What a nice State Park! I truly enjoyed my solo visit here after dropping my Hubby off at the Bradento Motorsports Raceway about a mile or so away! It was a most pleasant and tranquil stop! I mostly sat in my car since I had asked the Gate Attendant if there were alligators there and she said yes, but I may not see one today - with my luck, one would chase me back to my car so I just stayed put in my car. I do regret it because I am a beach girl and I oh so wanted to see the lake. The only two animals that I saw were a turtle and an armadilla! Nice, refreshing breeze at nice spot made my day though!

Pluses are clean bathroom and wide spaces. A great point to see Bradenton and SarasotaThe vibe of this park is way off though. Urban sprawl all around, but the constant noise from the car racing is the worst.

Arrived on a Saturday afternoon prior to my husband driving the RV and was able to sign in and find our site. We got settled in a nice private spot, we noticed there were quite a few empty sites which thought odd for a weekend (found out why). My husband is handicap & has the plate on the RV – basically he has difficulty walking short distances. We had identified as such and was even asked at checkin to verify. However, the site assigned was not close to the bath house at all and there were much closer sites. At first we thought there was a path from the site but due to lots and lots of damage from the recent hurricanes there was none. There was a great deal of storm debris throughout the park. Long walk to the lake – had to drive there for him and still a bit of a hike but ok. There are a few benches to enjoy a nice view of the lake and a small swimming area. Clean and well-maintained area. Bath house gets high marks – very clean and good showers. Staff very nice. Lots of armadillos - two came right thru our site while we were sitting there.Not much here – trails are not marked and if you like Florida ‘scrubs’ you will like the trails – not me. Trails on the road?!! Very boring. Worse was all the noise from the nearby racetrack, road, and airport – too much. Lot of construction in the area. No cable / wifi. Ok stay for 2 nights but won’t be back.

I am local to the area and rarely go to Lake Manatee, prefer Myakka, but wanted to clear something up with visitors. There are no manatees in the lake. It got its name from being in Manatee County not because you’ll actually see manatees.Is actually a dammed river, so manatee can’t get to the lake

Noise was so great coming from the Bradenton Sports Motor Park you could not hear each other talk. Every 10 to 15 minutes from 10 till 8:30 pm just roar roar. Took the peace of the country side completely away. Very disappointed. Park had a lot of fallen trees and dry brush. It needed to be cleaned up too. We wont be back. Left early the noise was so bad.