Approximate schematic, not Rockstar's map. Full map guide
On this page
Grassrivers is where Leonida turns to water and sawgrass. You cross it by airboat, hunt gators in it, and use its channels to lose the police, and its edge comes right up to Vice City. It is also home to Watson Bay, the town where the Ultimate Edition parks its Paradise Garage.
What you can do in Grassrivers
- Drive airboats. Rockstar’s caption for its top-down screenshot describes two people in an airboat surrounded by alligators, one aiming a gun at the one closest to him. Official
- Hunt. Gator hunting is in the Extended Look, and Rockstar’s caption for another screenshot describes three mud-covered people posing on an airboat with a dead alligator and a wildcat, one with an automatic weapon against his leg and another holding a rifle. Previews say hunting is tied to one of Jason’s contacts and can earn money (reported). See hunting in GTA 6. Official
- Run from the police. In one official screenshot a helicopter and two police cars chase a pickup truck through the swamp, gators and all, with an airboat behind them. See the wanted level explainer. Official
- Stash and fence. The Ultimate Edition’s Paradise Garage in Watson Bay has a weapon locker and a secure drop for stolen goods to be fenced. Official
Where it is and how to get there
Grassrivers fills the wet ground west of Vice City, between the city, the Leonida Keys and, on community maps, Lake Leonida to the north. The wetlands run right up to the city: Rockstar’s screenshot of a speedboat heading for buildings on piers has the Vice City skyline in the distance.
Roads are few. Airboats and boats do most of the work, and community mapping runs Interstate 404 across the region toward the Gulf coast. Community wikis place Watson Bay on that Gulf side and put the region in Mariana County, a name read from a Trailer 2 highway sign (reported).
Rockstar’s description
“The untamable jewel of Leonida’s crown,” runs Rockstar’s headline, under the tagline “Welcome to the Wetlands.” The text warns that you never know what lies beneath the surface: the gators may be the famous part, but there are “far deadlier predators and weirder discoveries among the mangroves.” Read that as a promise of human threats and the strange side content Rockstar likes to hide in its wilderness.
Real-world inspiration
Grassrivers is the Everglades. The name echoes the swamp’s old nickname, the River of Grass, which Marjory Stoneman Douglas made famous with her 1947 book. Airboat tours, mangrove tunnels and roadside gator attractions are all real Everglades fixtures, and fans spotted a Flamingo Visitor Center analog in the Extended Look. The real Everglades are fed from Lake Okeechobee to the north, and Lake Leonida appears to play the same role in the game.
Fans read the name Watson Bay as a nod to Edgar J. Watson, the Chokoloskee-area planter whose neighbors shot him in 1910. That is a fan reading, not something Rockstar has said.
What we have seen
Trailer 1 included an airboat crossing open water. The Extended Look’s activity montage included airboat driving and gator hunting and showed mangrove tunnels and airboat police working the channels. Rockstar’s Grassrivers screenshots show a rusting trailer park that community wikis call Sunrise RV Park. The hunters’ airboat carries “AIRGATOR” and “AIRBOAT 09” on the panel at the top of its propeller cage, behind the high seat; that is lettering on the boat itself, not the sign of a business. Community wikis read Airgator as the boat’s maker. Rumor
The airboat itself looks like a real Panther airboat. Fan databases list it as the Vortex, a name that belonged to the hovercraft in GTA San Andreas. Rockstar has not named it, so treat the in-game name as a guess.
Wildlife in official material: alligators everywhere, and the dead wildcat on the hunters’ airboat, which fans read as a bobcat or a Florida panther. Snakes are a fan spot so far. Manatees are unconfirmed: the recap site Postmode noticed one printed on Jason’s shirt and says some also appear in the water later in the Extended Look, but no other recap mentions them and nobody places them in the wetlands. The animals list tracks every species.
Named places
| Name | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Grassrivers | Official region name | Official |
| Watson Bay | Town named in Ultimate Edition copy; placed here by community wikis | Official |
| Paradise Garage | Ultimate Edition garage in Watson Bay | Official |
| Lake Leonida | Central lake named in edition copy; north of the wetlands on community maps | Official |
| Sunrise RV Park | Rusting trailer park in an official screenshot | Reported |
| Mariana County | County name from a Trailer 2 sign | Reported |
| Visitor center | Flamingo Visitor Center lookalike | Rumor |
Story ties
No official bio places a character in Grassrivers, but Brian Heder’s reach shows up: in one of Rockstar’s screenshots a seaplane with Brian’s Boat Works branding is moored at a wetland jetty with the Vice City skyline behind it. That fits his line on Rockstar’s site, “I hauled so much grass in that plane, I could make the state of Leonida levitate.” Our reading is that the wetlands are a smuggling corridor between the Keys and the rest of the state, so expect missions to pass through rather than live here.
What is rumored
The 2022 breach and the August 2026 leaked map added a remote airstrip and a skunk ape sighting, a nod to Florida’s real swamp-cryptid legend. Rockstar’s line about “weirder discoveries” keeps the cryptid theories going, but nothing is confirmed. See the leaks timeline for context, and the Leonida map for how Grassrivers connects to Ambrosia and the Keys.
Places in Grassrivers
- Sunrise RV Park Landmark reported
Grassrivers in official art and screenshots
Official screenshots of Grassrivers. Tap to enlarge. Image: Rockstar Games.
Frequently asked questions
What is Grassrivers in GTA 6?
Grassrivers is the wetlands region of Leonida, Rockstar's version of the Everglades. Its tagline is "Welcome to the Wetlands" and Rockstar calls it the untamable jewel of Leonida's crown.
Can you drive airboats in GTA 6?
Yes. An airboat appears in Trailer 1, Rockstar's Grassrivers screenshots show airboats among alligators and in a swamp police chase, and airboat driving is part of the Extended Look's activity montage.
Can you hunt alligators in GTA 6?
Yes. Gator hunting appears in the Extended Look, and one of Rockstar's screenshots shows three mud-covered hunters on an airboat with a dead alligator and a dead wildcat. Previews say hunting can earn money (reported).
Where is Watson Bay in GTA 6?
Rockstar's Ultimate Edition copy places the Paradise Garage in Watson Bay but does not say where the town is. Community wikis put it on the Gulf side of Grassrivers, which is a fan placement until the in-game map is out.
Which county is Grassrivers in?
Community wikis say Mariana County, a name read from an Interstate 404 sign in Trailer 2 (about 2:28). Rockstar has not described the county or published a county map, so we tag it reported.
What changed on this page
- Removed Airgator from the named places, since it is lettering on an airboat, and noted that community wikis read it as the boat's maker.
- Added what you can do and where the region sits, Watson Bay and the Paradise Garage, Rockstar's own screenshot captions and wildlife, made the Mariana County status match the map page, and fixed the airboat name trivia (Vortex was San Andreas's hovercraft). Also stopped tying the Sunrise RV Park screenshot to the Extended Look release, since it may belong to Rockstar's earlier Grassrivers set, and gave the manatee sighting its only source. Corrected "Airgator": it is lettering on the hunters' airboat, not a business sign, and added Rockstar's captions for the two airboat screenshots.
