Florida Caverns State Park, Marianna, Florida
- Tracy Sorensen
- Mar 24, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 18
Florida Caverns State Park is located in the northwest part of the state. It's easily accessed from I-10. Many of the other campers during our stay were there for only one night (maybe using it as a stopover for points east and west). We stayed for three nights and explored the regions.
The park itself is big, more than 1,500 acres, but it only has 37 campsites.
The BH1 Campground Loop has 31 sites and is for RV campers and tents. The other is HC1, for those horse campers. The park and BH1 campground experienced major damage during Hurricane Michael in 2018. A park volunteer told us that the park lost many of the large trees.
The campsites and bathhouse on BH1 were rebuilt. All sites on this loop are now full hookup.
Campground Tour
Campground Details
Campground name: Florida Caverns State Park
Location: 3345 Caverns Road, Marianna, Florida
Number of sites: 32 sites on BH1 and 5 on HC1.
Hookups: On Loop BH1, each site 30 and 50 amp electric, water and sewer; on HC1, the horse camping area, sites have water and electric.
Cell service: OK. We got 2 bars of 5G on T-Mobile.
Bathrooms/Showers: Each loop has one bathhouse. On Loop BH1, a new
Campground amenities: Laundry, firewood, book exchange.
Reservations: Visit Florida State Parks Reservations to reserve a site.
Our rating: 4 out of 5
Recommended
Florida Caverns Cave Tour: When you think of Florida, caves and caverns don't often come to mind. A tour of these caverns is definitely recommended. We enjoyed walking through the dozen cave rooms and learning about the cave's history. Our teenaged tour guide, not so much. We purchased timed tickets and were told to wait in the museum upstairs for our guide to meet us. We waited. More than five minutes past our time, the guide still hadn't arrived to start our tour. When I went back to the shop to check, a group of the guides, including ours, were chatting and laughing and flirting with each other. She made us wait a bit longer before she started our tour. To top it off, she expected a tip!
Explore the park: Florida Caverns State Park offers opportunities for cycling, hiking and paddling. We rode the park roads (and got some hill training!) and hiked the Bluff and Beech trails. The park also has a ramp with access to the Chipola River.
Paddling nearby: Merritt's Mill Pond is a 202-acre spring-fed, crystal clear body of water (Download the PDF from the Florida DEP site).
There's a paid launch at Florida Caverns RV Resort (it's called Lake Arrowhead on the PDF map above). We launched for free at Hunter Fish camp. We paddled upstream, then down and back, discovering several springs along the way. It's a lovely way to spend the day.
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