Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Great place to camp. We are in Site 2 which has a little shade and a playground very close. Great location if you have young kids. Lots of trails for walking And bike riding.

It was my first time visiting Jonathan Dickinson state park. I am actually a Florida native and enjoy visiting all the parks FL has to offer. It was a gorgeous sunny, not too hot day in January which was great for enjoying the outdoors. It was pretty busy on this Saturday. Lots of cyclists, families and groups of friends picnicking and enjoying the day. Dogs are allowed which confused me as I thought I’d read they weren’t but many were in the park with their dogs. Perhaps they are simply not allowed in certain areas? Check before you go. The flora/​fauna was not very different from the rest of Florida in my opinion it all starts to look alike after awhile. Regardless it was a nice place to visit. They had canoes/​kayaks available to rent but I could tell the kayaks would not be as comfortable as to the type I’m used to. Overall, spent a lovely day outdoors enjoying nature. Great place to visit and I recommend it to all. One thing I wanted to mention is the camping area. It is season for us in Florida during the winter months so I’m sure this had a lot to do with it. The campgrounds were packed! A lot of trailers & campers right next to tents. I don’t know about you, but if I wanted to camp in nature in a tent the last thing I want to see is campers. What kind of an experience would that be? To each, their own. I just thought I’d point that out. I was with a friend who mentioned coming camping here in the late 90’s early 2000’s and it was way different with lots of space everywhere. So, if you are looking for a tent-​camping experience and waking up to a beautiful scene in nature-​this is NOT it! If you are looking for a beautiful park with canoe/​kayak opportunities and not too far from civilization where you may be able to bring your dogs, then definitely come visit!

Review for bike trails: good fun! Sure, it’s not «mountain» biking like you’ll find where there are, well, mountains, but it’s fun. I actually rode the entire park on a cyclocross bike with no problems. The trails are VERY well maintained — kudos to whoever maintains them. $ 4 to enter as a single person via car, and this gets you a trail map. All the trails are well marked and easy to follow without getting lost. As others have said, there’s basically no shade, so beware when riding in the summer heat. Keep the rubber side down!

Amazing place to have a lil family time! A lot of activities, I’m staying in of the cabins they have a decent size very clean and they offer free wifi!!! It’s my first time but it’s definitely not my last one!

Cabins 6 & 7 are bigger cabins with 2 beds in the room, a pull out sofa bed & a small loveseat but they do not have ovens. The other cabins are smaller but have ovens. Cabin 10 is handicap accessible. Towels, toilet paper, linens, and dishwashing soap are provided. The cabins are really small trailer homes that may be reserved 11 months in advance. Each cabin has a fire pit, a bbq grill and a clothes line.
The camp sites have electricity and there is a public bathroom close by.
The park is beautiful and you can spend your days bike riding, canoeing/​kayaking, hiking or just hanging out by the fire pit. A large bag of fire wood is available from the park for $ 7.50.
Publix and restaurants are a short drive from the park.

Best place around for hiking, kayaking and taking a time out. Trapper Nelsons place is an awesome experience. Plus the beautiful surroundings on the way to it. You cannot leave without checking out the tower.

Prepare yourself for the no seeums. If you can deal, this park has a lot to offer. My family & I tent-​camped here for a week in July.
The Campground
The bathrooms & showers were nice enough and clean. The closest laundry is up at the RV site (it’s in the park, but a few miles away) and pretty expensive. The tent sites are pretty spacious and have some nice tall pines & other foliage, ours had good grass cover, and all sites had picnic tables and fire rings. There is a boat ramp and a nice pier on the river.
The Rest of the Park
There is enough here to stay busy for a few days. You can rent little 10-​hp skiffs and go up the river to Trapper Nelson’s cool historical site. Also there is canoeing and kayaking and fishing to be had. There are walking trails and mountain bike trails and a nature center. One trail goes along a train track and my kid was thrilled when a freight train whizzed by us on our bikes. The fire dept were doing some prescribed burns in different areas of the park while we were there but we were always upwind of it (I’m sure they plan it that way) and it never bothered us. We got to see one very up close which my kid also thought was pretty cool.
Overall, it’s a decent park! Would definitely want to come back when the weather is cooler!

What a beautiful park! You feel like you are far from the realities of ever day life. We booked a cabin… it was the best deal… they are air conditioned and you have a frig for your food no worry about getting ice. Beautiful scenery gives you full serenity. You can sit out in nature and hear the crickets, see animals, we saw an owl, a deer, a raccoon and a coyote… yes for real ran right out in front of our car on our way to the cabin area! That was slightly terrifying! It was after the deer we saw I would bet! We fished and rented a little power boat and it was a good time!
The only reason I did not give it a full 5 stars was because of the park rangers they are relentless they drive by like every 20 minutes and bother you for no reason honestly! Here is a perfect example and by far not the only one but here is a good one. We rented 2 cabins and you can have 4 people per cabin and 2 cars at each sight max or they have an «overflow parking» area (WHICH LEADS YOU TO BELIEVE YOU COULD HAVE PEOPLE COME BY JUST TO HANG OUT BUT NOT SLEEP THERE because you can). So we are all (no extra people) over at one cabin outside cooking on the grill and talking and hanging out and here comes one of the rangers…“oh you have to many people here only 4 per cabin” …we explained having 2 cabins next to each other… and they acted like… even still you can’t hang out with your neighbors?! We were not loud or disruptive to others at all. We could hear people at other cabins loud and clear as day having a good time!
One more example… I have a service dog and I asked them before we came about having the dog and it was no problem because he’s a service dog. We arrive and the Ranger asks me about the dog… I tell him he’s a service dog and he said ok that’s fine. We went for a walk at night in the dark and the rangers pull up «hey you can’t have dogs here» …I explain how he is a service dog… they say ok and move on… this questioned was asked 15 more times… Hello don’t you people talk to each other?! The morning we were packing up the car to go… they stopped to tell us again about the dog! So in my opinion the park was great but be prepared the park rangers are annoying and slightly ruin the experience of being in the wild.

I love this park. The canoeing is awesome. If you want to see alligators, turtles, mullet jumping, raccoons, deer, osprey, etc. then you must do the trip to Trapper Nelson’s. This trip we rented a cabin for a few days. We were just arriving at the cabin and saw two deer eating clover and they didn’t run off. A rabbit hopped by while we were unloading the car. A squirrel came up on the porch and looked in the glass door while we were sitting inside. This was all within the first 30 minutes we were here. We haven’t even gotten on the river yet. You can ride horses, bike the trails, hike the trails, fish, etc. We simply love it!!!

Gps took us to the wrong place. Got to gate and man said we probably won’t make boat tour. Missed it by 30 seconds /​he could have called ahead. Hot dessert like path through Burnt woods. Sandy and snakes so not good for open hiking shoes. If u want a family picnic under a pavilion then it’s good or you like to kyack. Small playground and a small nature center. We waited around for later ride. It did turn out to be nice. Saw manatees and Gators. Nesting birds. Def do the boat tour but go early in the day since the low tide shortened the tour.

The boat tour was awesome. The stop at trapper Nelson site was really informative and cool. I would definitely go again! Great for the kids! Saw lots of manatees and turtles.

The only thing that made this visit worth the $ 6 entrance fee was the ‘mountain’ observation tower. Being able to see the lay out of the old military facility and see the horror of high rises on Hutchinson Island (enough to make a conservationist out of a Libertarian for sure) was really interesting.
We went specifically to horseback ride, kayak, and scope out for a possible camping trip next year. The ranger at the gate never mentioned that the riding trails were closed, even though we told her specifically that this is what we came for. We went to the River Store to pay for the riding, as the printed directions say to do, only to find out that we had to go back to the equestrian area to pay. When we got THERE, the man in charge told us the rides were closed for the day d/​t too much rain and muddy trails. He insisted that he had told the front gate rangers earlier in the morning. We understand the need to care for the horses so weren’t upset about the need to close, we just wished someone in the River Store or the Front Gate had mentioned it.
We took a look at the horses anyway and were just as glad not to ride them — the draft horses were standing on wet muddy mats and had pitted and chipped hooves. With the exception of a few or the other horses, most looked pretty miserable and unkempt. What a surprise from a state park concession. I would have expected the horses to be in beautifully groomed shape.
Then we went back to the River Store to arrange the Kayak trip only to find out that NO ONE was available to help lift, carry, steady, and remove the canoes from the river. Well, given the looks of the boarding area, we realized we probably would have either wrenched our backs, or one of us would have fallen in. Dear heavens… why advertise what you can’t provide? And the girls running the store were clearly uninterested in customer service. Not too friendly and looked bored with the whole thing…
The education center was nothing to write home about.
The River camping area has precious few shady spots and several campers had generators going– not my idea of a restful camping experience. The launch ramp looked good though.
The ‘cabins’ are very small modular homes-​smaller even than the campsite types seen at the RV shows.
The Pine grove Campground is less pine grove than sand. Again, few shaded areas.
Needless to say, we won’t be returning. Disappointment personified and if this is what the State Park system is ike in Florida, we won’t be visiting to many of them.

We were visiting from Miami, Florida; if you have been, it’s a lot of swamp land. I usually go to the Everglades National Park or Shark Valley when I need to get my park fix. I am used to the humidity and the skeeters. I was so surprised to see that this park had such different ecosystems. Much of the flora and fauna was something I had not experienced in South Florida before.
This park offers many activities: miles of trails, horseback riding, canoeing, and a boat tour. We opted for the boat tour because we were a little tired and I am so glad we did! At first, I was thinking the tour was a bit pricey. But after it was all said and done, I see that it was worth the price. I won’t give too many spoilers but trust me, you won’t regret taking the tour. We saw a momma and baby manatee!
We finished our day with the view from the observatory tower! It’s magnificent. You are able to see miles away, all the way to the ocean. I will be back the next chance I get!

We were looking for a distraction on Labor Day and headed over from Jensen Beach … Recommend you get there in time for the 11am or 1 pm boat tour … Earlier and later you won’t see turtles or manatees … But it’s worth the trip … Though the stop at TrapperJohn’s dock and chickie shack raises more questions than it answers … Nevertheless, kudos to the state of Florida for preserving this excellent landscape and heritage site! Don’t hesitate to go.

Awesome park! We camp all the time, everywhere and this is one of the cleanest, funnest park’s we have been to. We mountain bike a lot so this park was great for my husband and I! The trails are super fun even for the well seasoned biker. They are Well marked and never ending. We stayed for 4 days and didn’t even come close to trying all the trails out there! We also did the river cruise to trapper Nelson’s which was really interesting. I suggest reading the book first on sale at the store or at least googling him so you have an idea about this very interesting character before you go on the cruise. We will be back very soon! Very friendly staff as well!

This state park has it all! A historical boat tour, kayaking, canoeing, skiff boat rentals (all for a reasonable price), mountain bike trails, hiking trails, cabins, camping, boat ramp, a shady picnic area and even a nice new educational center make JDSP worth a day trip and definitely worth a whole weekend.
Due to some serious winds, we opted for the boat tour on the Loxahatchee River over to Trapper Nelson’s property. We saw manatee, a baby gator, an osprey and of course your gratuitous mullet flip-​flopping out of the water. We were met at the Trapper Nelson site by the State Park Ranger-​Historian. He led us around the site, through cabins and shared with us some pretty great stories about Trapper Nelson and the history of the land and how is was acquired and eventually preserved to become the state park.
After our boat tour, we picnicked in a shady area and were greeted by squirrels, blue jays and a red-​bellied woodpecker, who were (I swear) begging for food! This is a first for me, I have never actually seen a woodpecker (of any variety) beg for food — squirrels, blue jays yeah, but woodpeckers??? Please don’t feed the animals Unilocalies. Once we were fueled up, we hit some of the paved bike trails, then rode around the park and checked out the sights. On the way out we hit the Hobe Mountain observation deck. This is pretty great since it is the highest point in South Florida. There’s a lovely view and the breeze can’t be beat. You can gaze over the Intercostal to the Atlantic, then look west and see just how freaking flat Florida is!
Great park, great activities. Check it out y’all!

Our initial stay was supposed to only be five days, but after two days, we fell in love and extended our stay to the maximum of 14 days. We had to move our campsite, but as it turns out that was good as our new spot was better.
The campground was 100% full our entire stay. There may have been one space free one night, but that was it. We had full hookups, power, sewer, and water and they were placed thoughtfully. It appears the park was recently redone and it is VERY clean and VERY well maintained.
There is a great playground for the kids and miles of pathways for dog walks. The RV spaces were spacious and gave us appropriate distance to our neighbors.
Would I recommend this park? Absolutely. Would we come back? Absolutely
Informational: We travel in a 36′ Class A RV.

3.5 Stars.
Our site was right next to the bathroom. Not their fault at all but still had to take away a star for that. All of the camp sites are right on top of each other and their is little to no natural privacy.
There was an orchid show happening during the day which was nice. Lots of unique orchids.
Some of the hiking trails were flooded. The ones we went on were near the canoe launch. Not much foliage for cover from the sun but it was still nice.
Tip: bring your own firewood. The firewood they sell in the camp store is wet and quite some trouble catching fire. It just sits in the fire and hisses. The firewood we got from Publix near by was the exact opposite and burned really quickly.
We will return.

Great place to take kids and make a day of it, one of the few places that really are in this area that rate high for that…

We took a trip to Jonathan Dickinson State Park a few months ago and arrived during a stormy episode.
I believe the lady at the entrance thought we were out of our minds to set up our camping gear during this weather. To tell the truth we waited a bit so it was not that bad.
Once you arrive and get a map, you need to find your camping spot. It is a long drive from the park entrance and can be unsettling if you arrive at night like us.
The park is nice, lots of space for RVs and tents, a visitor center, canoe/​kayak/​bike rental shop, tours with park rangers… Of course if you are more a dining out person you can go to Jupiter and go to the restaurant, and avoid a wet bbq or raccoons eating you food.
Yes there is wildlife. Raccons, squirrels, manatees, birds of every kind, fishes…
It is a nice camping spot for families, close to the beach and the city and affordable.