Hampton Tract, Green Swamp: Free Florida Camping Under Tall Trees

Quick facts

• Where: Hampton Tract, Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve, 14490 Rock Ridge Road, Lakeland, Florida. Run by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
• Cost: free. A free reservation is required.
• Type: primitive camping. No hookups. The district lists a portable toilet.
• Water: a non-potable spigot only.
• Getting in: a locked gate with a code, then a rough dirt road.
• Solar and Starlink: tricky. Not much open sky.
• When we stayed: seven nights in 2025, days 9 through 15 of our 15-day boondocking challenge. It was our second campsite ever.

After eight nights at DuPuis we moved here to finish our 15-day challenge. The place itself is beautiful. It also taught us two lessons we still use.

The gate code

Our first code didn't work. The code had changed, and the new one was in a later email. Check for the most recent email before you go. Finding the right gate on a map was confusing too, because the preserve is huge.

The road in

The road is rough, with holes and a big bump at the gate. Backing into our site took a lot of back and forth. The drive in, including Fabiola's first time driving the truck, is in our Hampton Tract travel day video.

Not much sky: pick your spot in daylight

There are tall trees everywhere, and only a few spots get enough open sky for both solar and Starlink. We arrived late and picked our spot at night, and that was the big mistake. Starlink worked great, but Starlink wants open sky to the north and solar wants sun from the south, and a huge tree blocked most of our sun. Our batteries kept dropping, and to finish the challenge we borrowed a generator from a kind neighbor. That story is in our stuck without power video.

If you rely on solar or Starlink, look at the spots in daylight, and check where the sun will come from before you commit.

Don't put non-potable water in your tank

The spigot is non-potable. We filled our fresh tank from it through a small filter, after a nearby camper told us that would probably be fine. We don't think it was. Ever since, we've treated that tank as only good for some things. Bring the drinking water you need, and keep non-potable water out of your fresh tank.

What's nearby

We rode our bikes all around Hampton Tract, and visited Safari Wilderness near Lakeland, where we fed lemurs and drove right up to zebras.