Ortona Lock Campground

This was a one night stand that we wish had been much longer. This is our first stay in a COE campground and we were impressed. Although out "in the middle of nowhere", we found the operation of the lock and the gator treading water below the flood control gate quite entertaining. The host at the entrance station was very cordial and helpful. We found it easy to believe that people worked hard at spending 2 weeks here.
The basin style construction of the holding station was the first we had seen and believe it is a tremendous asset for those who are emptying waste water portable totes. The hose there needs a new end on it. I had to use my own hose to connect to my black water rinse because the resident one was filling up my plumbing bay with the leaking.

I wonder what signage there might be in the future out at the highway for the turnoff. We missed it the first time because of a huge cluster of construction equipment working there.

Quiet, well maintained park. I picked it for a weekend trip since it's only 2 hours from our home in Miami. Lots of wildlife -- gators, deer and a wide variety of birds. Not much shade but some sites do have a tree. Very nice fishing pier, although mainly caught gar (not really edible.) Bathrooms and showers were clean. We rode bikes in the campground, and on the road out to route 80, There are some beautiful live oaks in the pastures. There is some type of construction going on on the east side of the park, but it didn't impact us since we were there on the weekend. Appears to be flood control projects. We spent some time in La Belle, which is a nice little town with some good restaurants, a bait store, a coffee shop and a honey store. We ate at the Log Cabin BBQ and can recommend it on price and quality. The Quart House gets good reviews but it was closed when we were there.

Very well kept campground. The volunteer's were very nice. The only problem is that the old power grid causes the voltage to drop at our site. We noticed that when there was more than one other rig in the campground that the power drops off and our 50 amp rig loses power because others are drawing their power. I talked to the man at the gate about this problem, he gave me a piece of paper that he said he was supposed to give to all campers. It states " Due to the fact that the parks electrical grid is aging we ask that every camper in this park try to minimize their burden by only using one a/c unit so that they do not damages the system and cause outages. Only problem is that not everyone gets this or complies with it. This power problem will probably be the only thing keeping me from staying here. If you are driving a 30 amp rig, this should not be a problem.

This was our second stay here. The sites are all 30 or 50 amp with water. A dump station is available on site. Beautiful views of boats passing through the locks. Saw some gators & lots of birds. Last time we were here we saw the otters, but we didn't look for them this time.

There's not much in the area to do, so this is an excellent place to spend a few days recharging and being mellow.

We didn't go into the facilities. We had good cell coverage (AT&T, boosted) and very good OTA TV from Ft Myers.

This COE campground is very nice with clean restrooms with a washer and dryer. Sites are concrete pads with gravel sitting areas with covered picnic tables. The sites along the river are the best being right on the river to watch boats go by. Price reflects NP senior discount. Very hard to spots here, you need to reserve 6 months in advance. Not a whole lot to do in the surrounding area. Very quiet area especially at night, seems like everyone went to bed after 8:00:)

We stayed here on sites 40, 43, and 49 we took whatever openings we could get as the cancellations came in. The campground hosts Ray and Cindy added to this great campground. They held get togethers for campers and it was a wonderful way to meet our fellow travelers.

The sites are clean, with covered picnic tables, crush stone patio and decent size sites. You can a view of the locks or the big open field. It reminded of the Serengeti. Restrooms were clean with wonderful showers.

We walked across the locks and watched as they filled up and boats went through.. We also saw a river otter, alligator, and eagles. We stayed at WP Franklin Locks and loved it there but prefer Ortona South. Don't get me wrong both are wonderful.. We had more shade at Ortona.

Loved the different boats that went by. The Army Core of Engineers know how to do it right.

There is free WIFI you can access from a bench near the bath house.

Oronta Lock Campground, (aka Oronta South) is a shining example of your COE campgrounds. The sites are very clean and well designed, although small with only 51 sites. The campground sits on the Okeechobee Waterway and overlooks the Oronta Locks. This is a very quiet campground with everything including water and electric at each site, along with fire ring, picnic table and grill. There is also a dump site and believe it or not, a one washer, one dryer laundry at $1.75 per load. This is very popular among SnowBirds and books up solid almost every night. We are limited to 14 days, but hope to return very soon. (The sites are $30 per night, but we paid $15 with our Senior Lifetime Pass.)