St. Lucie South Campground and Marina

Miles Traveled 0

Total Miles Traveled 2424

Day 181

Our course yesterday took us from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) at St. Lucie Inlet, on the Okeechobee Waterway following the St. Lucie River southwestward to South Fork, where it enters the St. Lucie Canal.  After entering the St. Lucie Canal, we continued generally west southwestward to the St Lucie Lock, a distance of about 15 miles from the ICW.  We are staying a few days at a very quiet, clean, and well maintained park located just past the lock.  The lock, campground, and marina are maintained and operated by the Corp of Engineers.

The Okeechobee Waterway is a man-made waterway stretching across Florida from Fort Myers on the west coast to Stuart on the east coast of Florida. The waterway runs through Lake Okeechobee and consists of the Caloosahatchee River to the west of the lake and the St. Lucie Canal east of the lake.

Lake Okeechobee locally referred to as "The Lake", "Florida's Inland Sea", or "The Big O", is the largest freshwater lake in the state of Florida. It is the seventh largest freshwater lake in the United States and the second largest freshwater lake (the largest being Lake Michigan) contained entirely within the contiguous 48 states.  However, it is the largest freshwater lake completely within a single one of the lower 48 states. Okeechobee covers 730 square miles, approximately half the size of the state of Rhode Island and is exceptionally shallow for a lake of its size, with an average depth of only 9 feet. The lake is divided between Glades, Okeechobee, Martin, Palm Beach, and Hendry counties. All five counties meet at one point near the center of the lake.