Henderson Beach State Park

At A Glance

This is a very nice park right on a beautiful beach. The water in this area is clear and the most amazing green color, hence the name Emerald Coast.

From the day use parking area, the beach is a short walk over a boardwalk. The beach is clean and has the most beautiful white sand.

If we were in the area again, we would stay here again. The park is clean and the amenities are among the best in the country.

The only downside to this park is the noise. We visited in late December and saw a tour helicopter flying over the beach every few minutes. I imagine it’s a pretty nice flight, but the volume and frequency was a bit much for us.

This is a popular park and fills up quickly, especially in the winter. Since we travel in a class B van, we didn’t mind finding a different site for each night and we were able to find last minute reservations in December and January. The hosts warned us that finding multiple nights in a row would be difficult and most people are booking months in advance.

Insider Information

The park does have a gate and while we were there, a single entrance road. Be careful what time you plan to come into the park because the entrance line can be long early in the day as people arrive to use the beach.

A few times we left to do some shopping and came back to find a long line of cars waiting to enter the park.

The other annoyance was the nearby road. There’s quite a bit of fast moving traffic on the road that runs parallel to the campground. The road noise was noticeable, but not too bad, except when an exceptionally loud car or truck drove by. Unfortunately, this happened quite often.

All of the noise dies down in the evening and the park is very quiet at night.

When we visited in December, the water was a bit too cold for swimming and we needed sweatshirts while sitting on the beach.

Also, there was a storm nearby which made the waves a bit rough and forced them to put up the red flag warnings. Most of the days we were here we were only allowed to wade in the water.

The upside of the nearby storm was the clouds we saw at sunset. The colors were amazing as they bounced the setting sun’s rays and we were able to get some great pictures. The trick is the stay on the beach for 20 minutes after the sun fully sets.

Camping

The campground is within walking distance of the beach and the walk is fairly flat and mostly on a boardwalk. We were able to walk to the beach in 5 minutes. The only reason to drive to the day use area is if you are carrying a lot of gear.

The 60 campsites have decent spacing and the hedges between the sites provides a good amount of privacy. We walked the campground loops and found most of the sites level and paved with gravel.

Some of the sites are absolutely huge, but pay attention to the listed site length as there is a lot of variability in the sites. We saw many very large class A RVs and 5th wheels so this campground can accommodate lots of different rigs. The roads within the campground are wide, paved and without overhanging trees.

This is definitely a campground for RVers; I don’t think we saw any tents. We always worry about a party atmosphere in a campground especially when there are a lot of RVs with decorations out, but this one was quiet.

Amenities

The campground is laid out with 2 double loops. Each set of loops shares a bathhouse, so each set of 30 sites share a bathhouse. This seems like a lot but we never had to wait for a shower. However, the laundry was in constant use the entire time we were there.

The bathhouses are clean and well maintained. They each had free hot showers, flush toilets and one set of laundry washers/dryers.

We usually opt to use our own shower/bathroom in most campgrounds, but here the facilities were so nice we used them instead. My guess is that the camp host positions are highly sought after and therefore the facilities are well maintained.

Dumpsters are located in each set of loops and there is a dump station with flush water near the entrance.

This campground has everything you need for short or long stays.

Activities

Aside from the beach, there are a few nature trails and not much else. This is a place to relax and enjoy the beach.

If you like to hike everyday like we do, you’ll find yourselves walking the same trail and campground loops if the beach is too rough.

The beach is the main attraction and almost has two sections. We found the area near the day use parking lot to be pretty crowded during the day, including one wedding! There are bathrooms, rinse showers and a decent amount of parking.

The other section is where the campground trail is located and felt a bit less crowded - although it is the same beach and you can walk between the two areas.

Our advice is to walk from the campground if you like a bit more space or walk to the day use area if you like a bit more activity around you.

Nearby

There are lots of stores just outside the entrance to this park. We found a Walmart, Publix, Home Depot, and a few other stores within a few miles. You won’t have any trouble finding anything you need.

I think we saw every type of tourist activity imaginable. There is miniature golf, small water parks, etc. If you are spending some time in the area, it might be fun to check out some of these activities if you need a change from beach life.

They also seem to have every type of restaurant imaginable. We found a both chains and a local places.

If you prefer to camp instead of using hotels, this campground would make a great base for doing all kinds of activities in the area.