Lake Dorr Cabin
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 24 of the next 30 nights read 16:42 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Dorr Cabin is set along the south shore of beautiful Lake Dorr, ideal for a family getaway. The cabin is open year-round and creates a great setting for plenty of outdoor water fun. The rental includes a private boat ramp, canoes and a fishing dock. It's located just over an hour from popular amusement parks and other exciting attractions in Orlando. The cabin entrance and bathroom is accessible. A flat section on the property fits two tents if guests wish to camp outside. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, skiing, jet skiing, fishing and swimming are among the most popular activities for guests. The abundance of largemouth bass, crappie and pan fish entice anglers. A private boat ramp, fishing dock, picnic table, grill and three canoes with life vests are provided.
Facilities
Lake Dorr Cabin is a modern, newly restored facility with polished hardwood floors and large windows that overlook the lake. The cabin sleeps 10 guests, with a queen bed in one bedroom, two sets of bunk beds in the other bedroom and two sleeper sofas in the living room. Electricity and drinking water are available, along with a flush toilet and hot shower. Modern amenities in the kitchen include a refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and electric stove. (The pictured fireplace is non-functional) Guests should bring food, bedding, dish soap, sunscreen, towels and all other basic camping supplies and lake gear. Click here for more cabin details.
Natural Features
The cabin rests on the south shores of the lake, with shady Palmetto palms and other tropical vegetation. Views of Lake Dorr, which spans 1,760 acres, are impressive from the cabin grounds. Ocala National Forest boasts more than 600 lakes, rivers and springs, including three first-magnitude springs. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (352) 669-3522.
Nearby Attractions
Altoona lies directly south of Lake Dorr, with gas stations and conveniece stores. Umatilla is a little farther south, offering grocery stores and pharmacies. The cabin is about 50 miles from Daytona Beach to the east and the city of Orlando to the south. Both trips take just over an hour and offer many opportunities for entertainment.
What the agency tells you
Campers may check in at 4:00 pm and must check out by 9:00 am. We do not accomodate early check-ins or late check-outs.
Entry requires a combination lock; contact the staff at Alexander Springs at (352) 669-3522 during office hours to arrange for pickup. In the summer, the office closes at 8 p.m. In the winter, it closes at 6 p.m.
Also, be aware that if you're arriving late in the day, the cabin is located about 18 miles from the Alexander gatehouse at the end of an unlit dirt road that is not well marked. Daylight hours are suggested for arrival and check-in. If you must arrive after dark, call ahead so arrangements can be made. Upon late arrival, walk into Alexander Springs and find a host to obtain the combination.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
No pets / animals allowed at or in the cabin to help ensure this historic structure is preserved.
A $100 deposit is required upon booking.
Click here to learn more about Florida's National Forests
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.
Fireplace is recently replaced (Dec 2024) and electric. The assosiated remote control is provided in a wall holder. If the remote is lost or the appliance damaged, you will forefit your entire deposit.
WARNING: Do not leave electric fireplace on unattended or while sleeping
BOAT RAMP UNSAFE FOR TRAILER LAUNCHES. Kayak, Canoe, SUP use ONLY.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…water are available, along with a flush toilet and hot shower. Modern amenities in the kitchen…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…in the living room. Electricity and drinking water are available, along with a flush toilet and hot…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
Full this Saturdayread 16:42 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
10 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:37 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:42 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
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 · 13
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 16:37 UTC
- Lake Dorr CampgroundOcala National Forest · 2.3 mi · 61 of 68 site-nights open
- Clearwater Lake Rec AreaOcala National Forest · 3.9 mi · 56 of 76 site-nights open
- Alexander Springs Recreation AreaOcala National Forest · 6.9 mi · 57 of 116 site-nights open
- Big Scrub CampgroundOcala National Forest · 9.8 mi · 79 of 92 site-nights open
- Big Bass Campground (FL)Ocala National Forest · 10 mi · 38 of 38 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:42 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
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.
| LAKE DORR CABIN | Lake Dorr Cabin | cabin electric | 152 ft | $200 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Dorr CampgroundOcala National Forest · 2.3 mi
Clearwater Lake Rec AreaOcala National Forest · 3.9 mi
Alexander Springs Recreation AreaOcala National Forest · 6.9 mi
Buck Lake Group CampgroundOcala National Forest · 8.0 mi
Big Scrub CampgroundOcala National Forest · 9.8 miLake Dorr Cabin is at the southern end of Lake Dorr. Follow SR 19 north from Altoona. Turn left on East Altoona Road onto McCall (CR 8378) to reach the cabin. Total trip takes less than 10 minutes.
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
Lake Dorr Cabin 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 Lake Dorr Cabin, Ocala National Forest, Florida
Dear Randy Fine, I’m a constituent in Florida’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Lake Dorr Cabin, Ocala National Forest, Florida, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Lake Dorr Cabin 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. Lake Dorr Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lake Dorr Cabin. 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 Lake Dorr Cabin (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 Lake Dorr Cabin, Ocala National Forest, Florida
Dear Ashley Moody, I’m a constituent in Florida. I tried to camp at Lake Dorr Cabin, Ocala National Forest, Florida, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Lake Dorr Cabin 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. Lake Dorr Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lake Dorr Cabin. 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 Lake Dorr Cabin (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 Lake Dorr Cabin, Ocala National Forest, Florida
Dear Rick Scott, I’m a constituent in Florida. I tried to camp at Lake Dorr Cabin, Ocala National Forest, Florida, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Lake Dorr Cabin 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. Lake Dorr Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lake Dorr Cabin. 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 Lake Dorr Cabin (Ocala National Forest, Florida) via campanac.com