Cross Creek RV Resort

On the Peace River in Arcadia at the heart of DeSoto County's ranch and citrus country, Cross Creek RV Resort has earned one of the rarest distinctions in North American campground quality—a Good Sam 10/10/10 rating, one of only six resorts in all of Florida to achieve the scoring system's perfect marks for facilities, restrooms, and visual appeal. The resort's 50-amp full-hookup sites measuring at least 38 by 75 feet, two swimming pools, spa, boat launch, fishing docks, miniature golf, and the Peace River frontage that places guests on one of Florida's most famous fossil hunting rivers create a resort experience that the Peace River valley's unique prehistoric heritage makes genuinely irreplaceable in the broader Florida campground landscape. All full-hookup sites feature 50-amp electric, water, sewer, cable TV, and Wi-Fi on pads at least 38 by 75 feet—large enough to accommodate the widest and longest rigs on the road today with room for double slide-outs and full outdoor setup. Riverfront and waterfront site configurations give the most desirable locations direct Peace River access, and the boat launch and fishing docks provide the on-water infrastructure for guests who want to explore the river by canoe, kayak, or powerboat. Two pools, a spa, miniature golf, shuffleboard, bocce ball, basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, a dog park, camp store, pavilion, recreation hall, and planned activities complete one of the most comprehensive resort amenity packages in southwest Florida. The Peace River, flowing past the resort's waterfront sites southward through DeSoto, Hardee, and Charlotte Counties to the tidal estuary at Charlotte Harbor, is one of Florida's most paleontologically significant river systems—a shallow, dark-water river whose acidic sediments have preserved Ice Age megafauna fossils in extraordinary condition for millions of years. Fossil hunters wade the Peace River's gravel bars and shallow bottom in search of mastodon teeth, giant ground sloth bones, megalodon shark teeth, and the remains of Pleistocene horses and camels that accumulated in the river's prehistoric shoreline environments when south Florida was dry savanna during the ice ages. Guided fossil hunting excursions from Arcadia give campground guests professional interpretation that transforms fossil hunting from a lucky find into an educational introduction to Florida's extraordinary prehistoric fauna. Arcadia, the DeSoto County seat, maintains the western flavor of Central Florida's ranch country in its historic downtown and the All-Florida Championship Rodeo—one of Florida's oldest and most authentic rodeos, held each spring and fall in a county that still runs cattle on the flatwoods and palmetto prairies covering DeSoto County's undeveloped interior. Myakka River State Park, about 30 miles northwest, provides one of Florida's premier wildlife watching destinations with resident alligators, Florida sandhill cranes, and the roseate spoonbill and wood stork nesting colonies that make the Myakka River marshes one of the state's most biologically productive wetland habitats. Sarasota, with world-class arts institutions and the Gulf beaches of Siesta Key and Lido Key, lies 50 miles northwest. The Peace River valley's subtropical climate supports year-round camping at Cross Creek, with the winter season from November through April drawing the largest concentration of snowbird guests who fill the resort's riverfront and waterfront sites for weeks and months at a time in south-central Florida's mild winter conditions. Fossil hunting is most productive after summer rains have washed new material from the river banks, making the late summer and early fall months—when the Peace River's thunderstorm season has freshly eroded the gravel bars—the most rewarding time for a fossil hunting visit. Reserve riverfront sites well ahead for the peak winter season when the resort's 10/10/10 reputation and Peace River location create demand that the limited number of prime waterfront sites cannot satisfy through the most popular weeks.