Dupuis Wildlife Area

When we finally popped out of the Orlando strip malls at St. Cloud, the road became a country road of mostly cattle ranches all the way to the town of Okeechobee. Only one birding stop along the way so Ellen could record a field of Cattle Egrets. The road continued to be fairly rural as it wound along the east side of the Lake Okeechobee, only visible by its dike system. We turned east at the canal toward the Atlantic coast and the Dupuis Campground was just a few miles east of the lake.

The Dupuis Management Area is a nearly 22,000 acre tract controlled by the South Florida Water Management District (WMD). It has a large number of hiking trails and two campgrounds, a family campground and an equestrian campground. They are both free, but you need a license from the WMD to camp. This is available by filling out a form online and they email you a link to a PDF of the license. The family campground is a bit nicer than the equestrian, but the equestrian has a shower. We drove through the family area a couple of years ago as we were passing by. Unfortunately, it is limited to tent and pop-up camper camping, no RVs or vans need apply. We got a one-night license for the equestrian campground.

The campground is quite open and there are not any marked campsites, although a sign on the way in said the we should only park in designated campsites. The campground is divided into two halves, an equestrian camper side and a non-equestrian camper side. There are a series of corrals and barns on the equestrian side. The other side, our side, is an open fairly flat grassy area among large trees. There are approximately a dozen other campers ranging from Class-A RVs to a pair of young women on motorcycles who are tent camping.

We met the women coming out of the restrooms as we went to check out the showers (at a free campground, no less). Known as Skipper and Rogue, riding a Triumph Tiger and Suzuki V-Strom respectively, they are young, blue-and-pink-haired, well-pierced, roller derby players from Northhampton, MA. They are on a footloose ride around the country, camping and staying with friends. We chatted about bikes and motorcycle camping for a bit and wished them well.

We plan to stay here for a day or two and then move on to the Everglades with a side trip to Biscayne National Park. We'll try to visit the Dupuis Visitor Center in the morning and go from there.

Photos