Ortona Lock Campground

Very peaceful campground with large sites. Access is down a curvy, country road. The campground is bordered on one side by the river, lock and dam, and on the other by a pasture. Very clean bathhouses and spotless campsites. Wonderful camp hosts keep everything super clean. There’s great fishing at the pier below the dam. Close to La Belle, where there are small restaurants, gas stations, groceries and a craft brewery. Beautiful sunrises over the pasture. Our site (44) was pull-through and level. There was no shade which made it hard to sit outside during the day, but it was lovely at night. Next time we’ll try one of the campsites above the dam on the river side. This is a great campground for those who love peace, quiet, and watching birds and other wildlife, or just watching the boats go through the lock.

We stay there over Labor Day weekend. It was very very hot and humid. We used the time to wind down from being very busy. We needed the break.At the camp there is not much to do other than fishing and watching the boat traffic go through the lock. I spent some time working on the travel trailer and getting it ready for next years travels.
Overall this is a very nice camp for a short stay.

Beautiful C.O.E. campground in a rural riverside setting with cattle in a large field across from campground (no odor). My $15 rate reflects senior national park pass good at all U.S. government campgrounds. Paved roads and sites are well spaced, some with shrubbery between for some privacy. Well mowed grass between all sites. Sites 1-30 are closer together but have better views of either the river or fields. I was on site 32 which was very spacious, the primary advantage of sites 31 and above. I had the most shade of any site on 32.
Not much shade so was hot in June – 95 degrees most afternoons with high humidity. I was desperate for some camping after Covid-19 lockdown, otherwise would only go here in the much cooler weather of November – April. Did not use the bathrooms but found them clean with no air conditioning. Entrance gate is locked with a padlock. You must unlock it upon entry and exit, using the combination provided with your reservation. Very quiet, not a party place which is good for me. No road, train, airplane noise. 20/30/50 amp power is excellent and water was of decent quality with good pressure.
Consumer Cellular cell coverage varied from 1 – 3 bars and I was able to use my phone as an internet hot spot. Wifi only in a small area at bathrooms, one bench provided outside for your use. I did not use wifi since my site was too far away.
The biggest negative of this campground is no sewer connection at sites and the rule that you can only use the dump station once a week, or when you leave. I made it 6 nights with “wash cloth showers” and left a day early due to hot temps. I lowered my rating one star due to this issue.
Please take serious note: there is nothing to do at this campground and there are none of the usual RV park amenities. Talking with other campers and walking was the most I did. It is a great spot to decompress, relax, and spend some quiet time. Far from stores so bring everything you need. The nearest town, LaBelle, is about 10 miles away but it does have a smaller super Wal-Mart.
I do plan to return for a shorter four night visit in cooler weather. I camped in a 25’ class C motorhome.

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.