Ellie Ray's River Landing is pretty cool. There's 99 campsites in total: RV and tent camping. The staff keeps the grounds and the restrooms immaculate. There's a dock off of the Santa Fe River, a fresh water spring for swimming, a roped off swimming area in the river (if the spring is too cold for you at a cool 72 degrees), a package/lounge, and lots of fun activities.
The first time I experienced Ellie Ray's, we were floating down the Suwanee River in my dad's boat and decided for a change of scenery. We took a turn onto the Santa Fe river and within minutes we came upon Ellie Ray's. There was so much activity. People launching their boats into the river, folks hanging out on their docked pontoon's. Kids swimming in the spring they have that flows into the river and others bathing in the river. It looked like such a hotbed of acitivity for a place in the middle of nowhere.
It's off HWY 129 in Branford, FL. It's only about 15-20 minutes from High Springs. We took US 27/41 North to 340 (Poe Springs Rd), made a left, when we got to Hwy 129, we made a right and the turn comes shortly after. There's a sign out on the main highway that's clearly visible. We made a left into the campground.
My parents bought an RV not long ago and have been picking up us (their kids) and traveling to different campsites. This past weekend, we decided to hit Ellie Ray's, since it looked so cool from the website and looked like everyone was having a good time when we saw it from our boat months before. In the RV, it was me, my 2 kids, my mom, and my dad. Hubby had to work.
The staff was so friendly. We got a prime campground near the river and next to the playground, which was awesome considering I had my two kids with me that weekend. We learned that most of the staff members live on the grounds and when we found out that the campsites didn't contain grills, a staff member generously lent us his personal grill for the weekend. We also didn't see fire rings, which they advertised on their website, but we soon found out after asking that they don't keep them on the campgrounds, but will deliver them to your site along with firewood for free.
There were tons of RV's there. We didn't see many tents up, but maybe we didn't locate the tent sites. We parked the RV and hooked up to electric, water, and sewer and were ready to camp. We were used to camping at sites that had cable, but we soon found out there's no cable company in the area, hence all the satellite dishes we encountered. We quickly suited up for swimming in the spring and river, only to find out that we were the only ones using it. We were wondering where everyone was. The campsite was packed with RVs of all shapes and sizes, but no one in sight.
The spring was pretty and very clear. We could see straight down to the bottom. The only problem was, it was deep. No walk-in like a beach or anything, just a swimming hole. That was a problem because my kiddos can't swim. If you can swim, it's not a problem. They still had fun in the river playing with their sand toys. It was shallow enough for a ways out. My poor son lost his favorite sailboat. It drifted out into the river and under the floating docks. We thought he lost it forever. There were lounge chairs set up by the river and we hung out for a while, then it started to drizzle and we headed back to the camper (it kind of contradicts my blog heading "It's Always Sunny in High Springs", but hey, it wasn't exactly High Springs, it was Branford). We grilled up some hotdogs and got bombarded by flies. We still were wondering where in the world everyone was.We regretted not bringing my parents' boat. It would have been nice to be out on the river. Maybe that's where everyone was?
The wheather worsened and it left us nothing to do, so we didn't want to grill again for dinner and get bombarded with flies, so we decided to take a ride into Lake City for dinner. We hit Cracker Barrel, Emiliano's for coffee, and Walmart to buy my little boy a birthday gift.
We got back to the campsite around 6pm and found it was jumping! People were everywhere. Riding golf charts, playing corn hole, socializing. The campground had suddenly come to life. We took a stroll down to the river and noticed where everyone had been. They were out on the river all day. There were boats parked everywhere.
The evening air cooled and we hung out by the campfire and toasted up some marshallows for s'mores. We found out that my mom had never actually had a s'more before. I called her "un-American". That's blasphemy to be American and never have even tasted a s'more. She had her first bite and decided it was too sweet for her. Which we all found as a shock! But hey, at least she gave it a try.
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| (Me, enjoying a marshmallow) |
My husband ended up showing up with beer and hung out around the fire with us for a while. We put the kids to bed and walked down by the river and sat on the dock. We heard some live music being played and saw it was coming from the package/lounge. It sounded pretty good and the place was packed. We would have joined in on the festivities in the bar if my hubby didn't have to work early the next morning. But, it's definitely a place we have to check out.
The next day, my dad and my son set out to go fishing. They didn't catch anything except my son's sailboat. Thank goodness! Various staff members thanked us for our visit and said they are looking forward to the next time we come camping there. Of course, the day we were leaving the weather was PERFECT! We unhooked and went home.
All in all, Ellie Ray's is a great place to go camping if you own a boat. I heard they rent canoes too. If the weather was nicer, we would have rented one. A golf cart would be a great thing to bring. I was wasn't joking as I compared to my family that everyone circling the campground in their pimped-out golf carts blaring music to a Saturday night on the Fort Lauiderdale strip. It was similiar in a backwoods country sort of way.
That's it for now. Come and visit us in High Springs!
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Adventures of Life and Literature
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Army Reserves Wife
