Camping at Ochlockonee River State Park, Sopchoppy, Florida - April 2026

Our last stop on this trip was at Ochlockonee River State Park located in Sopchoppy, Florida.  If you have never heard of it, don’t feel bad because neither had I and I’ve lived here all my life – and done some travelling throughout Florida.  This little spot is near the Apalachee Bay.  Still lost? (you might need a map) but it’s on the west coast, in the ‘bend area’ of Florida’s pan handle.

If you want to see dark skies like you might never have seen in Florida – this is a great place to check out.  Unspoiled Florida, pretty remote, and make sure you have all the food, drink, etc you want because there isn’t much nearby.

Park Details

Address: 429 State Park Road, Sopchoppy Highway, Sopchoppy, Florida

Phone: 850-962-2771

Open 8am until 7:15pm (at this time of year)

Campsite Details

We stayed in campsite #30.  This campsite was not real large, but big enough for us with our 17 foot teardrop.  The site was shady.  The odd thing about this site is that is has a fair amount of width, no one on the left side but someone fairly close on the backside.

Water/Electric (has dump station)

30 amp

Picnic table, Fire ring (fire ban in Florida right now)

Back in sites

Shady

Bathrooms/showers

Check-in is 3pm

Checkout is 1pm

Quiet hours from 11pm till 7am

Verizon cell service was good

First Hike

Our first walk after setting up camp was short as the sun was setting.  A familiar park, so we headed down the road past the campground.  Our dogs must have been getting tired, as they did a functional walk instead of an exploration walk.  Nice sunset through all the pine trees.

After giving the dogs a walk and now they are relaxing, the park ranger saw me out photographing the sunset and asked “Do you know about the white deer?”  No, I didn’t – I’m interested, but the light is fading fast.  She said it was down by the boat ramp – so I took a short ride to see whether I would get lucky.  Interesting Park – they have white squirrels and white deer?

By the time I got down towards the boat ramp (a very short drive) the white deer had crossed the road and wasn’t in the best spot for taking photographs. 

I saw the park ranger again and she said that the trail over there was a driving trail.  My first question – “For you? Or for me?” – for both so that was our early morning ‘drive’ the next day before we headed out.

Early Morning Drive

We got up and moving fairly early the next day so that we could spend a little time enjoying the park before heading back home.  The dogs are always ready to go by daylight – sometimes before daylight.

After the dogs got a chance to walk, we decided to take the drive the ranger mentioned.  Luck was on our side. Just a short distance into the drive down the road, we saw several deer.

Then we spotted the white deer – so cool.  The deer is actually not 100% white, but instead is almost all white with some brown near the head.  Well, that is probably one of the must unique things I have ever seen.

We started across from the road that goes to the boat ramp.  The drive is only 1 car wide, so not exactly sure what we would have done should anyone else have the same idea from the opposite end, but thankfully we didn’t have that issue.

We continued along the drive but didn’t see much until near the end when we spotted another cluster of deer (normal brown ones this time).

Then after completing the drive, we decided to check out the various campsites and see which ones we might want to camp in for future visits.  And so cool, we found a white squirrel in the campground busy having breakfast with his normal brown squirrel buddy.  This time we saw the squirrel near campsite #18.  Last year when we visited I saw one in front of the bath house near campsite #24.

The woodpecker

Jim had the long lens on his camera and was able to capture a few nice photographs of this wood pecker in the pine trees.  This particular one I have not seen in our area, so it was unique to see for us.

Ochlockonee Nature Trail

Our last walk at this park was just Ollie, Rue and I.  Jim and Abby decided to take a relaxing break while we headed off to appease Ollie and I (Rue came for the walk only) in seeing what the trail was about.

In reviewing the map, it looks like this is a connector trail to the River Trail, but doesn't matter - it's a nice walk and Ollie is thrilled to get a chance to explore so along Rue and I behind Ollie.

The trail lead to the river's edge.  I could see Abby enjoying a dip if she had come along with us.

And I guess humans could also go - but be brave because I am sure their are alligators even if we didn't see any.  Just about every Florida river and lake probably has at least one.

We came across a 'normal' gray squirrel eating breakfast.

And eventually we walked back into the campground near the backside of the bath house concluding our walk (Ollie wasn't happy, but we needed to get on the road soon).

Our Dogs

MAPS

For the first blog post of our visit to this park, click here.

To view all the photographs from this stop, click here.