Bear Island Campground

Getting there was half the adventure. We took it slow and made several stops at the rest areas along I75 west to check out the other access points to Big Cypress like the Florida trail. Big Cypress is a great place for wilderness camping by foot or ATV. Bear Island is one place you can get well into the Big Cypress with a regular vehicle or camper. We drove our Sprinter 4x4camper. It is a long, but well compacted dirt road. There were some ruts we had to slow down for but spent about an hour driving the 20 miles, again stopping at some of the ATV access points. No 4x4 required. There is a dirt road just north of I75 on US29 that I saw on the satellite view of Google maps. That would have been a much quicker way to get to Bear Island. We checked it out but the gate is locked and that is not a public access point. You must drive south from I75 on US29 to Wagon wheel road. That is where the road becomes dirt and it takes you east and then north back under I75. Google maps navigation was correct. Lots of nature to see. Check out Dale Mason’s Big Cypress YouTube channel.

You can’t get there from Hwy 75. You have to be on Hwy 41 to get there You have at least 20 plus miles of very washboard road. I was pulling a 30 ft. 5th wheel. It had rained the day before and my camper was a mess by the time we got out. It looked like the camp ground once had access from 75. It had old vault toilets. There were couple of truck campers. The camp site itself was very beautiful. If you want a rustic site away from civilization this is a good choice. It will never be full. But for one night it is to much trouble.

Long (20mi) gravel road to the campground isn't very bad. A bit dusty, if anything. The campground is clean, well laid out with very spacious sites. Can be windy at times. Sites on the inside of the campground loop can get a wet / muddy. Good for solar, especially the sites closer to the entrance when there's less trees. Very clean pit toilet, well stocked with TP and hand sanitizer.
Crazy spotty 1-2 bars Verizon LTE on phones, anywhere between No Signal and 15 Mbps down / 6 up.
Solid 2 bars of ATT LTE on a Nighthawk M1 hotspot inside the camper with no external antenna. Consistent 8-10 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up.

Went on a Sunday . I only saw one other camper. Camp is run under the honor system. You have to take Birdon road from Tamiami trail then take a 20 mile drive north up a dirt road. No rangers, honors system. Get one of the envelopes they have fill out information and deposit $10. Then place envelope in steel box at ranger hut. Plenty of wood in the area. Even some tree trunks that have been pre sectioned by the rangers and left by the roadside.

Arrived Christmas Day 2018, found the park almost half full. No rangers or host due to the gov shutdown. The 20 mile gravel road leading to the campground was not bad. Sites are spaced very far apart and was really quiet. Except for the steady drone from I-75, over a mile away but sound carries across the slough. Fiberglass picnic table on a concrete pad, lantern pole and heavy duty steel campfire ring on mowed grass site. One bar of barely useable ATT 4G. Really nice looking concrete block pit toilets. Looking at this place for almost two years on google earth I really wanted to love it, I found it only so so. Unless you bring something to drive (4x4 / quad) the forest trails system with (permit required) there isn’t much to do here, no walking trails, pond, etc. but if you really want to get away from it all, this may be it.