St Lucie South
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:15 UTC
- A night
- $20–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
St. Lucie Campground provides a relaxing camping experience on the St. Lucie Canal, part of the 152 mile Okeechobee Waterway that spans South Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Campers can enjoy watching boats and the occasional manatee pass through the St Lucie Lock while sitting under the warm Florida sun. Keep reading
Recreation
Hike the St. Lucie Nature Trail on the north side of the canal, or spend the day fishing and boating on the St Lucie Canal and the south fork of the St. Lucie River.
Facilities
The St. Lucie South Campground offers waterfront RV and tent sites, plus cruiser sites for boat campers. All RV and cruiser sites have 50 amp electric and water hookups. Our tent sites also have electric. A trailer dump station is on site for your convenience A family-friendly visitor center, group picnic shelter, horseshoe pit and are onsite to entertain the group.
Natural Features
Tropical vegetation surrounds the campground, which is about 25 miles east of Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the United States. The lake is 451,000 acres and on average only 9 feet deep.
Nearby Attractions
The Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge is recommended for visitors who are interested in the many species of birds in the area. The city of Stuart is just down the road with restaurants and shopping. Sandy beaches located on nearby Hutchison Island make for a fun days trip to the Atlantic Ocean. Nearby Fort Pierce is home to the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum.
What the agency tells you
As of September 15, 2021 cash and checks will no longer be accepted for in-person payments, All payments will now be with a credit/debit card.
Ortona South Campground and St. Lucie South Campground are part of the same water resource project. Both campgrounds fall under the same 14 day maximum in any 30-consecutive day period regulation. Campers cannot stay at Ortona South for 14 days and then camp St. Lucie South for 14 days without camping elsewhere for 16 days. Campers also cannot use different names to get around this regulation.
Campground access gate opens at 6:00 a.m. and closes at Sunset.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Campground quiet hours are from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Check-out time is 11:00 a.m.
Check-in time is 12:00 p.m.
Boaters in cruiser sites (B1-B8) must sleep on their boat; no tent or RV camping allowed
Vehicles or trailers are not allowed on tent sites
Assistive mobility devices, such as a powered wheel chair, electric scooter, or golf cart, are permitted for use by individuals with mobility impairments for necessary transportation within the campgrounds. Individual must provide one of the following: a valid, State-issued disability parking placard or card, State-issued proof of disability, or similar document.
Arriving campers that require the use of the trailer dump station prior to occupying their campsite will be charged the $20.00 use fee as the waste being dumped was not generated on site
Campers are limited to one RV/trailer sewage dump per week of stay, maximum two in a 14-day period. Portable blue holding tanks may dump unlimited times during their stay.
Campsites have maximum occupancy of 8 people per site
Group Shelter is for day use only, no camping allowed. Group size at this time is a maximum of 25 people
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
If you a boater and you are making reservations for one of our boat slips, and you have a wide vessel, your best options would be slip#1 and #8 .
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 3 tent-only, 1 boat-in
- Hookups
- 12 electric, 17 water
- Longest rig
- 38 ft
- Paved pads
- 9 of 20
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 21 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach, Coast
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Visitor center
- Night sky · 59th darkest of 60 in FL
- Bortle 5
19 of 42 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:15 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$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 16:15 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 21 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 21 of the 21 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. 16 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SLUS | #1 | day use | yes | 81 ft | 400 ft | 359 ft | $35 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 01 | boat in | 38 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 423 ft | 350 ft | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 02 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 434 ft | 365 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 03 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 445 ft | 379 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 04 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 459 ft | 397 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 05 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 470 ft | 411 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 06 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 480 ft | 424 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 07 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 494 ft | 441 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | Boat Site 08 | mooring | 38 ft | 50 amp | 505 ft | 455 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV1 | standard electric | 50 amp | 63 ft | 473 ft | 447 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV2 | standard electric | 50 amp | 54 ft | 532 ft | 510 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV3 | standard electric | 50 amp | 54 ft | 581 ft | 563 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV4 | standard electric | 50 amp | 61 ft | 615 ft | 625 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV5 | standard electric | 50 amp | 61 ft | 569 ft | 596 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV6 | standard electric | 50 amp | 44 ft | 508 ft | 541 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV7 | standard electric | 50 amp | 44 ft | 470 ft | 497 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV8 | standard electric | 50 amp | 48 ft | 422 ft | 452 ft | $30 | ||
| SLUS | RV9 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 74 ft | 352 ft | 380 ft | $30 | |
| SLUS | T1 | tent only electric | 20 amp | 79 ft | 657 ft | 642 ft | |||
| SLUS | T2 | tent only electric | 85 ft | 737 ft | 732 ft | ||||
| SLUS | T3 | tent only electric | 85 ft | 714 ft | 812 ft |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ortona South67 mi
Gator Head CampgroundBig Cypress National Preserve · 86 mi
Pink JeepBig Cypress National Preserve · 88 mi
W.p. Franklin N91 mi
W.p. Franklin South Recreation Area91 mi
Pink Jeep CampgroundBig Cypress National Preserve · 93 miFrom I-95, take Exit 101 (Stuart/Indiantown), following SR 76 W for 0.5 miles to Locks Road. Turn right onto Locks Road for 1.3 miles to SW Canal Street and turn left into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Palm City, FL
Typical weather
Typical October night 68°F, day 85°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
St Lucie South is in Florida’s 21st congressional district. Its representative, Brian Mast (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →