Getting here is the kind of drive people make a day of by itself. The Ozello Trail winds about ten miles off US 19 through hardwood swamp and open salt marsh, somewhere north of fifty turns by one old count, before it crosses a causeway and dead-ends at the boat ramp on Pirate's Point. The town at the end is a couple hundred people on a chain of marsh islands you could only reach by boat until 1961. Local lore, and a genuine Ripley's Believe It or Not entry, has it that the two sides of the river could not agree which bank to build a school on, so they put the schoolhouse on a shell mound in the middle and the kids rowed to class. On the water it is a maze of tidal creeks, oyster bars, and mangrove keys inside the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve. It is gorgeous and it is easy to get turned around out there, so bring a GPS or a chart and mind your tide. The ramp is primitive, just a launch, a shaded picnic spot, and a single portable toilet, but the sunset off the point is the real amenity.
Where do I park, and is it free?
- Cost
- Free
- Parking
- Moderate
- Restrooms
- portable
- Dogs
- Leashed dogs welcome
Free county park launch into the Ozello backwater. Basic facilities.
How clear is the water?
Tannic backwater, shallow flats at low water.
What will I see?
- Manatees move into the warmer creeks through the cold months
- Roseate spoonbills and wood storks on the flats, ospreys and kingfishers over the marsh
What's the fishing like?
Mangrove backwater: redfish and snook tucked in the channels, trout on the flats at higher water.
How do I share the water here?
All of this water is the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve, and the flats under you are seagrass and oyster bar. Stay in the deeper creeks at low tide instead of dragging across the grass, and give the oyster bars room, they will open up a hull or a shin in a hurry.
See how it scores before you drive out.
Check Ozello Community Park on the live map