Ernest Coe Campground

I’m writing this as I listen to barred owls duetting while the sun sets over the Everglades, one of my favorite places on Earth. I have had my heart set on backpacking here for a couple years now; when I was last able to come— March 2023— the Old Ingraham Highway was closed for repair, not to reopen until June. When I came in to the Park yesterday, I checked at the Ernest F Coe visitors’ center, and the staff there was unable to give me any conclusive answers. No problem, I went to Flamingo. The ranger there was very knowledgeable and helpful. We tried to figure out how to make an online reservation, but it was not working. She eventually just wrote out a permit on paper and filed it. I asked for a copy to put in my dashboard for any ranging rangers to look at. I did not have to pay for the backcountry permit, or anything! To access Ernest Coe, park at Gate 15, which is at the end of the gravel road that spurs off from Royal Palm. Here are the coörds: (25.37479, -80.62223). The hike in is pretty easy: the road is flat and straight, and there is no mistaking it: a crumbling limestone bed barely raised above the endless marshes on either side. You will pass through several hammocks and over some ridged drainage pipes. The road will eventually curve due West, and that’s when you know you’re close! Just three more drainage mounds, and you’re there! Ernest Coe is a small patch of waterlogged grass, tucked into a hammock on the right side of the trail. You will be able to see the sign at the far end of it. Please note: the old Highway was incredibly boggy, and I would recommend wearing muck boots. You can try to track along the side of the road, but then you’d be running through Poisonwood. I’d rather have waterlogged shoes than urushiol rash! I saw one good-sized alligator fairly close to the Gate, and I’m pretty sure another was heard splashing into the water just a little ways down from Ernest Coe. Also, a red-shouldered hawk picked off a Florida Cottonmouth, or half of it, from a big puddle I was about to tromp through (instead of risk Poisonwood exposure). Please be careful as you make your way down! I did, however, have service all the way down and at Ernest Coe (I use AT&T). Ernest Coe/Old Ingraham Highway is a magnificent place to commune with and delight in the natural world! 2 pairs of sandhill cranes just flew over, trumpeting. A yellow-rumped warbler calls from the Myrtle it’s working, as the insects come out to bite.

I wrote a review here but Google Maps erased it for some reason when I was re-reading it a few months after writing it. I’ll try to recreate it from memory. This campsite is being decommissioned by NPS, and they are no longer including it in new materials and maps. It was built on a 1923 Flamingo Highway attempt and they are letting it grow over. No one cuts back the overgrowth, especially after Ernest Coe. It is about 8-12 miles of a straight line walk through the Florida sun without any shade the entire way. There is a big “mountain” about 4 miles in that may have been some kind of logging site. The path is a limestone/gravel road that it one-lane wide for 1920s cars. It passes through three or five of these very dark and spooky and quiet overgrowth marshes which are eerie. There is no signal the entire way. As the “least popular” campsite in all of the Everglades, there is an abundance of animal interactions here as humans are so rare. When I went, in February 2022, the NPS office said I was one of only three people that had camped here in the last three years, and that I would probably be the last one to ever camp here as they are decomming it. It is probably overgrown now. The actual campsite is just a patch of grass. The highway is unavigable after it. There were ATV/4-wheeler tracks that deformed the grass but I kind of stomped them down. To access the path, you have to go around a couple very weird and unmarked paths. Or, worse, marked paths that are actually not present. Then you have to enter in through the final gate. I don’t remember what number. You will know when you see a faded informational sign about “Flamingo Highway 1923”. Good luck!