On a scale accessible to backpackers and trail runners only, this intense immersion in liquid landscapes that make up the Northern Everglades is not for the timid.
It’s a place where pines and cypress grow side by side, and colorful bromeliads dangle at face-level in a place where ancient cultures left their mark.
Massive alligators guard water sources in ponds and canals, and herds of deer roam grassy savannas. Up for the challenge? Read on.
In tall grasses under the pinesOur Florida Trail Books & Guides
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Overview
Location: Indiantown
Length: 9.9 miles linear
Trailhead: 27.000700, -80.552696
Address: 23500 SW Kanner Highway, Canal Point
Fees: Free
Restroom: None
Land manager: South Florida Water Management District
Phone: 561-924-5310
Open 24 hours. The three primitive campsites along this trail require no permits. A water filter is a must. Insect repellent recommended.
Managed jointly with Florida Fish & Wildlife, both DuPuis and Corbett are busy hunting destinations during all hunting seasons. Check ahead before your hike.
If hiking during hunting season, wear bright orange clothing or an orange pack cover.
Directions
To reach the start of this hike, you’ll either backpack in from the NENA trailhead (see the previous Ocean to Lake segment) or on the DuPuis WMA loop. From Interstate 95 southbound, take exit 101, Stuart. Follow SR 76 west for 21 miles to the Gate 2 on the left. Alternatively, if you have a special use license to drive within DuPuis WMA, use Gate 3.
Hike
This 9.9 mile hike starts at DuPuis Loop 4 campsite. To get here, you’ll either hike in 8.7 miles from NENA trailhead or 7.2 to 8 miles from the DuPuis WMA trailheads.
Abandoning the comfort of camp can be tough in the morning. Leaving the picnic tables to return to the orange-blazed trail, turn left to follow the blazes.
Misty morning at Loop 4 campsiteA slender ditch parallels in the woods. After 0.3 mile reach the bottom of the 4W loop trail system of DuPuis connecting with the west end of the DuPuis/Corbett Connector trail.
Ignore the white blazes and stay with the orange ones. Cross a culvert and continue following orange blazes along the connector trail into the pine-palm flatwoods.
Along the first mile, the trail is very relaxed and pleasant with a very open understory of scattered cabbage palms and saw palmetto. Then it makes a sharp left and caroms dueeast.
Early morning light in the palms and pinesCrossing a grassy track, there’s a beautiful stand of saw palmettos to the right. The understory is broad and open to the left, with spiderwebs outlined in the morning dew.
A permanent water source is a notable feature at 1.2 miles, a big, broad ditch crossed by a culvert. The trail crosses and turns right to go down a sand road paralleling the water.
Along the sand road, pass a cypress strand on the left. The prairie is a vast sweep to your right. The road transitions from sand to grass underfoot.
Corridor in the saw palmettoA live oak splays its branches above the road to provide shade in a small oak hammock before the trail passes through a low spot in a wetland.
It’s easy to set a pace on this long, straight stretch, so don’t get so focused on walking that you miss the abrupt left turn at 1.6 miles.
Pine flatwoods in DuPuisNarrowing down to a slight track, the trail meanders through the pine flatwoods. A cypress dome is off in the distance.
Dropping through a drainage filled with ferns, continues across a gauntlet of gatorbacks. Wax myrtle, Florida myrtle, and gallberry join patches of saw palmetto amid the prairie grasses. Cross a forest road at 2 miles.
St. Johns WortA long cypress strand parallels on the left. St. John’s Wort shows off yellow blossoms in the prairie. By 2.2 miles, wind into the heart of the pine flatwoods, saw palmetto lining both sides of the footpath.
Hikers in the pine flatwoodsPass a suspended garbage can feeder used to attract deer at 2.9 miles. It’s been there since at least 2004, so it’s a notable landmark.
By 3.1 miles enter a pretty forest of cabbage palms and pines, headed straight towards a cypress strand. A slight jog left has the trail pass through it.
Crossing a firebreak, continue through pine flatwoods. They get soggier with each step, sundews growing along the footpath.
Sundews glistening underfootFollow the edge of an older forest with tall slash pines and a very dense understory of saw palmetto. At 3.7 miles, a large cypress strand sits to the left.
The footpath crosses spots that, if they aren’t wet now, will be sometime during the season.
Crossing a firebreak at 4.2 miles, the trail continues straight ahead on a corridor through tall slash pines with a denser understory.
Walk through mixed cypress and pine, a co-mingling of habitats most evident by the many bromeliads at face level.
A bromeliad in bloomCrossing the next firebreak at 4.5 miles, head straight ahead. The trail quickly makes a jog to the right, out of the cypress. Ascend slightly, adding enough elevation to add cabbage palms to the forest.
Start following the track of a forest road, which the trail soon leaves, heading to the right along a narrow treadway. The footpath hops on the forest road briefly and then crosses it, heading to the left.
Mind the sawgrass growing to shoulder height where the trail passes through a drainage area for a cypress strand at 4.9 miles.
Zigzag through the strand, filled with crooked trunks cradling bromeliads, reach a palm hammock and other beauty spots before and after a forest road crossing.
Rejoining a forest road, there is an obvious depression to the left that, at times, would be a canal with water.
The edge of the sometimes-canalCypresses are both uphill and downhill from the trail, with a cut draining the upper terrace into the canal. At its very end, we found water.
By 5.7 miles, reach the sign for the designated Powerline campsite. A 2019 Eagle Scout project added benches, a picnic table, and places to hang hammocks.
It sits within sight of the canal that divides these two public lands, which is always a reliable water source.
It’s also a swimming hole for large alligators. Don’t be tempted to splash around in it, no matter how hot it is.
The trail turns right and follows the dike paralleling the canal, crossing it over a huge culvert built for a forest road at 5.9 miles.
This is the official end of the connector trail. The culvert is the easiest place to access the canal for water.
Once on the opposite side of the canal, you face the power line easement between the public lands.
Powerline Grade at the land management boundaryTurn left and walk a little ways before the trail turns right to cross the gate into Corbett WMA. If it is locked, you must crawl under it or climb over it.
Above, the high tension power lines hum. Reach the other side of the easement. A sharp right marked on a cabbage palm trunk points down a forest road through a palm hammock.
Watch for sudden changes in the trail’s direction, as it mainly stays off the forest roads. The roads tend to trap deep puddles of water.
Enter the first of many cypress strands to savor over the next hour of hiking. During our trek, they were bone-dry, exposing the cypress knees, making it easier not to trip. Sometimes it’s a wade.
Looking up at the bromeliads and orchids means stubbed toes on cypress knees. Don’t try to speed through this section: enjoy the beauty and walk safely.
Walking among the bromeliadsAt 6.6 miles, slip out of a strand into pine woods. Look up to see how strangely shaped the pine tree limbs are. Bromeliads are so thick they are cling to the pine trees.
Keep alert for sudden shifts in the trail here, too. Dead-ends tempt. Turn sharply right to parallel the road, staying amid the trees. Watch for those orange blazes!
Cross a forest road and a buggy track. The white sands of another forest road parallel to the left before you re-enter the pine woods.
By 6.8 miles, draw close enough to the sand road to see it on the left, but the footpath parallels it through splotches of shade provided by young sand pines.
Crunching over pine cones, emerge onto the sand road at 7 miles. Turn left at the fork. Walk through deep soft sand briefly until the trail turns right into the forest.
Backpackers crossing a forest roadSlash pines tower above at 7.2 miles, with a lower canopy of cabbage palms adding to the cool shade of this section of trail. Cross the sand road again.
At the next forest road intersection, there are watermarks on the surrounding cypress. The trail goes off to the right, working its way to the edge of the forest road to parallel it.
By 7.5 miles, cross another forest road and continue straight into the forest of pines and palms.
Cross two major forest roads over the next half mile, the second a gateway into a garden of bromeliads. This strand has a dense sawgrass in it, which can be painful to brush against.
Poison ivy also pops up inside this cypress strand. The forest is diminutive, very reminiscent of the ancient bald cypress strands of Big Cypress.
Passing a large deer stand by 7.9 miles, continue along an old barbed wire fence. It meets a forest road where the trail turns sharply left.
After crossing the next forest road, enter an open savanna full of spindly, old, small bald cypress, with a cypress dome to the right.
Savanna on the edge of the pinesContinuing through a Seussian forest of wizened bald cypress, reach the next island of pine forest at 8.3 miles.
Cross a forest road and enter the pines. Roots and pine cones supplant the foot-catching cypress knees you’ve become accustomed to.
Crossing two jeep tracks in quick succession, the trail enters a cathedral of pines by 8.7 miles, where the height of the trees around you is awe-inspiring.
After meandering through a cypress dome, cross another two-lane track. Straight ahead, the pines thin out, replaced by cypress. Crossing forest roads becomes a common occurrence.
The landscape yields to a thicket – once a savanna – of tiny cypresses and St. John’s wort, which is soon intruded upon by a ghost forest of charred pine trees.
Rounding a copse of saw palmetto, there are cypresses to the left, cypresses ahead, and a lot of potential widowmakers all around.
Climbing over a berm at 9.3 miles, leave the savanna habitat and enter a forest of tall slash pines.
Pines and palmsCross a forest road. A quarter mile past it is a memorial for a well-loved hunting dog. Maples, hickory, oak, and sweetgum are a sign water is near.
Pop out of the shade to a forest road at 9.7 miles. Crossing the junction keep left to cross the Little Gopher Canal. This is the water source for the campsite ahead.
Passing the slope that hikers use to scoop up good, clear water from the canal, make a sharp turn onto a berm to the left.
Tent tucked in the woods at Little Gopher CampsiteFollow the berm into the woods. It flattens and the trail darts between stands of saw palmetto under the very shady canopy.
Reach the sign for the Little Gopher Campsite at 9.9 miles. Turn right. The fire ring is just beyond the stand of trees, the best campsites off to the right.
Westbound / Eastbound
Florida Trail, Ocean to Lake: DuPuis WMA On this western end of the Ocean-to-Lake section of the Florida Trail, this linear hike leads to the heart of DuPuis Reserve, zigzagging through pine forests and cypress domes. 
Florida Trail, Ocean to Lake: Corbett An 11.7 mile linear hike through a vast watery wilderness comparable to Big Cypress and the Everglades, it's hard to believe this woolly adventure is in Palm Beach County.Trail Map
DuPuis WMA Trail Map. Ocean to Lake Hiking Trail in orange. DuPuis Loops in red.
Explore More!
Learn more about the Ocean to Lake Hiking Trail and DuPuis WMA
Ocean to Lake Hiking Trail A 61-mile spur of the Florida Trail from Port Mayaca on the east side of Lake Okeechobee through forested landscapes to Hobe Sound Beach on the Atlantic Ocean.
DuPuis WMA Explore nearly 22,000 acres of public land near Lake Okeechobee on extensive networks of trails for hikers, cyclists, and equestrians.Slideshow
See our photos from this hike
Nearby Adventures
DuPuis Loops 1 & 2 Explore wetlands that are "for the birds" by day hiking the northernmost portion of the DuPuis Loop Trails.
DuPuis Loop Trail Made up of four stacked loops, the DuPuis Loop Trail lets you tailor your length of hike from 5.3 to 16.5 miles.
Florida Trail, Pahokee to Port Mayaca 11.7 miles. An ocean-like expanse, Lake Okeechobee is open water to the horizon along the long arc between Pahokee and Port Mayaca.
Florida Trail, Port Mayaca to Henry Creek 14 miles. In an arc between ancient natural shoreline and expansive waters, this hike along Lake Okeechobee's eastern shore offers unparalleled vistas.
- Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park - November 3, 2026
- A.J. Henry Park - November 1, 2026
- Okeeheelee Nature Center Trails - October 22, 2026