Merchant Millpond State Park Family Campground

The family campground at Merchants Millpond State Park is a quiet and well-maintained campground for tents and medium size trailers. It provides easy walking access to several of the short hikes in the park that lead to the shore of the beautiful millpond and the cypress swamp.

The very informative visitor center is a quick, comfortable mile or so hike along the millpond’s shore from the campground. Unfortunately, you have to drive about 5 minutes to get to the public boat launch to kayak the millpond and swamp on the far side of the park. Merchant’s Millpond State Park is known for easy flatwater kayaking and canoeing. But more impressive is the northernmost known natural habitat for the American alligator that is routinely spotted by kayakers on the swamp. In addition to the family campground, there are canoe-in campsites too. Canoe rentals are available at the visitor center.

The family campground has 20 sites in a single relatively large loop. The campsites are amazingly well isolated from each other with a wall of natural vegetation between each campsite. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, tent pad, and grill. The shared bathhouse in the middle of the loop is modern with showers and toilets. Five “spoke paths” lead from the campground loop road to the central bathhouse, and they are not lighted. At night, pay attention to which one you need to follow to return to your site! There is no trailer dump station at the park.

Additionally, the park locks the gate to the campground after park hours, so be sure to get to your site before the gate closes. Check with the state park for the hours, which change depending on the season. When making reservations, check for the max vehicle size since each site has a different max vehicle limit. All are over 30 feet. But the camp loop road is narrow, which can make backing into a campsite with a trailer over 25 feet difficult. But who needs a bigger RV if you are camping?

The campground is actually located off of U.S. Highway 158, and the visitor center is off of Mill Pond Road. If you are not careful, web-based maps may navigate you to the visitor center. It is about a mile drive between the two. Additionally, the area is rural without good cell coverage, so be sure to use downloadable or offline maps when navigating in the area.