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Site: Dinner Island Ranch Wildlife Management Area
Address: 17781 County Road 833, Clewiston, Florida 33440
Total Area: 21,714 Acres
Camping: Free Primitive Tent and RV. Reservations Required.
Bathouse: No showers, two toilets.
Trail Distances:
Main Loop, only: 16.7 Miles
Total Trail Network: 41.7 Miles
Percent Pavement: 0%
Surfaces: Gravel, Dirt, Grass, Deep Grass, Double Track, Single Track
Wet/Mud Potential: Medium
Overall Difficulty: Easy
Tracks (Click for .gpx Track; viewer required; Note 1)
Main Loop
Total Trail Network
Other Nearby Trails: Okalacoochee Slough WMA, Spirit-of-the-Wild WMA
Nearby Amenities: Fuel north on County Road 833 (10.3 miles); Immokalee, Florida (22.3 miles)
Not exactly food for the Dual Sportists Soul, Dinner Island Ranch WMA ("DIR") offers a light duty, half-day ride suitable for new riders to practice several different surface conditions in a non-technical environment or riders who prefer a low key pace to look at scenery. There's nothing wrong with that and there is certainly a great deal of interesting scenery in the DIR WMA.
The DIR Trail Network consists of a 16.7 mile gravel loop with 13 additional side roads (Road 1-12 and Farm Field Road; see map above) for a total of 41.7 miles. The main loop, while gravel, is heavily compressed. The side roads have a number of different surfaces ranging from gravel to dirt to grass to deep grass. I did not encounter hardly any sand. While I road the trail in the dry season, I did encounter some mud and, of course, wet weather conditions, such as those in the summer, will change that dramatically.
Many of the side roads are dead ends, in-and-out, so the total miles includes some backtracking. The other annoyance (if I can call it that) with the network of side roads is that some are gated. The background on the gates is that the WMA was contributed to the State with certain farming leases that are yet to expire. Bottom line, the gates are to keep the cows in. You must close them behind you and dodge the poop...or if you want just roost it up on the dude behind you. Ha Ha.
The Total Trail Track that I recorded starts at the Hunters Cabin just outside of the camping areas. WMAs are largely used for hunting. It's a good idea to know what seasons are currently in play before rolling in there.
From the Hunters' Cabin I recorded the track in a specific manner as follows to make a lot of the dead ends and gate openings at least seem to go a littler smoother.
Road by road, here is the track and then a series of photos:
- Main Road: ← Dinner Island Grade, West
- Side Road: ↓ Farm Field Road, South (5.4 miles)
- Main Road: ↑ Paradise Pen Grade, North
- Side Road 1 ↔ (1.55 miles)
- Side Road 2 ⤡ (0.60 miles, gate)
- Side Road 3 ↔ (1.50 miles)
- Main Road: → Hilliard Grade, East
- Side Road 6 → (1.25 miles)
- Side Road 6 continues onto Side Road 8 (1.85 miles, 2 gates)
- Side Road 8 ↙ intersects with Paradise Pen Grade, ↑ go north
- Side Road 4 ↔ (2.00 miles)
- Side Road 5 ↔ (2.05 miles)
- Main Road: → Hilliard Grade Road, East
- Side Road 11 ↕ (1.20 miles, gate)
- Side Road 7/9 ↕ (1.55 miles)
- Main Road: → Dinner Island Grade East
- Side Road 10 ↕ (3.15 miles, gate)
- Side Road 12 ↕ (1.7 miles)
- Main Road: → Dinner Island Grade, East
When I say "grass" ↑ that's what I mean.
When I say "deep grass" ↓ this is what I mean.
Yeah, Road 2 could stand for some more use. It's actually a hard surface and just really deep grass. I road all over the place back in there and never hit or bounced off anything.
The only serious mud I encountered was on Side Road 6 in three or four spots including this one. It was clear that vehicles had churned it up trying to get though. On two wheels, it's easy to circumnavigate on either side.
A lot of the trails have these bunches of grass. They're not hard such that you bounce off them, but they do pose a navigation issue to be aware of.
Very, very nice canal network in the WMA. It starts on Hilliard Grade at Road 6 and goes all the way to Road 11. Fishing is allowed...but I didn't catch anything. 😐
Even the trials guys have a playground in the WMA.
Some of the dilapidated farm facilities.
Back at the campsites.
One thing that you might consider is running the Main Loop at the beginning of the Total Trail Network and then, again, at the end. The main loop is a nice hard road, some loose gravel, some very tight corners (keep your eye on the road or slow way down). I like riding roads like that. Anyway, doing that will increase your ride from 41.7 miles to 75.1 miles.
Another possibility is to combine DIR with two other forests in the area, one being the Okaloacoochee WMA and the other Spirit-of-the-Wild WMA.
No matter how you do it, enjoy the Dinner Island Ranch WMA!
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Note 1: The track recordings linked in the post were made near the date of post. There can't be any assurance that the trail network's navigability will be the same beyond that date. Weather conditions in particular could make certain of the track sections impassable and, on the other hand, may open sections of the track that were not passable when we made the recording. In addition, it's rather important to keep a keen eye on signage as there maybe issues that the park rangers want users of the park to consider or comply with.
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