Flying Eagle Preserve

Watch out when your planning your Route. Google will lead you the wrong way - i almost ended up in a sandy pit on private property. From 41 aim for Eden Dr - this road will lead you into the Moccasin Slough Rd. Follow the road - it's only wide enough for one camper at the time.

Once you passed the last house it's pure nature ahead. It's a nice area with a few camping spots.

Flying Eagle Preserve offers free camping accessible to RVs. It is part of the Southwest Florida Water Management District Conservation Lands. Entrance gate is locked - you must apply online for a camping permit, allowing 3-5 days for a reply, and they will provide you with the combination for the gate lock. This campground had 2 distinct camping areas: the equestrian side and the primitive side. Both are accessible to RVS and offer primitive camping only. They both share access to a water pump and wheelchair accessible portapotty. Both camping areas have a combination of shady and sunny areas and campsites are not well-defined. T-mobile cell service was spotty. A bridge over an adjacent waterway has a ramp for airboat crossing. Airboats were present everyday and especially busy on the weekend: airboat noise pollution was loud even at the campground. Canoeing is possible on the waterway traveling south only, north direction was too shallow, but regardless, the airboats make this a risky venture as they come flying around the corners at high speed. There were some gravel roads that were good for cycling but signs prohibit vehicle access. Camping area was pretty and not very busy. A boyscout group camped for the weekend but they were good neighbours. We liked this campground very much except for the airboat noise which we found increasingly annoying. As such, we would not camp here again.

This campground is way out in the boonies. As the other reviewer said it is Southwest Florida Water Management District Land. I camped in the Equestrian area, both areas are very similar, you see a table and fire ring together and that is the site. Most sites are widely spaced. They are grassy areas surrounded by woods, with large live oaks scattered around. It is a pretty sight, not scenic beauty though. The road in is sand and gravel with some potholes. My neighbor had brought in a large RV horse trailer combo pulled by a pickup. I did hear one airboat before sunset, but judging from all the airboat sales & service businesses in nearby towns they might be a problem as the other reviewer said. What I noticed was lots of airplane noise, small private planes and jet airliners- probably on their way to land at Tampa. There appeared to be 5 or 6 sites at each of the 2 areas-Equestrian & Primitive. The porto let was fairly clean, unsmelly, with TP. Nonpotable water is available. The Withlacoochee river is very close. There were fireflies at night. And it was very quiet, loved the birdsong in the morning. There are hiking, cycling trails there which I did not try due to rain. You could also launch a canoe or kayak. The Withlacoochee State Bike Trail is nearby, Floral City is very interesting and the bike trail goes through town--very nice. I could watch Amazon Prime shows on my phone--AT&T.

You need a reservation and code for gate lock. You can make a reservation online, and if there is a vacancy, get an immediate email confirmation with the code for the lock on the gate. Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Insanely noisy at all hours. Pretty rich of them to say no generators after 8:00 when the locals are zooming around in their airboats well past midnight. Beautiful scenery, though.

We stayed 4 nights in the primitive side of the campground. As in the previous posts the campround is mostly an open field with enough space for about 4-5 campers. We were tucked back in the corner which offered a lot of privacy. We were there during the week so the number of airboats were limited but we were told that they are much busier (and noisy) on the weekends. In our 4 days there we had DNR officer stop by and check on us twice (to check for permit and see how things were going). They were super nice and had a ton of helpful info.

There are some hiking/biking trails in the reserve but beware they don't make a complete loop so you will need to hike out a back. We made that mistake and ended up on a 20 mile bike ride that included riding the roads around the area.

Our travel trailer is 10ft 9in and we were able to get back to the sites, but if you are much taller I would suggest that you find a different camping location. The road back to the gate is very narrow (only one car at a time and even then you are rubbing on palms)

We are from Ohio and know that ticks come with being in the woods, but I have never seen ticks this bad. They seem to be worse then ants here. Our dogs are on medication for ticks and fleas but we have still found 2 on each of them. Also the smallest ticks I have ever seen, easily can get through mosquito netting. Make sure you come prepared with tick repellent. Maybe being surrounded by swamp makes it worse, we camped and Hampton tract and didn’t see a single one. Don’t get us wrong the site is gorgeous with plenty of space and shade and other than the airboats on the weekend quite and relaxing, but the sheer amount of ticks we are shooing off ourselves and our dogs makes it semi distressing to be outside.

Lots of ticks but hey your in the woods in Florida @ a Slough😁 Beware of the Gators too, there’s a path to the River watch where you walk🤣 Also your a ways from the Airport so the engines your hearing are Airboats which are powered by plane engines😂. Your way back in the woods and there’s a damn and airboat crossing right there on a narrow section of the Withlacoochee River.

We loved our spot here! Big and spacious with trees for shade but also a big open sunny spot next to us for solar collection. It was warmer during our stay (upper 80's) and the shade helped keep our rig cool. Our spot was the one in the very back up against the tree line and not far from the swamp but the space was awesome.

We met some very nice people during our stay here. At it's fullest, there were 6 of us on the equestrian side.

It was quiet and I loved how it was tucked back in a ways from the road. Yet close enough to Inverness for supplies, things to do, shopping, walking, etc. The road in is not bad. It's paved for the first part and the last few miles are gravel but nothing too crazy.

Once inside the gate, the equestrian side is a short drive back through sand but we had no trouble getting our 31 Foot Class C back here. And our neighbors for a few days were in a 38 foot Class-A had no trouble either.

Please note: Google maps will try to take you the wrong way. If Google shows dotted lines across water to get here, it's wrong. Make sure you take Eden Dr. off of 41. This will turn into E. Moccasin Slough Rd. Follow that to the gate and you are there.

With it's close proximity for plenty of things to do this was my favorite place of the 4 SWFWMD properties. Plus it was by far our best site, large, shady yet a sunny place for our solar panels.

Now I will be honest and warn you, there is no escaping the Airboat noise. During our stay they usually ran every afternoon during the week, a few would come through. We were gone on Saturday but I would guess there were more of them coming through. The bridge they cross is a short walk from the campground. It's actually cool to walk down there and catch one crossing. Although they did come through everyday, it really didn't bother us all that much. But if you want complete peace and quiet be advised, of the noise from time to time.

But the seclusion and the beautiful drive in more than make up for that. We stayed here the first week of March, 2022.

Another thing to note:
All of the campgrounds in the SWFWMD are by online reservation only. They are completely free. But you must obtain a reservation prior to arriving. A gate code will be emailed to you. Each one has a 7 day maximum stay. If staying at another property you must have 24 hours between properties. You are allowed 2 reservations at a time (example one reserved for one week and another for the following week). If you want to reserve a third week somewhere you have to wait until one reservation is complete. And lastly, no more than 30 days total at any of their campgrounds in a year.

No trash on-site, please pack it out so these places stay open. Non-potable water and either vault toilets or port o potties are available.