Frontcountry camping in the Everglades

Love spending time in nature? How about overnight? Camp in the Everglades! This camping trip is surely one you’ll never forget. Camping, both frontcountry and backcountry, is available year-round. Even during this rainy season, people do head out and camp in the Everglades. The National Park Service notes that during the rainy season, camping can be more difficult and uncomfortable.

The Park does not have camping equipment to rent or purchase, so you must bring everything you will need to set up camp.

If you’re looking for a frontcountry camping experience, the Everglades has two places: Long Pine Key Campground and Flamingo Campground. Right now, the Long Pine Key Campground is closed for summer months. The Flamingo Campground is accessible from the Homestead Entrance of the Everglades. It can accommodate both tents and RVs. Since it is the summer season, reservations aren’t necessary, but you are still able to make one if you’d prefer. Flamingo has 234 drive-up sites, which are $20 per night for a campsite with no electric hookup and 41 sites are $30 per night with electric hookups. Many of the sites have a view of Florida Bay, as this site is on the southernmost tip of Florida.

The summer time is a good time to camp in this area if you prefer fewer people around. There is a visitor center at the campground, a store, and canoe and kayak rentals. This campground is a large open field with strong breezes coming off the bay. There are solar-heated showers, dump stations, picnic tables, grills and an amphitheater for winter programs. The Flamingo area also has lots of hiking and canoe trails. To make a reservation at Flamingo Campground, call 1-877-444-6777.

While camping in the Everglades, you can explore even more of the wetland on an airboat tour during your trip. An airboat ride can bring you around areas of the Everglades you are unable to reach by trails. If you’d like to go on an airboat tour, join Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours for an adventure. To book a trip, click here or call 800-368-0065.

 

 

Sleep Under the Stars by Camping in the Everglades

Tent On A CampsiteCamping is one of the best ways to experience the great outdoors. But, did you know you can actually go camping in the Everglades National Park? You can! The park offers camping opportunities in both the front country and back country. Visitors are able to go camping year-round, but the wet season (June through November) is a more difficult and uncomfortable environment for camping. If you’re thinking about experiencing this beautiful wetland through a camping experience, remember to come prepared; the park does not provide any camping equipment for people to buy or rent.

For the front country camping, there are two drive-in accessible campgrounds from the Homestead entrance of the park, which are Long Pine Key Campground and Flamingo Campground. People can bring both tents and RVs to the sites. These are the only two sites in the front country part of the Everglades.

For the most part, the number of camp sites in these campgrounds meet the demand. In the winter (busy) season, it is recommended to reserve a site for Flamingo. A limited number of group sites (which accommodate up to 15 people) are available. A maximum backcountry stay is 14 days.

With backcountry camping, people can camp at a number of ground sites, beach sites, and elevated camping platforms across the park. These sites can be reached by canoe, kayak, motorboat, and some can be reached by hiking. Most of these sites are in the Ten Thousand Islands and along the rivers that flow into these islands.

For this type of wilderness camping, a permit is required, which a person can pick up the day before or day of his or her trip at the Flamingo or Gulf Coast Visitor Center or the fee station at the Homestead park entrance. The permit processing fee costs $15 and there is a $2 per person per day camping fee.

Visitors are asked to use caution at campsites where alligators and other wildlife have been fed/gained access to human food.

Explore the Everglades

If you plan on exploring the Everglades before you set up camp, an airboat tour is a great way to get around the park. To book an airboat tour, contact Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours by clicking here or calling 800-368-0065.