Picnic area · Everglades National Park
A pine rockland picnic stop with lakeside tables and a short trail.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Everglades Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Everglades National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Everglades audio tourRecorded for this place
Long Pine Key: Lunch by the Lake“You're approaching the picnic and camping area at Long Pine Key, a good place to stop for lunch by the lake.”
Plays as you drive up to Long Pine Key Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Everglades Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Long Pine Key Picnic Area is a day-use picnic stop in the park's pine rocklands, with tables scattered along a short access road around a small lake. At the fork by the lake, take the right branch for the picnic area; the left branch leads to the separate Long Pine Key Campground.
Two roadside clusters have two or three tables each. The road ends at a lakeside loop with six more tables, and another pair sits down a path from the last parking lot. All are first come, first served, so keep going to the loop if you want a table by the water. The loop also gives larger RVs room to turn around. Two restrooms are reported along the road.
A half-mile Three-in-One loop takes you through tropical hammock and back to the lakeshore, making this an easy picnic stop to pair with a short walk.
Long Pine Key sits on the Miami Rock Ridge, a limestone upland rising above the surrounding wetlands. Its pine rocklands are a rare South Florida habitat that once extended north to North Miami; only scattered examples remain outside the park.
Wildlife
15 sightingsMountain LionMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
1,429 sightingsWest Indian ManateeMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
4,397 sightingsAlligatorMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
1,672 sightingsCrocodileMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
42 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
15 sightingsBobcatMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Everglades. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyThree-in-One Trail0.6 mi · 30 min · 0.1 mi awayThree habitats and a lakeshore return in one easy loop
ModerateLong Pine Key Nature Trail7 mi · 3 hr · 0.4 mi awayA rocky seven-mile route through pine rockland to Pine Glades Lake.
EasyPinelands Trail0.4 mi · 18 min · 2.1 mi awayA short paved loop through rare South Florida pine rockland.
EasyAnhinga Trail0.8 mi · 45 min · 3.3 mi awayA short boardwalk where alligators and waterbirds steal the show.
EasyGumbo Limbo Trail0.4 mi · 24 min · 3.3 mi awayA shady paved loop over limestone solution holes.
Campground · 0.2 mi awayLong Pine Key CampgroundA seasonal base among tall pines with hot showers.
Sight · 2.6 mi awayHistoric Nike Missile Site HM-69A real Nike missile sits inside its own launch barn.
Visitor center · 3.3 mi awayRoyal Palm Information Station and BookstoreAn easy wetland boardwalk and a shady hammock walk start here.
Entrance station · 4.3 mi awayHomestead Entrance StationPasses, maps, and permits at the start of the drive.
Visitor center · 4.8 mi awayErnest F. Coe Visitor CenterGet a ranger’s help before you commit to the park’s long drives.
Sight · 4.9 mi awayEverglades National Park Main Entrance SignA stone welcome sign marks mile zero of the drive south.Parkwolf’s Everglades ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
