Fort desoto Florida

Maybe the raccoons have been relocated since I was last there. That is a good thing than because DW would not go back because of them. Looks like I'll be making reservations at Ft. Desoto again.

Rangerman40 wrote:

Bears Den wrote:
The raccoons run around freely and are not afraid of people, probably because people have fed them. The waterfront sites are really nice especially if you have a kayak, bicycle riding on the various bike paths is great. Plenty to see and do at the park and the surrounding area.

In the two times I've been there I've never seen a raccoon..... Now a squirrel that would actually get up on its hind legs and beg for food, yes. The roads to the park are fine, and as someone else mentioned bring plenty of quarters for the tolls. Every time you leave the park you are pretty much guaranteed to hit two tolls on the way back in unless you go no further than Tierra Verde. The main road in the park is fine, but the dirt roads on the campground loops are pretty rough.

I suggest the next time you are there, open your eyes at dusk and see as they climb down the palm trees and munch on your neighbors fresh water hose. We saw many and they are not afraid of humans.

Retired JSO wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:

Bears Den wrote:
The raccoons run around freely and are not afraid of people, probably because people have fed them. The waterfront sites are really nice especially if you have a kayak, bicycle riding on the various bike paths is great. Plenty to see and do at the park and the surrounding area.

In the two times I've been there I've never seen a raccoon..... Now a squirrel that would actually get up on its hind legs and beg for food, yes. The roads to the park are fine, and as someone else mentioned bring plenty of quarters for the tolls. Every time you leave the park you are pretty much guaranteed to hit two tolls on the way back in unless you go no further than Tierra Verde. The main road in the park is fine, but the dirt roads on the campground loops are pretty rough.

I suggest the next time you are there, open your eyes at dusk and see as they climb down the palm trees and munch on your neighbors fresh water hose. We saw many and they are not afraid of humans.

Well I was just there 3 weeks ago and was out plenty at dusk/night and didn't see one.

We haven't been since 2009 just for the problem of the Raccoon's. I can assume that the park finally read all the complaints and trapped and removed them. I am telling you, I wrote almost a full page of complaints about the critters gnawing through corners of ice chest, and through a water hose. The old Mamma coon with her two babies also looked diseased, chunks of fur missing etc. The one reason we decided not to return.

They were there this past Christmas and let me tell you they are not afraid of anything. Sunny skies they come right up to the picnic table at lunch time. I was a problem for us because or small children did not like them getting that close.

The road to the park are great, minus a couple of tolls. Inside the park is another story. Section 1 is for tents and popups. Do not try to fit a trailer over 20ft in there. Section two is the pet loop. It's road is curvy with lots of trees, but I've seen large toy haulers go down there without hitting anything. It's sites sizes vary. Section 3 is non pet RV loop. It's roads are straight but the water sites are on the short side. Their website shows you the dimensions and a photo of each site. Some sites have tricky approaches as they try to preserve the trees and there are a lot of them. There are raccoons, but the only time they were a problem for us was right after a tropical storm evacuation. We checked in the day they reopened and the place was dead for a couple of days so the coons converged on the few campers that was there.

That being said, Ft Desoto is our favorite local campground and is very popular with the fishing, beach and paddling crowds.