Hontoon Island State Park

Hontoon Island State Park
IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)


Location	Volusia County, Florida, USA
Nearest city	DeLand, Florida
Coordinates	28°58′01″N 81°21′47″W / 28.96694°N 81.36306°W / 28.96694; -81.36306Coordinates: 28°58′01″N 81°21′47″W / 28.96694°N 81.36306°W / 28.96694; -81.36306
Area	1,648 acres (6.67 km²)
Governing body	Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Hontoon Island State Park is a 1,648-acre (6.67 km²) Florida State Park located on Hontoon Island between the St. Johns River and the Hontoon Dead River in Volusia County. It is six miles (10 km) west of DeLand, off SR 44, and can only be reached by boat or park-operated passenger ferry. No motorized vehicles, other than wheelchairs, are allowed to be brought onto the island and there is no swimming. The island has pine flatwoods, palm and oak hammocks, bald cypress swamps and marshes. Hontoon Island is surrounded by the St. Johns River, the Hontoon Dead River, and Snake Creek.

Activities include horseshoes, cycling, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing, as well as hiking, camping, picnicking, and nature viewing and photography. The island can be circumnavigated with a nine and a half-mile (14 km) day trip; Blue Spring State Park is a short paddle up the St. Johns (3.5 miles) one way. Amenities include canoe rentals, bike paths, eleven tent sites and six rustic cabins. The park also has overnight boat slip rentals, playground equipment, picnic tables, and a 3.4-mile (5.5 km) nature trail. The park has a lending library with picture books for children aged four to nine. The park is open from 8:00 am till one hour before sunset year-round.

Snake Creek, which forms the southern boundary of the island

Rentals

Bicycle rentals are $6 per hour or $15 all day. Canoe and kayak rentals are $20 for up to four hours and $40 all day. All rentals must be returned by 5 p.m. There are no refunds for inclement weather. Tent sites and marina slips rent for $18 per night. Four-person cabins rent for $30 per night and six-person cabins rent for $35 per night.

The Timucuan Indians were the first inhabitants of Hontoon Island. Evidence of their presence can be seen by a large shell mound that still exist at the end of the Hammock Trail, 1.7 miles one way, on what is mostly a shaded hike.

Wildlife gallery

Black-crowned night heron and pileated woodpecker
Sandhill cranes on Hontoon Island
A tree full of American white ibis on the St. Johns.
A Barred owl near Hontoon Island.
Limpkin on the St. Johns River.
American black vultures.
Yellow-crowned night heron.
Red-shouldered hawk, Florida sub-species.
Primitive cabins may be rented at the park
Boardwalks protect the fragile soil

References

External links

Hontoon Island State Park Podcast by RICHES
Hontoon Island State Park at Florida State Parks
Hontoon Island State Park at State Parks
Hontoon Island State Park at Absolutely Florida
Hontoon Island State Park at Wildernet

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hontoon Island State Park.

Protected areas of Florida

Federal

National Parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades

National Memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline

National Monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas

National Seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands

National Forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola

National Wildlife Refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands

Other National Protected Areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

National Estuarine Research Reserves and National Marine Sanctuaries	Apalachicola NERR Florida Keys NMS Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR

State

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier-Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef John U. Lloyd Beach Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef

Botanical Garden Parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks

Lakes, Rivers and Springs Parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Three Rivers Troy Springs Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs

Recreation Areas	Gamble Rogers Memorial

Museums, Historic sites, and Archaeological sites	Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater

Preserves and Reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Estero Bay Fakahatchee Strand Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh

State Trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee

State Forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Other

Nature centers	List of nature centers in Florida

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 15, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.