Clean, quiet, horses/walking trails, feels remote, wonderful restrooms with hot showers and flushing toilets, amazingly free. Would stay again. Small town nearby. read more

DuPuis Management Area - Trails - Hiking Near Me - Canal Point, Florida

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My husband and I stayed for two nights at the FAMILY Campground in the DuPuis Management Area in late March, 2025, and LOVED it. This is a free primitive campground (no hookups) managed by the South Florida Water Management District. While free, it does require a Special Use Application and License (which is also free). The Special Use License secures 1 of the 14 licenses available per day, and also gives you access to the gate code for entry; the camp host did check that we had one. The campground is far from traffic noise, and each site is large and picturesque. The family campground is for tent and pop-up camping only. No trailers, camper vans, truck campers, or RVs are permitted for camping. A maximum of two vehicles are allowed per campsite. While we have a Class B RV, we followed the rules and set up our tent for overnight camping. Each site offers a picnic table and fire ring. The Family Campground has clean composting toilets. A full-service bath house with hot showers and flushing toilets are available for use in the Equestrian Campground. The DuPuis Management area offers camping, picnicking, fishing, hiking, bicycling, geocaching, birdwatching, wildlife viewing, and hunting during specific seasons. We had only one issue -- and that was that our GPS took us to the wrong, locked entry gate but we figured it out. read more

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Only 4 reviews and about hiking and running, which are great but check out how much DuPuis has to offer! Oh, and the best part-- it's FREE! We're in South Florida and when it's chilly or cold, that's our time to camp but while commercial campgrounds are nice, we want to isolate when camping. Leave those stresses behind. DuPuis is isolated! This will be long so kick your feet up. We camped at the Family Campground last year. I favor this site more for its tranquility. The site allows campers and tents but no hookups. There's also no toilets or showers. There is, however, a compost toilet which was good enough. Fire pits to stay warm or cook but the really bonus is that it's just over a mile from the road so you have no outside noise! It's glorious! This time, we camped the equestrian campground. Loved this just as well but certainly some differences. FIRST, there's hot showers and a working bathroom. There no hookups. The campers we saw were running solar and/or generators. This one is more "crowded" if you can call it that. There's an equestrian side and non-equestrian side. As you might've guessed, equestrian side has folks with their horses and trailers. Everyone was friendly and the horses were gorgeous. We had plenty of space on the non-equestrian side. It was quiet, as well except the road noise. It's not a particularly busy Highway but definitely more noise than family campground. If I had a gripe, and it's not really, but the camp host. I know he's doing his job and when you arrive, there's a sign saying to check in. We arrived right at dusk and set up camp with the Jeep headlights. By the time we were done, it was dark and figured I'd leave my reference numbers on my dash. About 9 he came by asking why we didn't check in which I explained why and he was a little coarse. I don't particularly care as he's doing his job but A. I had the gate combo and B. Not many folks are trying to nefariously set up a tent at night. So, CHECK IN! Now we know, and knowing is half the battle! So dust off your camping gear and go explore Florida! read more

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We had a wonderful stay twice 5 years apart. Quiet, camp host was so kind to us. Clean and great warm showers. Free camping.

The DuPuis Management Area is a natural area located in northwest Palm Beach and southwest Martin county. Native American archaeological sites dating to 500 BC have been found here. Later on the Seminoles tried to hide here during the Seminole Indian War of 1835 but they could not find enough food and were starving. The area became known as "The Hungryland" and many of the Seminoles were captured and sent west to Oklahoma on the trail of tears. The land then became the White Belt Ranch owned by John G. and Susan H. DuPuis Jr., who the management area is named for. The couple raised white belted cattle, sheep, and goats. In later years 6,500 acres of wetland were restored and water flow was reconnected to nearby J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area. Today when you visit you can see numerous ponds, wet prairies, cypress domes, pine flatwoods and Everglades marsh. This natural area is a massive 22,000 acres. There are 22 miles of hiking including part of the Ocean to Lake Trail and 40 miles of horseback trails, an equestrian center, campsites and seasonal hunting. There is a nature center with educational displays and a covered Cypress boardwalk. The DuPuis Auto Tour is 7.5 miles to the fishing pier on Shell Lake. The remote location of DuPuis makes it especially good for star gazing. Having arrived late in the day I was only able to hike part of the trail but the little blast of a cold front we got made the weather perfect. The trail was well marked with white paint and it is natural earth. I saw cardinals and a pileated woodpecker during my hike. Alligators, river otters, feral hogs brought to Florida by the Spanish, coyotes, white tailed deer, and bald eagles also make their home here. I didn't realize how large this area is and now I am looking forward to doing some more exploration. It is only a little over an hour from where I live but it feels like a world away. read more

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This place is awesome! Neat, conveniently located and the trail is perfect for bike riders like my husband.

Dupuis Management Reserve held the Annual JW Corbett ultra marathon series 50M, 50K, 18M. Running the 50k with Nicole this past Saturday April 23, 2016, this race is a charity race benefitting underprivileged local school children to purchase musical instruments. Additionally, representatives from the Florida Trail Association were present to take donations and / or annual memberships registrations to benefit the park. We were up at 3:30am to drive to the reserve from Miami and arrived at the park at 6am . Plenty of time to check in. This was a small local ultra marathon, where we ran the 50km (31miles) option, which consisted of 2 x 15 mile loops through the park's trail network and 3 of which were on the famous Lake Ocochobee to Ocean trail. The terrain was beautiful. The race took me about 5 hours to complete. The race had aid stations every 3 to 4 miles along the 15 mile loop. The aid stations were stocked with gator aid, water, PBJs, bananas, coconut water, ice, ice bandanas for the heat. As temperatures surged, it's important to keep cool. Folks manning the stations were helpful to refill my water bottle and assist with anything required. I had pulled my right hamstring only 2 days earlier so I had to run easy and not push the pace too hard. I managed to earn four new blisters when the shoes came off. Also managed to place 2nd overall. The post race party consisted of delicious BBQ of jerked chicken, beef brisket and pulled pork while commiserating with finishers. Notable runners were World Record Holder and race director of the Florida Everglades Ultra Series and the Keys 100, Bob Becker, the man who ran Bad Water---the hardest race on earth---out and back in one week (270 mile). read more

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Its a great place to explore. Ive done the power line grade to the end. In search of picture opportunities. The road is very passable, even the family truckster, aka minivan, for the most. There is a big dip that water will run through. Could be deep. When you hit the FT it gets narrow, judgement needed uou could be alone out there. The first half is fairly boring, open savannah kinda thing. There are birding opps, a ton of wood storks were around. The second half gets gator points, thick with gators. Thick, like alot of em. No swimming! Hunting does go on here, find your orange vest if you head into the woods. Lots of trails! Nice, good to see yelp does more than food. I like the obscure review..lol. read more

Great WMA. The property holds all sorts of ecosystems that our native wildlife needs. As a hunter the conservation of public land is very important. We do not just take but we also give back. We collect garbage and mange animal populations. read more

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