Mitchell Landing Campground
2Heads uppark alerts
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
- Season
- August 15 – April 15Open August 15 through April 15, across the new year
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mitchell Landing Campground is a primitive campground located in Big Cypress National Preserve. Access to the campground is along a secondary gravel road. Cell phone service is limited and it is highly encouraged that reservations be made in advance. Mitchell Landing Campground is open August 15-April 15 and offers 12 campsites. This campground allows for tent, RV, and travel trailer camping. Visitors may enjoy nearby activities such as off-road vehicle trail access, hiking, fishing, and our popular loop road scenic drive. The campground offers vault toilets, picnic tables, and fire rings. There is no water available. Keep reading
Recreation
Mitchell Landing Campground is a popular location for airboat users. It is part of the Stairstep backcountry unit, the only unit open to airboats in the park. Visitors with an off-road vehicle (ORV) permit can access airboat trails directly from the campground. This location also offers the opportunity for nearby hiking, fishing, and access to the popular loop road scenic drive. For more information on fishing regulations please visit myfwc.com. For more information on ORV use please call the off- road vehicle office at 239-695-1117 or visit our website at https://www.nps.gov/bicy/planyourvisit/orv-use.htm.
Facilities
Mitchell Landing Campground is a primitive campground located along a secondary gravel road. Campsites have gravel or grass pads and accommodate tent and RV campers. This campground offers vault toilets, picnic tables, shared food storage, and fire rings. There is no water available.
Natural Features
The freshwaters of the Big Cypress Swamp, essential to the health of the neighboring Everglades, support the rich marine estuaries along Florida’s southwest coast. Protecting over 720,000 acres of this vast swamp, Big Cypress National Preserve contains a mixture of tropical and temperate plant communities that are home to a diversity of wildlife, including the elusive Florida Panther. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (239) 631-9988.
Nearby Attractions
Mitchell Landing Campground is located directly off the popular loop road scenic drive. Shark Valley Visitor Center, part of Everglades National Park, is located 11 miles east. The Stairstep backcountry trails are accessible directly form the campground and they offer the only airboat trails in the preserve. The Florida National Scenic Trail is accessible 22 miles to the east.
What the agency tells you
Payments must be made online. There is limited to no cell phone coverage at the campground, advance reservations are highly recommended. Any violations of park rules or regulations will cause a revocation of your camping permit and no refund will be given.
No fresh water is available.
Access to this campground is down a secondary gravel road.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
An off-road vehicle (ORV) permit is required for ORV use. For more information on ORV use please contact the off-road vehicle office at 239-631-9988 or visit our website at https://www.nps.gov/bicy/planyourvisit/orv-use.htm.
Do not feed the wildlife, including birds. This is unhealthy for wild animals and invites human/animal confrontations. Food should be stored properly.
Property left unattended longer than 24 hours will be impounded, and the campsite forfeited, regardless of whether or not it is reservable or non-reservable.
Be considerate of your fellow campers by observing quiet hours from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am. All generators must be off at 10:00 pm
Protect YOUR national preserve. Do not destroy, injure, deface, dig, collect, or otherwise disturb any national preserve resources, including plants and animals (dead or alive), fossils, rocks, or artifacts. It is a violation of national preserve rules and requlations to possess natural/cultural resources. Metal detectors are not allowed in any unit of the National Park System. Please report any illegal activities to a park ranger.
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 onsite. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Mitchell Landing Campground is open August 15-April 15.
Pets must be on a leash at all times.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 14 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
Around the campground
- On the water
- Coast
- Night sky · 28th darkest of 60 in FL
- Bortle 4
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- Spotty
9 of 11 sites open on Sat, Oct 17read 14:23 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites
All 12 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. 9 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pinecrest Group CampgroundBig Cypress National Preserve · 0.7 mi
Midway Campground (FL)Big Cypress National Preserve · 7.5 mi
Monument Lake Campground14 mi
Bear Island CampgroundBig Cypress National Preserve · 18 mi
Pink Jeep CampgroundBig Cypress National Preserve · 18 mi
Burns Lake CampgroundBig Cypress National Preserve · 20 miFrom Naples follow US HWY 41 to Loop Road, Mile marker 40. The east entrance to Loop Road will offer easier access to larger vehicles. Follow Loop Road approximately seven miles and turn left into the campground.
From Miami follow US HWY 41 to Loop Road, Mile marker 40. The east entrance to Loop Road will offer easier access to larger vehicles. Follow Loop Road approximately seven miles and turn left into the campground.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical October night 71°F, day 89°F.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Mitchell Landing Campground is in Florida’s 28th congressional district. Its representative, Carlos Gimenez (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…the campground is along a secondary gravel road. Cell phone service is limited and it is highly encouraged that reservations be made in…”