Watermelon Pond North Trailhead 9514 Southwest 282nd Street, Newberry, FL 32669

"Watermelon pond itself was very pretty. The trail itself was disappointing. It was 90 percent sand and uneven to walk on. At one point it was poorly marked and led us to a sandy rutty road that was hard to walk on. I wouldn't do this trail again"

"A little close to a road for camping purposes but otherwise quite nice and still relatively quiet. There's a water source that claims to be non potable. His and Hers bathroom, 4-5 spaces with fire rings for van people, RVs, busses, campers etc. There are also a handful of tent only sites with fire rings, raised platforms for tents and parking spaces for a couple vehicles of average size. There is a seven mile trail for hiking and horses. We saw a cottonmouth slither out of the water at one point so keep your eyes peeled when near the water, keep your critters away and be smart when in the habitat of nature doing natural stuff. For the most part, the trail never gets. Too near the water so you need not over worry. There is a sign that says something about passes and fees but saw no one to enforce it. I've included a pic of the sign. The website confused me a little bit the fees were reasonable."

"Great camping spot! We had site #2 which had a cool tree overhanging our tent and was the furthest from the main road. Site was nice and quiet and had a great fire pit and park bench for us to use. Only slight disappointment was that the bathrooms were locked but it wasn’t a huge issue. Overall great spot!"

"Nice place to chill, hangout and enjoy the nature. Picknick area is available and restrooms are thier. The gate is always open and I think you are able to camp there for no charge. Make sure to write north otherwise Google maps will take you to a off reading way. The only bad thing about there is the network! I have T-mobile and didn’t work well there but we enjoyed anyway."

"Great views of the pond. You get to walk through several different habitats. Trail is shared with equestrians. About 25% of the trail is on slat, solid ground. The rest is on soft sand that is not even. You can tell I. Some of the pics. There are also changes in elevations, which could be harder for some hikers to navigate. At one point there is a shortcut/opening to shorten your hike. Going by the distance hiked on my watch, I thought the point where that shortcut on the map was cutting off around 3 miles. I miscalculated. The point where the shortcut actually is cut off about a mile. I look forward to hiking others parts of Goethe State Forest, but my hubby does not want to do this one again. If you go after it has rained you may find portions of the trail muddy or under water. Hiking tips: These may seem obvious, but I thoroughly failed to: 1. Check length of trail(s) before going. We usually try to keep it to no more than 4. We ended up doing just over 6. 2. Check reviews of the trail(s). This may have helped us to avoid the not so easy easy terrain of the majority of the hike. We were in pain for about 2 days."