Agency-listedNPSFeeOpen today
Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
Drive-up · public land · FL · 26.18330, -81.24741
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →The land manager lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Bear Island is the quiet end of Big Cypress National Preserve, up Turner River Road at the end of about twenty miles of secondary gravel, and it is the one campground in this batch that is not free - the NPS charges $10 a night for a tent site, $5 if you hold an America the Beautiful Senior or Access pass. For south Florida that is still about as cheap as legal camping gets. Forty designated sites; sites 1 through 12 stay open all year, sites 13 through 40 only from August 15 to April 15, which tells you what the wet season does to this place. Reservations are required - all Big Cypress campgrounds went reservation-only, booked up to six months ahead through recreation.gov - so do not just turn up. The NPS describes it as a "primitive campground with no water" with vault toilets, so bring everything you intend to drink. Generators are permitted here, which they are not at most of the preserve. The preserve-wide ceiling on any camping is 180 days in a 12-month period. Gator Head and Pink Jeep, two nine-site backcountry campgrounds reachable on foot or by permitted off-road vehicle, sit nearby in the same unit. The nearest town is Ave Maria, roughly 15.3 miles away in a straight line - the drive is longer, and on some of these approaches a good deal longer.
Can I go now? — Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve) · public land · FL
Open today Year-round per the agency record.
public land record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-17; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 15 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)NIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve) · public land · FL
Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer
Nearest of each
- FFuel10 mi
- HHardware15 mi
- +Urgent care15 mi
- GGrocery15 mi
- RxPharmacy19 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- @Mail20 mi
- ShShower20 mi
- AAir-up24 mi
- OOutfitter24 mi
- WWater24 mi
- EVEV fast charger24 mi
- DDump25 mi
- LLaundry25 mi
- PPropane51 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 24-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 10 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
15 ft
State
FL
Coordinates
26.18330, -81.24741
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve) · public land · FL (OpenStreetMap)
- Nearest townAve Maria · ~15.3 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelEstacion de servicio Gasolinera · ~10.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~25.3 mi
- GroceriesMobil Mart · ~15.4 mi
- PharmacyBenzer Pharmacy · ~19.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicDeVita Dialysis · ~15.3 mi
- HardwareACE Hardware · ~15.3 mi
EV charging — from Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve) · public land · FL — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger24.3 mi straight-line E — Ochopee, FL - Tesla Supercharger (at a rest stop) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 12 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 36 within 50 · 304 within 100 · 478 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS27.4 mi — Walmart 5055 (Naples, FL), Naples
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO31.2 mi — City Mattress, Naples
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)26.3 mi — FPL EVOLUTION COLLIER COUNT 2, Naples, FL · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 153883 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve) · public land · FL — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomGH - Gator Head, Vault Toilet Bldg. A134 · ~3.1 mi NW · NPS
- RestroomPJ - Pink Jeep, Vault Toilet Bldg. A133 · ~3.7 mi NW · NPS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~6.2 mi W · FWS
- RestroomBI - Bear Island Vault Toilet Bldg. A157 · ~8.3 mi SE · NPS
Open Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve) elsewhere
Other camps near Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
How we know this — Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
Open season
Year-round
Source
public land records
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
LOW-COST, NOT FREE - fee=1. NPS Bear Island Campground page (https://www.nps.gov/bicy/planyourvisit/bear-island-campground.htm), downloaded raw this fire: "Tent site $10 per night / $5 with a" [America the Beautiful Senior/Access pass]. Reservations are required for all Big Cypress campgrounds (https://www.nps.gov/bicy/planyourvisit/eatingsleeping.htm) and can be made up to six months ahead via recreation.gov. SEASON: the NPS page states "Sites 1-12 are open year-round" and "Sites 13-40 are open August 15-April 15." Forty designated sites in total. STAY LIMIT: "The maximum length of stay for any camping activity within the national preserve is 180 days in a 12-month period"; separately, backcountry camping is capped at "more than 30 days total, per year". ACCESS: "Access to the Bear Island Campground is at the end of a 20-mile secondary gravel road." Generators are permitted at Bear Island (the preserve limits them to Burns Lake, Bear Island, Pink Jeep and Gator Head). COORDINATE: printed by NPS on the campground page itself - "Latitude: 26.18330140 Longitude: -81.24740890". WATER: "Primitive campground with no water. Vault toilets available." Nothing here is potable. NEAREST TOWN: Ave Maria, about 15.3 mi in a straight line (US Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer place internal point). STRAIGHT-LINE, NOT DRIVING DISTANCE. Ingest 2026-08-16 10:52:36 (fire 800, FL thin-state fill). RE-VERIFIED 2026-08-18 (night shift, FL backlog review). Re-fetched LIVE this fire: https://www.nps.gov/bicy/planyourvisit/bear-island-campground.htm . The page still carries every fact this row was built on -- "Tent site $10 per night / $5 with a Senior or Access Pass", "To reserve your site, please use www.recreation.gov", "The maximum length of stay for any camping activity within the national preserve is 180 days in a 12-month period", "Primitive campground with no water", and the coordinate printed by NPS itself, "Latitude: 26.18330140 Longitude: -81.24740890", which is the coordinate on this row. Still a fee site (fee=1) and correctly NOT tagged free-camping. No coordinate duplicate against any published FL camp -- checked on COORDINATES, not name, against all 43 published FL rows at a 250 m threshold. DECISION: status pending -> approved.
Season
Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)
Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →