Camping at Oscar Scherer State Park, Nokomis, Florida

We headed south to spend a night at Oscar Scherer State Park in Nokomis, Florida (south of Sarasota, north of Venice).  This is a popular park with a very large campground – so if you’re looking to camp during the prime Florida months (say November through March) it’s probably best to get your reservation early.  It’s a great park, so definitely worth a visit.

Park Details

Address: Oscar Scherer State Park, Nokomis, FL 34275

Phone: (941) 483-5956

Open 24 hours

A fire burn is in place for a good portion of Florida – campfires were prohibited when we visited in late February 2026.

Campsite Details

We stayed in campsite #31.  This is an ADA site, but was the only site available so we booked it and stayed for the one night.  This ADA site was paved and across the street from the ‘nice’ bath house.  I am not certain why it is called the ‘nice’ bath house but it did seem to have a few upgrades from the other bath houses.  Tile, flooring, etc kinds of things.

Water/Electric (has dump station)

30 and 50 amp electric

Picnic table, Fire ring

Back in sites

Some shade/paved area for the RV

Bathrooms/showers – at least 3 bath houses throughout the campground

Check-in is 3pm

Checkout is 1pm

Quiet hours from 11pm till 7am

First Hike

We met up with a friend that was camping there and took a walk over to a small lake called Lake Osprey.  This is a nice walk through part of the campground, across the south creek and then around the lake.  While it is not all paved, it is well maintained.

Lake Osprey Trail - .25 mile fully accessible trail that circles Lake Osprey.

The creek that separates the campground from the day use areas.

Early Morning walk

The dogs and I took off for an early morning walk on our first (and only) morning there at the park.  We wandered back over the bridge across the creek which is apparently tidal and the water was very low this morning.  The dogs spotted a trail over to our left and we were off and walking for a while along the creek.  The trail is called South Creek Nature Trail (hikers only, no bicycles).  This is a .5 mile, self guided trail that can be accessed from the Lake Osprey area (where we caught this trail) or South Creek Picnic areas.  The trail is mostly shady and goes along South Creek.

Biking and finding the Florida Scrub Jay

This park has several areas that you can bicycle – many of the trails are sandy and they do not allow bicycles, so check the trail map before heading out if you want to bike.

Amanda, our friend, and I decided to catch the legacy trail that was paved and on the outskirts of the park. We biked over to Osprey Lake area, then caught this for our bike ride.  We went left to the Osprey Junction Trailhead.  The entire 1.4 miles before we turned around and rode the bikes about 2 miles at which point, I was pretty much done as I was riding one of Amanda's bikes and it wasn't quite what I was used to.

A rare photograph of me!  Courtesy of Amanda.

We travelled just a short distance before I spotted a single Florida Scrub Jay in the trees to our left.  I stopped and took several photographs of this beautiful bird.  Florida scrub jay is a rare bird and exists only in the state of Florida - I got the privilege of photographing this bird at the beginning of our bicycle ride. Per Google, there are fewer than 10,000 of these birds still alive (2023).

Dogs Modeling for us

Our dogs are kinda used to this although it has been a little while since we had them do a 'modeling' job for us.

Rue

Rue

Ollie

Ollie

Abby kinda got 'photo bombed' because she didn't get a photograph by herself - instead the little girls joined her.

And their friend, Romeo joined in for some of this fun too.

A few casual moments in the camper.....

Map

Included are a copy of the map received upon check-in and a copy of the trail information.