Buck Lake Group Campground
1Heads up1 fire 20 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 25 of the next 30 nights read 16:26 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buck Lake is a group camping facility in the heart of Ocala National Forest in Florida. Great for family reunions and social gatherings, the campground can host a group of up to 50 guests along the shores of Buck Lake. Activities include fishing, boating, picnicking, hiking and simply relaxing and enjoying the breeze. Keep reading
Recreation
The sandy swimming beach provides a great place to relax and picnic. Campers have access to Buck Lake to enjoy fishing for panfish, bass and crappie, as well as boating. Hikers can access a segment of the 1,400-mile Florida Trail via a scenic trail that loops around the lake for 1.7 miles.
Facilities
This campground provides primitive camping for groups. Amenities include a vault toilet, a hand pump for drinking water, six picnic tables and a group campfire ring. Group get exclusive use of the facility during the reservation.
Natural Features
Located in north central Florida, the Ocala National Forest spans four counties and 383,000 acres. It is the southernmost and oldest national forest east of the Mississippi River and protects the world's largest contiguous sand pine scrub forest. The forest is also rich in water resources with more than 600 lakes, rivers and springs, several of which are near Buck Lake. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (352) 669-3522.
Nearby Attractions
Buck Lake is near the beautiful, turquoise waters of Alexander Springs Recreation Area, where visitors can swim, dive and snorkel in a warm, spring-fed lake and canoe on a 7-mile run.
What the agency tells you
Check in is at 2:00pm and Check out is at 11:00am. We do not accomodate early check-ins or late check-outs.
Electric Motors only. Gasoline motors prohibited on lake.
You are responsible for ensuring the gate is locked at all times that you are not actively entering or exiting the campsite. This ensures no unwanted guests come into the site during your reservation, and that the lock is not lost. Should the lock be missing or not securing the gate shut and locked when our staff arrive to take away the trash and clean the vault toilet YOUR deposit will be withheld completely.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Fishing within 50 yards of a boat ramp or area designated for swimming is prohibited.
Swimming or being in a body of water within 100 feet of a boat ramp is prohibited.
Off-Highway Vehicles are not permitted at this location. They may only be used on designated OHV trails and must be trailered to an official trailhead before unloading.
This location is a group-use campground and is operated accordingly by Adventure Ocala. If using this location for an event, such as a wedding, you will need to bring your own chairs, tables, and other items. Please visit www.adventureocala.com for additional information.
Click here for more information about Ocala National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Amenities include a vault toilet, a hand pump for drinking water, six picnic tables and a group…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 39th darkest of 60 in FL
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:26 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
10 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:42 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 10
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first; the nearest 5 of 10. read 16:42 UTC
- Alexander Springs Recreation AreaOcala National Forest · 4.5 mi · 59 of 118 site-nights open
- Lake Dorr CampgroundOcala National Forest · 5.9 mi · 62 of 68 site-nights open
- Juniper Springs Rec AreaOcala National Game Refuge · 6.9 mi · 80 of 154 site-nights open
- Clearwater Lake Rec AreaOcala National Forest · 10 mi · 58 of 76 site-nights open
- Big Bass Campground (FL)Ocala National Forest · 11 mi · 38 of 38 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:26 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BUCK LAKE GROUP CAMPGROUND | 001 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 298 ft | 51 ft | $70 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Alexander Springs Recreation AreaOcala National Forest · 4.5 mi
Lake Dorr CampgroundOcala National Forest · 5.9 miLake Dorr Recreation AreaOcala National Forest · 5.9 mi
Juniper Springs Rec AreaOcala National Game Refuge · 6.9 mi
Big Scrub CampgroundOcala National Forest · 7.5 mi
Lake Dorr CabinOcala National Forest · 8.0 miFrom I-75 in Ocala, Florida, travel east on State Route 40. Turn onto State Route 19 south, then turn right onto Forest Road 595-2 and travel for approximately 4 miles. Buck Lake Group Camp will be on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pittman, FL
Typical weather
Typical October night 64°F, day 81°F.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Buck Lake Group Campground is in Florida’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Randy Fine (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: D-. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyRandy FineU.S. Representative · Florida’s 6th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAshley MoodyU.S. Senator · Florida
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRick ScottU.S. Senator · Florida
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Lake Group Campground, Ocala National Forest, Florida
Dear Randy Fine, I’m a constituent in Florida’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Buck Lake Group Campground, Ocala National Forest, Florida, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Buck Lake Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Lake Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Lake Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Lake Group Campground (Ocala National Forest, Florida) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Lake Group Campground, Ocala National Forest, Florida
Dear Ashley Moody, I’m a constituent in Florida. I tried to camp at Buck Lake Group Campground, Ocala National Forest, Florida, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Buck Lake Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Lake Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Lake Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Lake Group Campground (Ocala National Forest, Florida) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Lake Group Campground, Ocala National Forest, Florida
Dear Rick Scott, I’m a constituent in Florida. I tried to camp at Buck Lake Group Campground, Ocala National Forest, Florida, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Buck Lake Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Lake Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Lake Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Lake Group Campground (Ocala National Forest, Florida) via campanac.com