Istokpoga Canal Boat Ramp Area

In this video, I share our latest free camping location in Florida, Istokpoga Canal Campground; video uploaded here on Campendium for your immediate reference. Free camping at the Istokpoga Canal Campground is administered by the South Florida Water Management District. A free online permit is required. I provide you a walking tour of the campground, boat ramp, and picnic and day use areas. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 0.92 Mbps download speed and 0.05 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 12.4 Mbps download speed and 0.76 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 2.64 Mbps download speed and 0.72 Mbps upload speed.

If you don’t mind noise; this is a nice campground. The campground is settled back behind the boat ramp and parking lot. If you have a boat; this is the place for you! The weekends are very busy for the boat ramp with locals, and the air boats especially make a lot of noise. You can see (and hear) the cars from the main highway. There is also train tracks directly on the other side of the highway, which you will hear many times throughout the day/night.
Besides the noise, one of my dislikes is the lights in the parking lot for the boat ramp are always on. For security that’s nice, and it also is nice to have light when walking up to the restroom, but it makes nice stargazing impossible. There isn’t a lot of “coverage” to this campground, it’s very open and most of the time other than the tucked back tent campers, you get that “anyone can see you” feeling. Perfect for people who like the classic “campground” vibe, not so perfect for people who want privacy. We stayed sun-mon, and even on the weekends it wasn’t “crowded”, but I’m not sure if that’s because the time of year or because of the SFWMD limiting the number of people here because of Covid. Like other south Florida water management managed sites, you have to reserve online and you get a gate code. 7 nights max, you have to leave on the 8th day. It’s a nice sense of security having a locking gate. There is walk through spots though so people are allowed to park outside the fence and walk in. You can access the Hickory Hammock Trail (Red Blaze) via an opening in the back. There is potable water by the camp hosts. Toilets are in the parking lot (pit toilets). Most of the sites have a fire ring, picnic table and/or stand-up charcoal grill. You can fish (with a license) on the boat ramp. Saw lots of wild turkeys and a pair of cranes with their babies. Didn’t see any bats though so not sure if the bat house is occupied. Pretty sure I heard wild hogs one night too.
Only 1 (sometimes 2) bars of Verizon LTE.
Overall a nice free spot; just not as secluded as I’d like.

Our experience here was quite pleasant.

PROS: The campground host came by on New Year’s Day with a tray of goodies for each camper! There were 4 other campers while we were here and all sites are well spaced from each other. Each spot has a fire ring and picnic table. There are bathrooms over by the boat launch area (no showers). Fairly level spots and big rig friendly. Incredibly quiet and you can see a ton of stars at night.

CONS: This one wasn’t too much of a bother but thought it worth mentioning:During our stay, a train came through about 9pm each evening (tracks are across the main road leading into the campground). We have both Verizon and AT&T - cell coverage was poor, internet quality better with AT&T.

Lovely campground. Confused as to why there's nobody here except for 1 tent camper. Camp host lives in a fifth wheel on the way in and is pleasant. Didn't check out the restrooms. There is a dumpster for garbage. People who are sensitive to noise might not like the road noise or the two or three trains that go by in a 24-hour period, but I tend to be pretty oblivious to that. 98% good Verizon coverage. Very rare and infrequent one- or two-minute periods of no Verizon MiFi for some reason, but I do mean rare and infrequent. Overall, a lovely place and can't believe it's free!

This was a gem of a find. They have camping for tents and RV's. The tenting area is separate. Sites are not numbered so don't know which site we stayed on. However sites have picnic tables, fire ring and grill and are a nice size. There is a well where you can get water for jugs. Campground was very clean, and quite. Campground host is very nice.

Several other RV's were there during our stay perhaps 6 and there were spaces for a few more. There was also one van camper in another area and one tent camper more in the woods.

There are bathrooms towards the boat launch the building looked fairly new although I did not go inside.

The only thing that keeps me from giving it a five star rating is extremely spotty cell service. There was only one corner of our picnic table that we could get a signal (T-Mobil) and it had to be right in the spot.

Pets are allowed in this campground

Lovely campground for dry camping.