Alexander Springs Recreation Area
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:31 UTC
- A night
- $38From, per site
- Sites
- 6766 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Alexander Springs Recreation Area is located in the Ocala National Forest near the beautiful, turquoise waters of Alexander Springs. With forested scenery and abundant water, the recreation area offers camping, swimming, canoeing, scuba diving (for certified divers), hiking, birding and wildlife viewing. The Ocala National Forest, located in north central Florida, spans four counties and 383,000 acres. It is the southernmost and oldest national forest east of the Mississippi River, and protects the world's largest contiguous sand pine scrub forest. If you are planning to visit the weekend of Memorial Day through Labor Day on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, you will be required to obtain a Vehicle Access Reservation. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors can swim, snorkel and dive year-round in the crystalline waters of the spring. The spring is the only place in the Ocala National Forest where scuba diving is permitted, and a broad and naturally gently sloped spring pool becomes a natural water park where visitors can picnic, swim and play. If you are planning to visit the weekend of Memorial Day through Labor Day on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, you will be required to obtain a Vehicle Access Reservation. Fishing and canoeing are p opular outside the swimming area. Anglers can bring a rod and reel and head down to one of the platforms along the Timucuan Trail to drop a line in Alexander Run. Visitors can rent canoes or bring their own and paddle down Alexander Run into the Alexander Springs Wilderness. Day hikers will appreciate a short interpretive trail on a boardwalk over the spring and through the palm trees. They can also access two segments of the 1,400-mile Florida National Scenic Trail, which runs through the entire national forest.
Facilities
The camping area contains four loops of campsites within an easy walk of the swimming and picnicking area. The sites are shaded with level parking pads for RVs and plenty of space for tents. No hookups are available. Restrooms have flush toilets and showers. Camping necessities and firewood are available at a small general store.
Natural Features
Alexander Springs is among 27 first-magnitude springs in Florida, and is by far one of the easiest for visitors to enjoy. The water is a constant 72 degrees and extraordinarily clear with a sandy bottom. The area is subtropical, surrounded by a floodplain forest of maples, sweet gum and cabbage palms. Alligators, turtles, deer, raccoons, black bear and numerous birds make their home in the national forest.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors can explore the surrounding Alexander Springs Wilderness Area. A paddle down the spring run is the best option to explore the mosaic of hardwood swamp, hardwood forest and scrub habitats and spot the animals that live there. The Ocala National Forest is notable for its extensive off-road trail system catering to both ATV enthusiasts and Jeeps, as well as being a traditional destination for deer hunters from around Central Florida. These opportunities are available within a short drive of Alexander Springs. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (352) 669-3522.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancelling a Reservation: Customers may cancel their reservation prior to arrival both on-line and through the call center. A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation. Depending on when you cancel in relation to your arrival day, it may be considered a late cancellation. https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies Refunds are not given for inclement weather for camping, gear rentals, or day-use fees.
What the agency tells you
If you are planning to visit the weekend of Memorial Day through Labor Day on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, you will be required to obtain a Alexander Springs Recreation Area Vehicle Access Reservation.
Campers can check in at 2:00 pm must check out by 11:00 am. We do not accomodate early check-ins or late check-outs. If you arrive early, you will be required to pay the per person admission fee to access the site. If you remain after checkout, you will be assessed a late fee for occupying the site or will be required to pay the per person fee to access the swimming and picnic area.
Quiet hours are from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Generators are not allowed to run during quiet hours.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Campsites are resrticted to 2 tents, 2 vehicles (campers included), and 5 persons.
Campground gate is locked at 8 p.m. during Daylight Savings (Mar - Oct) and 6 p.m. (Nov - Mar). Campers who check-in after the gatehouse is closed must visit the Gatehouse the next morning to complete their check-in to their site. Failure to do so will lead to a 'no show' charge to your reservation and potential forfeiture of site.
Extra vehicles will be charged a per-vehicle, per-night fee
Bears and raccoons frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers. Failure to comply with this regulation can result in immediate ejection from campground without refund.
Alligators inhabit the area; use caution with pets
Dogs/pets are allowed in campground only and must be leashed and supervised at all times. No dogs/pets allowed in day-use area, bathrooms, boardwalk and canoe run.
Click here for more information about Ocala National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
We ask that guests be courteous of one another and limit floats in the swimming area to under 60 inches across.
Please be aware the boardwalk remains closed due to age and hurricane damage.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 67
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 44 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…No hookups are available. Restrooms have flush toilets and showers. Camping necessities and firewood are…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Restrooms have flush toilets and showers.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Other Recreation Concession Site
- Swimming
- Night sky · 44th darkest of 60 in FL
- Bortle 4
57 of 116 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:31 UTC
recreation.gov lists 66 of the 67 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $38 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:31 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
69 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 64 mapped sitesAll 69 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 68 of the 69 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 64 of the 69 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| DAY USE | A | day use | 413 ft | 261 ft | $70 | |||
| DAY USE | B | day use | 458 ft | 200 ft | $70 | |||
| LOPA | 001 | type not stated | 35 ft | 1,193 ft | 267 ft | |||
| LOPA | 002 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 75 ft | 1,288 ft | 129 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 003 | type not stated | 35 ft | |||||
| LOPA | 004 - Handicap Accessible | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 75 ft | 1,363 ft | 129 ft | $38 |
| LOPA | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 132 ft | 1,405 ft | 265 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 006 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 93 ft | 1,429 ft | 114 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 1,518 ft | 221 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 49 ft | 1,487 ft | 161 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 54 ft | 1,558 ft | 236 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 010 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 49 ft | 1,512 ft | 199 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 1,584 ft | 253 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 012 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 68 ft | 1,614 ft | 285 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 1,549 ft | 256 ft | $38 | |
| LOPA | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 144 ft | 1,664 ft | 332 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 015 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 101 ft | 1,195 ft | 259 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 016 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 101 ft | 1,272 ft | 158 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 017 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 89 ft | 1,256 ft | 144 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 018 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 106 ft | 1,138 ft | 265 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 1,170 ft | 235 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 80 ft | 1,290 ft | 191 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 021 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 1,327 ft | 106 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 022 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 1,369 ft | 182 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 023 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 65 ft | 1,385 ft | 111 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 024 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 63 ft | 1,430 ft | 199 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 025- Handicap Accessible | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 48 ft | 1,502 ft | 219 ft | $38 |
| LOPB | 026 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 48 ft | 1,547 ft | 233 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 027 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 102 ft | 1,496 ft | 99 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 028 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 60 ft | 1,595 ft | 247 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 029 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 73 ft | 1,644 ft | 318 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 030 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 102 ft | 1,598 ft | 202 ft | $38 | |
| LOPB | 031 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 94 ft | 1,692 ft | 321 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 032 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 93 ft | 1,793 ft | 344 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 033 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 93 ft | 1,715 ft | 321 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 034 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 1,774 ft | 395 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 035 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 97 ft | 1,858 ft | 363 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 036 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 83 ft | 1,828 ft | 466 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 037 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 96 ft | 1,946 ft | 516 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 038 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 105 ft | 1,926 ft | 411 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 039 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 96 ft | 2,029 ft | 466 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 040 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 123 ft | 2,052 ft | 344 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 041 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 123 ft | 2,171 ft | 394 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 042 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 90 ft | 2,200 ft | 293 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 043 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 90 ft | 2,288 ft | 353 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 044 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 71 ft | 2,314 ft | 252 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 045 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 71 ft | 2,245 ft | 249 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 046 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 2,299 ft | 191 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 047 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 89 ft | 2,207 ft | 158 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 048 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 84 ft | 2,251 ft | 182 ft | $38 | |
| LOPC | 049 - Handicap Accessible | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 89 ft | 2,160 ft | 91 ft | $38 |
| LOPD | 050 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 91 ft | 2,346 ft | 204 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 051 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 84 ft | 2,432 ft | 204 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 052 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 84 ft | 2,423 ft | 125 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 053 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 74 ft | 2,552 ft | 149 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 054 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 87 ft | 2,541 ft | 222 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 055 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 2,614 ft | 219 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 056 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 72 ft | 2,665 ft | 228 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 057 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 72 ft | 2,619 ft | 162 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 058 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 98 ft | 2,720 ft | 253 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 059 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | 93 ft | 2,707 ft | 243 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 060 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 81 ft | 2,610 ft | 145 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 061 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 80 ft | 2,648 ft | 219 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 062 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 2,570 ft | 149 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 063 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 88 ft | 2,580 ft | 225 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 064 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 96 ft | 2,488 ft | 222 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 065 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 128 ft | 2,445 ft | 87 ft | $38 | |
| LOPD | 066 - Handicap Accessible | type not stated | 18 ft | yes | 2,377 ft | 126 ft | ||
| LOPD | 067 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 2,334 ft | 140 ft | $38 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 69 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Buck Lake Group CampgroundOcala National Forest · 4.5 miLake Dorr Recreation AreaOcala National Forest · 5.8 mi
Lake Dorr CampgroundOcala National Forest · 5.8 mi
Lake Dorr CabinOcala National Forest · 6.9 mi
Clearwater Lake Rec AreaOcala National Forest · 7.0 mi
Juniper Springs Rec AreaOcala National Game Refuge · 11 miAlexander Springs Recreation Area is located along County Road 445 in the northeast corner of Lake County between Astor and Altoona, Florida.
From I-75, take Highway 40 east through Ocala and Silver Springs approximately 40 miles to Highway 19. Go south on Highway 19 approximately 5 miles to Country Road 445. Go east on 445 for 5 miles to the campground.
From I-95, take the Ocala/Silver Springs Exit (Highway 40) west for approximately 35 miles to Highway 19. Go south on Highway 19 approximately 5 miles to County Road 445. Go east on 445 for 5 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Astor, FL
Typical weather
Typical October night 64°F, day 83°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 45°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Alexander Springs Recreation Area is in Florida’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Randy Fine (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →