Sanlan RV Park

Sanlan RV Park is a nice big park and pretty true to their website.  It is located in Lakeland, FL just off the interstate.  There are shade trees scattered through the park and most of the campsites have concrete patios.  They are in the process of upgrading several sites so you also have the choice of parking on pavement for an additional charge.

There are open fields scattered throughout the park also and the lots are big enough to park your rig and your vehicle.  The permanent park models are concentrated around the outskirts of the park while the transients are down the middle.

As you drive into Sanlan RV Park there is a lake sitting on your left.  There are benches to sit on while you are fishing, a picnic area and a 10 foot alligator to be found sunning on the beach or swimming in the lake.  Yeah, I said a 10 foot gator.  This guy doesn't hide and we see him almost every time we drive by the lake.  The office staff said he's been known to steal fish off people's fishing lines.

This will really interest all you golfers - there's a 27 hole golf course at the back of this park.

They also have some nature trails if you want to get out and do some exploring but be prepared to actually be a part of nature.  The dogs and I hit the trails yesterday afternoon and got much more than we expected.  Several areas of the trail are nicely shaded but there is a lot of water bordering the trail.  You know what fresh water means in Florida.

The trails map indicates several lakes or ponds but it looks like there is quite a bit of dry ground surrounding the trails.  Wrong!  The water came right up to the trails but in most places there was a decent bank so you didn't have to be too concerned with the gators joining you.

I could hear the gators grunting as we walked by which made me a little uneasy but not overly concerned - not until I got to the area they call Banana Lake Run.  There were no banks here but there was quite a bit of brush and downed timber.  We had barely entered this area when I heard a gator grunting and soon realized it was following us in the water.  At this point the lake lived up to it's name.....we ran!!!!!

Unfortunately, I am very directionally challenged and at this point all the signs started saying "wildlife trail" instead of "nature trail".  The last thing I wanted was more wildlife so we kept going and going.....You guessed it - I missed the trail back to the campground and the one I was on dead ended at a padlocked gate.

There was no way I was going to go back the way I came so I climbed the gate and managed to raise it enough to get my dogs through.  Katie is only 40 lbs so I could have lifted her if I had to but Beau is 80 lbs so one or both of us would have gotten hurt if I had tried to lift him over.  I was so proud of him - he's 11 years old and never had to crawl under anything before but he squeezed through when I asked him to.

We wound up in a cow pasture and had to crawl under, over and through a total of 4 padlocked gates before we got back to the park.  I hurt so bad this morning that I could barely get out of bed.  I have had enough Florida nature to last quite a while so we're going to stick to walking around the park.  

There is a very nice dog park about 15 minutes away from here.  It's very clean and well kept.  They have agility equipment for your dogs to exercise and play on.  There are some grass covered dirt mounds for them to climb and automatic waters.  

The only drawback I see with the Sanlan RV Park is that while their site rent is very competitive, they put in some additional charges that add up.  You are allowed to have 2 vehicles and your rig or RV counts as one so if you have 2 cars or a truck and a car, they charge you $1.80 per day for the extra vehicle.  Also they charge $1 per day per dog and you have to buy a $5 permit to wash your vehicle or RV.

When I was in the office buying my wash permit, I asked about the dog fee.  I was told that it was the fee Sanlan RV Park charged for the aggravation of putting up with the dogs.  My opinion is that while this park does allow pets, it is definitely not what I would consider pet friendly.  

Some of the restrictions dog owners have while traveling are due to irresponsible owners not picking up after their pets.  No one likes to step in dog poo so please carry bags with you while walking your dogs and pick up what they leave.  We don't want to get our pets banned from any more areas.  Thank you.