they were emptied often -I never saw them full! Park employees came throught the campground hours, I'd estimate. They do NOT sell fire wood here but Magnolia has a great deal on it and is only a few mines away. I would be giving it 5 stars but on Friday night a large group came in to camp in the group campsite, which is an awesome thing. Only problem is they don't have any bathroom or vault toilet for them to use and they would walk through the loop in the middle of the night with their little LED flashlights shining in our windows to go find the only bathroom there is. There are only 15 sites not including the group site, so one bathroom was totally sufficient the rest of the week! Easy solution #1: place a vault toilet in the group camping area. Easy solution #2: place a sign on the post at the beginning of the loop that directs bathroom seekers towards the shortest route to the restroom (which in turn keeps all the nighttime foot traffic away from the sleeping campers).

I'd stay here again...

This is a County Park located on Lake Carlton near the town of Mt. Dora. This park has a small hiking trail and a beautiful area on the lake for a picnic with lots of shade and tables. The park also has a kayak launch and a play area for the kids. Okay now for the camping. The park has A Lot of rules.... checking in the staff could use a class in friendliness. Our friends gave us the heads up so we did the over friendly thing but still not great experience. The camping spots are pie shaped so everyone is close in the front but the back is really open but still not a lot of privacy. The lots all have picnic tables, fire rings, charcoal grills, a stand for a bug zapper, electric and water. We stayed in lot 4, our friends stayed in 9 and 10. One of the nights there was a huge storm we stayed totally dry but our friends all flooded even their shoes were floating away! Luckily it drained pretty quickly. There is a private boat launch for kayaks but we decided to launch right from the back of the lot. This turned out to be not a great idea because there was an alligator the came at one of our kayaks when we were coming back in. I'm sure she was guarding her babies but we decided never to launch from there again! This is probably a park that I would not go back to unless we wanted to hang out...