I will be kayaking in the Everglades City area in February. I have reservations for a few nights at Collier-Seminole State Park. Has anyone ever stayed at the primitive campsites at Dona Drive in Big Cypress? Not much info on the official website, only that there’s a dump station there.
But the location is great.
I have not camped there
but beware of swamp angels.
you are definatley in a good jump off point for paddling out of Goodland, Marco Island and Cape Romano (very nice), Everglades City and Chokoloskee. Flamingo at the other end of the park I highly reccommend this time of year for the bird, croc, gator and shark population but you want a very calm day with little wind as its wide open water paddling.
Choose your paddling based on the winds.
The Cape Romano-Kice Island loop is really nice with great shelling.
Turner River if you need to hide from strong Winds.
Although probably a 150 mile drive to Flamingo and Florida bay, best if no winds.
Goodland to Panther, whitehorse or hog key is real nice out of Goodland.
Rookery Bay not far from your campground is said to be great for the birds in the winter.
Everglades City ranger station out Sand Fly pass to Indian key and back is a nice paddle. using the tides you could go out for lunch on a beach and back in 6 hours.
Brian
SoFlo
camping near Everglades City
The campsite at Dona Drive is not open to the public, though the dump station is. There is a Big Cypress NP campground at Monument Lake, about 10 minutes east of Dona Drive.
There’s also Trail Lake Campground (home of the Skunk Ape research center), just a few miles east of Dona Drive in Ochopee.
Collier-Seminole has the better campground.