Ocean Pond Campground
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:40 UTC
- A night
- $12–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 6765 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Situated in Baker County, Florida, this campground includes 64 campsites and is open 24 hours/day. All sites are available at recreation.gov. There's something here for everyone in this lakeside campground. The Florida National Scenic Trail provides hiking opportunity adjacent to this campground. Come play, fish, swim, view wildlife and enjoy the outdoors here on the north shore of Ocean Pond! Keep reading
Recreation
Boating is very popular on Ocean Pond, and multiple campsites provide lakeside access for swimming, boating, and fishing. Speckled perch and largemouth bass are popular targets for anglers. A boat ramp is also available here. A picnic pavillion area includes a BBQ grill and picnic tables, a swingset, and beach area for swimmers. The Florida National Scenic Trail traverses the entrance road to this campground, and is maintained annually for hikers. Public hunting is available 8 months of the year on Osceola Wildlife Management Area (see myfwc.com/hunting for more information). The use of Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs) is prohibited inside this campground, but many "mixed use" OHV roads are open for riding on this forest.
Facilities
Each of these 64 campsites includes one parking slip (large enough for most RVs), a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Each campsite in the Electric Section includes a potable water spigot and electric hookup (30- and 50-amp). Each campsite in the Water Section includes a potable water spigot. Electric and Water Section bath houses include flush toilets and hot showers (available to campers from any campground section). The Primitive Section restroom includes flush toilets and sinks but no showers. Primitive Section campsites do not include water or electric service, but potable water is available near this section's restrooms. A boat ramp, picnic pavillion, beach swim area, and RV dump station are available for all campers at no extra charge.
Natural Features
This campground is situated on the north shore of Ocean Pond, a large lake (2-mile diameter) popular with boaters, swimmers, and anglers. The campground perimeter is composed of pine flatwoods and cypress wetlands.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Olustee is located on the south side of Ocean Pond, and is the site of the historic Battle of Olustee. This Civil War battle is reenacted right here on Osceola National Forest each February during the annual Olustee Festival. Dining, shopping, entertainment, and mail and medical services are available in Lake City, a 20-minute drive from this campground. The cities of Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida and Valdosta, Georgia are within driving distance (about 1 hour drive), as well as multiple first-magnitude freshwater springs (Alachua and Gilchrist Counties). The annual National Hot Rod Association's Gatornationals race takes place each March in Gainesville.
What the agency tells you
Cash is not accepted. Payment for your campsite must be made through the Recreation.gov app
Check-out time is 11:00 a.m. and check-in time is 2:00 p.m. ET. Campers occupying a site after 2:00 p.m. ET will be charged for the next 24 hours.
Camping longer than 14 days within a 30-day period anywhere on Osceola National Forest is PROHIBITED.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Ocean Pond Campground is open 24 hours/day, 365 days/year.
There is a limit of five people per site.
Each campsite is limited to two vehicles including the RV. All vehicles in the Electric and Water sections must be parked on the pavement. Parking vehicles on the grass is PROHIBITED. Additional vehicles may park in the visitor or overflow parking lot.
The operation of unlicensed motorized vehicles (four wheelers, ATVs, golf carts, etc.) in the campground is PROHIBITED.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 67
- Hookups
- 23 electric, 46 water
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Paved pads
- 46 of 67
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 47 of 66 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 66 of 70 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 66 of 70 campsite records
- Showers
- Accessible Showers
- ACCESSIBLE SHOWERS on 66 of 70 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 66 of 70 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 66 of 70 campsite records, WATER SPIGOT on 46 of 70 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach, Coast
- Accessible Swimming
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Jet Skiing
- Kayaking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Night sky · 24th darkest of 60 in FL
- Bortle 4
56 of 128 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:40 UTC
recreation.gov lists 65 of the 67 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $12–$30 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 15:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
70 records
All 70 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 67 of the 70 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Electric | 1 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 10 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 11 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 12 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 13 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 14 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 15 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 16 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 17 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 18 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 19 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 2 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 3 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 4 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 5 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 6 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 7 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 8 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | 9 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Electric | Host 1 | host pad | $5 | ||
| Primitive | 48 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 49 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 50 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 51 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 52 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 53 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 54 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 55 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 56 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 57 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 58 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 59 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 60 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 61 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 62 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 63 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 64 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 65 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 66 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| Primitive | 67 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $12 | |
| S&P | Dump Station | type not stated | $5 | ||
| Water | 20 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 21 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 22 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 23 | type not stated | 60 ft | $5 | |
| Water | 24 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 25 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 26 | rv electric | 60 ft | $30 | |
| Water | 27 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 28 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 29 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 30 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 31 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 32 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 33 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 34 (Host) | host pad | $5 | ||
| Water | 35 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30/50 amp | $30 |
| Water | 36 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 37 | rv electric | 60 ft | $30 | |
| Water | 38 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 39 | rv electric | 60 ft | $30 | |
| Water | 40 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 41 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 42 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 43 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 44 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 45 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 46 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | 47 | rv nonelectric | 60 ft | $20 | |
| Water | Host 2 | host pad | $5 |
The agency files 3 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It names them host pads. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 70 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Group LandingOsceola National Forest · 2.0 miBig Camp Hunt CampOsceola National Forest · 11 miEast Tower Hunt CampOsceola National Forest · 12 mi
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge Overnight Camping PermitOkefenokee National Wildlife Refuge · 40 miFrom Lake City, Florida, head east on US Hwy 90 for approximately 14 miles. Turn left (north) on CR 250/FR 266 and drive approximately 4 miles. Turn left onto FR 268 (campground entrance road). Follow FR 268 for approximately 1.1 miles until you reach the entrance to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Watertown, FL
Typical weather
Typical October night 59°F, day 79°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 41°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
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
Ocean Pond Campground is in Florida’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kat Cammack (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →