Agency-listedUSFSUnpriced · confirm
Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · FL · 26.14253, -81.56156
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 →U.S. Forest Service lists this as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL
No MVUM road within 1 mi of the pin; access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
What the record says about the site — Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL
- Permit needed to camp
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 11 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive CampgroundNIFC · 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 Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel8 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- MMechanic8 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- @Mail8 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- +Urgent care9 mi
- DDump11 mi
- WWater12 mi
- OOutfitter13 mi
- ShShower14 mi
- AAir-up22 mi
- PPropane38 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
11 ft
Ground slope
0.6% · flat
Nearest highway
~0.7 mi · Interstate 75
State
FL
Coordinates
26.14253, -81.56156
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWater · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townVerona Walk · ~8.2 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~0.7 mi · Interstate 75
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelShell · ~7.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~10.6 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~7.7 mi
- PharmacyGulf Shore Apothecary Pharmacy · ~8.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicPhysicians Regional Medical Center- Collier Boulevard · ~8.0 mi
- HardwareSunshine Ace Hardware · ~8.4 mi
EV charging — from Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger7.8 mi straight-line W — Walmart 5055 (Naples, FL) · Electrify America · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach16 within 25 mi · 37 within 50 · 262 within 100 · 494 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)10.3 mi — Naples, FL - Tamiami Trail East - Tesla Supercharger, Naples
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO14.0 mi — TOPHAT CHARGERS NEW CAR 2, Naples
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)7.0 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
- Also listed, not counted aboveDC fast, restricted access — Comfort Inn East I-75 - Naples, Naples, 7.7 mi · CHAdeMO, CCS · hours: 24 hours daily; for guest use only · AFDC lists it “$1.00 connection fee; $0.12 per min (75kW); $0.22 per min (100kW); $0.32 per min (150kW).”
- 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 170319 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~13.5 mi E · FWS
- RestroomPJ - Pink Jeep, Vault Toilet Bldg. A133 · ~17.3 mi E · NPS
- RestroomGH - Gator Head, Vault Toilet Bldg. A134 · ~19.1 mi E · NPS
- RestroomWelcome Center · ~22.2 mi SE · NPS
Coming out here — Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground · U.S. Forest Service · FL
- Surface water mapped nearby: Water. That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.6% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- Interstate 75 is mapped ~0.7 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bear Island Campground (Big Cypress National Preserve)~19.7 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Picayune Strand State Forest, manager on record: FL Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida Forest Service (state). Our own record names USFS as the manager. The two sources disagree, and we have not checked which is right. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
Agency page
fdacs.gov — the land manager's own page for this site. Fees, seasons and closures are stated there first; if it disagrees with this page, it wins.
How it was placed
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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 Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
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
- Seasonal & winter access
- 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 — Picayune Strand Horseshoe Primitive Campground
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Hot-weather camping →How to read this page →All field notes →