Dispersed · public land · FL · 27.67959, -80.62743
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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.
Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area) is a designated primitive campsite on St. Johns River Water Management District land in Indian River County, and it costs nothing. That is the District's own word for it: "Campsites are available to individuals or groups and are free of charge." The legal basis is Rule 40C-9.300 of the Florida Administrative Code, which authorises primitive camping on District Lands in designated sites and sets the only hard limit - seven continuous days, and 30 days a year on any one property. You get here by boat. This is one of the Upper St. Johns River Basin sites, and the District is blunt about it: there is no hike-in or drive-in access. The upside is that these are the only District campsites you do NOT have to reserve - they are first-come, first-served, six people max, so if somebody beat you to it you need a plan B on the water. Now the honest part. Tents only. RVs, trailers and truck campers are prohibited outright, and so is dispersed camping - you camp on the numbered site or not at all. Assume no drinking water: the District mentions only a non-potable pitcher pump at some drive-in sites, and this campsite layer records no water at all, so carry every drop. Pack your rubbish out, there are no bins. Fires go in the existing ring and nowhere else, you may collect deadfall off the ground but may not cut a standing tree dead or alive, and local burn bans override all of that. The one thing most likely to spoil your trip is a prescribed burn or a timber operation - the District says plainly that land management takes precedence over camping - so check its recreation announcements page before you commit to the drive. The nearest town is Fellsmere, roughly 3.1 miles away in a straight line - the drive is longer, and on some of these approaches a good deal longer. Questions go to the Bureau of Land Resources on (386) 329-4401.
The site — Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area)
Access
Dispersed
Land
public land
Elevation
23 ft
State
FL
Coordinates
27.67959, -80.62743
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area) · public land · FL(OpenStreetMap)
Drinking waterWater · ~7.0 mi
FuelFuel · ~6.3 mi
Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~12.4 mi
GroceriesGarcia Plaza Bakery · ~6.3 mi
PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~11.3 mi
Hospital / clinicTreasure Coast Community Health · ~6.9 mi
HardwareLowe's · ~11.1 mi
EV charging — from Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area) · public land · FL— nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
Nearest public DC fast charger7.4 mi straight-line SE — Home2Suites, Vero Beach, FL (at a hotel) · FPLEV · CHAdeMO, CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-02-12 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach33 within 25 mi · 79 within 50 · 334 within 100 · 706 within 150
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)15.1 mi — Tennis Club (Private), Vero Beach, FL · Blink Network · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Hampton Inn Vero Beach - Tesla Destination, Vero Beach, 7.2 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
Pricing at the fast charger$0.30 per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
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 327932 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area) · public land · FL— pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
How we know this — Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area)
Fire rules
Always use designated campfire rings for fires and obey local burn bans.
Stay limit
7 nights (no greater than seven continuous days)
Permit
Boat-access campsites in the Upper St. Johns River Basin are first-come/first-served. There is no hike-in or drive-in access, and reservations are not required.
Area rules
Only primitive tent camping is allowed on District lands and only at designated locations. Dispersed camping is prohibited. RVs, trailers, truck or van campers are prohibited. Firewood may be collected from the ground. Do not cut any standing trees, dead or alive. Carry out all trash and pet waste with you when you leave. There are no trash receptacles onsite. Land management activities, such as prescribed burns, project construction and timber thinning operations, take precedence over camping and recreational use of our properties.
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
FREE by the agency's own published statement plus binding rule. SJRWMD camping page (https://www.sjrwmd.com/lands/recreation/camping/), downloaded raw this fire and string-matched locally: "Campsites are available to individuals or groups and are free of charge" and "Camping on District lands is governed by Chapter 40C-9.300, Florida Administrative Code." The rule text itself was downloaded this fire from flrules.org (https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleNo.asp?id=40C-9.300): 40C-9.300 allows primitive camping on District Lands "only in designated camping sites" and creates no fee. STAY LIMIT: "no greater than seven continuous days or 30 total days per year per District Land" (40C-9.300(5)); the camping page repeats it as "a maximum of 7 consecutive days and annual maximum of 30 days on any property." ACCESS/RESERVATION: this is an Upper St. Johns River Basin site. The camping page: "Boat-access campsites in the Upper St. Johns River Basin are first-come/first-served. There is no hike-in or drive-in access, and reservations are not required." Maximum occupancy six people. TENTS ONLY: "Only primitive tent camping is allowed. RVs, trailers, truck or van campers are prohibited." "Dispersed camping is prohibited" - hence dispersed=0. NOT A PARTNERSHIP PROPERTY: checked against SJRWMD's own partnership list (https://www.sjrwmd.com/lands/recreation/partnership/) and the partner-managed block on the camping page. Caravelle Ranch WMA, Lake Norris CA, Ralph E. Simmons/Tiger Bay/Jennings State Forests and Lake George FOREST are run by FWC, the Lake County Water Authority and the Florida Forest Service and were all excluded from this ingest; Lake George CONSERVATION AREA is a different, District-run property and was kept. SEASONAL/FIRE: no seasonal closure is published for District camping, but the page warns that "land management activities, such as prescribed burns, project construction and timber thinning operations, take precedence over camping" and sites can shut at short notice - check the District's recreation announcements page before you drive. Fires only in designated campfire rings, and "obey local burn bans"; firewood may be collected from the ground, no cutting of standing trees dead or alive. COORDINATE: the District's OWN mapped campsite point, pulled live this fire from services.arcgis.com/s8wtJX9suxFen6TA/.../Management_Area_Campsite/FeatureServer/0 ("Mapped public recreational campsites located on District lands"), outSR=4326. Layer attributes: management area "Blue Cypress Conservation Area", designation "Individual - Four Tent sites allowed per area", county Indian River. WATER: the campsite layer has no water column, so none is claimed here. The camping page says only that SOME drive-in sites have "a non-potable water pitcher pump." Assume none, carry your own, and do not treat any surface water here as drinkable. NEAREST TOWN: Fellsmere, about 3.1 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). | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
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 Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area)
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 — Winter S Camp (Blue Cypress Conservation Area)
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