Florida National Scenic Trail Permit

No single permit covers the whole Florida Trail. It crosses more than 30 different land managers, and a handful of them require their own paperwork: a free hold-harmless release to cross the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, a paid Eglin Air Force Base recreation permit plus a camping permit for the panhandle section, and a written camping permit from St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge if you're staying overnight there. Most of the rest of the trail, including all of Big Cypress National Preserve itself, needs no permit at all.

Not anymore. The National Park Service dropped the backcountry permit requirement for Big Cypress in 2025. You can camp for free anywhere in the backcountry as long as you're at least a half mile from roads, buildings, or an official campground. The one exception inside the same stretch is the Seminole Reservation crossing, which still needs its own hold-harmless release and allows no camping at all.

Every hiker 16 or older needs an Eglin Recreation/Fishing Permit, sold through the iSportsman system for $5 a day or $30 a year, plus a separate camping permit if you're staying overnight. If you're starting your hike more than 50 miles outside the reservation, call Jackson Guard at 850-882-4165 first for special permitting. Check the Public Access Map before you go in; the base closes sections for live testing with almost no warning.

Download the General Release and Covenant Not to Sue form from the Florida Trail Association's Thru-Hiker Guide. Have it witnessed, and if you live in Florida, get it notarized too. Keep a copy on you while you hike and mail the signed original to the Seminole Tribe of Florida at the address printed on the form, before you start. There's no camping allowed on Reservation land, so plan to camp at Nobles Camp or another approved site just before you cross and walk straight through.

The Florida Trail Association says a typical thru-hiker takes two to three months to cover the whole route. Most people hike it in winter, since summer brings brutal heat, mosquitoes, and afternoon thunderstorms, and much of the trail through the panhandle and central swamps is genuinely hard to walk when it's hot.

Alligators live in nearly every wet stretch of the trail, especially Big Cypress, and you will see them. They're a real hazard if you get careless around water, but attacks on hikers are rare; give them space, don't camp right at the water's edge, and don't feed them. The bigger day-to-day risks on this trail are heat, dehydration, and simply not having water when the swamps run dry in winter.

Yes. Much of the trail crosses public hunting land, and general gun season for deer runs through the exact months most thru-hikers are out there. Wear a blaze-orange hat and vest anytime you're on a wildlife management area, state forest, or national forest section during hunting season, and check each land manager's dates before you go, since they're not the same trail-wide.

Big Cypress National Preserve is the sharpest example: the National Park Service says there may be very little to no water along the trail there during the dry season, which runs November through April. Carry more water capacity than you think you need through the swamp sections in winter, and check current conditions before you commit to a stretch with no resupply.