Glamping at Hillsborough River State Park in Florida

June 30-July 2, 2024

With Alicia bogged down in baby diapers as a new mama, I set out to find fun things to do in Orlando with some of my best Florida gals. We spent two nights glamping (glamorous camping) at Hillsborough River State Park just outside of Tampa, Florida. It was a fun activity near Orlando!

We rented the Double Safari Tent. It was perfect for our girl’s trip of 4 people.

We arrived at our campsite just after 4 pm and did a quick scan of the grounds. There were 6 glamping tents in a semicircle with a structure for restrooms and showers in the middle. Our tent was beautifully decorated and included two queen sized beds, a mini fridge, a Keurig, and air conditioning (essential if you want to go camping in Florida in the middle of summer!). Our front porch consisted of a picnic table, two adirondack chairs, and a fire pit. There were also 2 hammocks for lounging. It was a perfect setup for an outdoor yet comfortable Florida camping adventure. 

We went to dinner in town and picked up some essentials for our stay before heading back to start our first campfire. We learned quickly we are not good at starting fires (it’s nice to keep with the themes of Dana and Alicia adventures even when we are apart - see our Southeastern Road Trip blog for more fire-starting fails). We gave up for the night and instead just relaxed by our smoldering (but not lit) fire pit with some beers. 

The campsite has an 11 PM quiet time policy, and we quickly learned as the clock ticked closer to 11 that our quiet time was someone else’s party time. And by someone, I mean something. And by something, I mean racoons. We started to see them scampering around our neighbor’s tent looking for food. The human inhabitants had left the tent earlier in the night and we watched in horror as a big, fat raccoon lifted up the flap to their tent and moseyed inside. And that is when we learned to secure all the clips and carabiners on our tent at all times between 11 PM and dawn. 

We called it a night shortly after that, but it wasn’t long after we nodded off when we awoke to a scratching at our tent opening and a clanging of metal. If you think this would be a terrifying sound to wake up to in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods, you would be right. Even with the quick realization that it was just some racoon friends coming by to try and scrounge up a meal, it wasn’t easy to fall back asleep after that. Needless to say, we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep that night. 

We ate a delicious breakfast before our morning hike.

Even with just a few hours sleep, we woke up the next morning excited and ready for a day of outdoor adventure. We cooked a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon on a portable skillet brought from home (we like this one) and enjoyed our meal accompanied by fruit and banana bread outside on the picnic table before heading out for our 5 mile hike in Hillsborough River State Park. 

My two friends joining me are not what I would call the outdoorsy type. Emily was definitely much more up for the adventure though, while Angelina was not thrilled about so much walking, along with the potential for encountering bugs and wildlife on the trail. She’s not a complainer though, so the three of us set out starting on the River Rapids Trail to view the (very rare in Florida) class II rapids. Then we crossed the Suspension Bridge to hike along the longer Seminole Trail. It wasn’t far into this trail before we came across a giant spider - a Golden Silk Orb Weaver to be exact. It was out of the way of the trail minding its business on its web, so you may think no big deal. Except Emily is deathly afraid of spiders. So this encounter caused her to panic. Which caused an already agitated Angelina to panic. Which caused me to laugh hysterically at the two of them being ridiculous. 

To be fair, neither of them panicked as much as I did the night before when we arrived back at the campsite after dark and I rolled down my window to have a massive creature fly smack into my face. I screamed bloody murder. The creature landed on my chest and I glanced down to realize it was a giant grasshopper, which is certainly on the lower end of the totem pole as far as critters to be afraid of. However, in my already hysterical state I did not have that logical thought and instead grabbed it off my chest and (only thinking about saving myself) flung it away from me in Emily’s direction. She was not thrilled to have a large insect thrown at her but we all survived to tell the tale.

Anyway, back on the trail I now have two very agitated friends in tow and about 3 miles left of hiking. About halfway through the Seminole Trail, we looped back around and were walking beside the river. This allowed for some nice views and a little breeze which seemed to calm everyone down. We made it back to our car in just over 2 hours. Nobody died. I call that a successful hike! It’s pretty awesome to have such incredible hiking trails in Central Florida and to find such a fun outdoor activity in the Orlando area.

We headed back to our tent to meet up with our 4th friend, Amanda, and to have a quick lunch (Publix subs we had picked up the night before), and then we headed out for our next outdoor adventure: canoeing. Well, not all of us. Angelina decided hiking was enough adventure for one day and stayed back to relax and enjoy the air conditioning. 

Baby alligator with her turtle friend. We saw so much wildlife!

The rest of us rented a 3 person canoe and set off on the Hillsborough River. We had just seen the river while hiking, so we were shocked at how different the views were from this perspective. It was a beautiful paddle on very calm water. We didn’t encounter any other paddlers on the river, but we did encounter A LOT of alligators. They were on the river bank, on the logs, and swimming in the water. I’ve never seen so many gators on one paddle trip before. We didn’t keep count, but we guesstimate we saw about 10-12 alligators on our 2 hour paddle.

We joined back with Angelina at our glampsite and took turns relaxing in the hammocks and taking showers before cooking our dinner of sausage and peppers. We did a better job with the fire that night, and we were able to keep it lit long enough to roast marshmallows for smores. We stayed late up into the night drinking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. 

If you enjoy the outdoors but want to maintain some comforts of home, glamping is the way to go. We greatly enjoyed our visit to Hillsborough River State Park with glampsites provided by Timberline Glamping. 

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