A Weekend at Florida's Tomoka State Park

 

A nice smallish park just north of Ormond Beach.  And I'd say the real Florida. The single loop has sites that can handle up to 34' units and has a clean bathhouse. There are five day park areas with pavilions, picnic tables, grills and a playground.  There is also group camping and a recreational hall for events. 

 

Our site, #19, was packed sand and very level. Lots of shade in this park. And, shrubbery  on each side for privacy.  The sites are pretty much far apart, also. 

The loop road.  Packed sand, and well maintained.

Near our campsite was a path to one of the lagoons. On the shoreline is a group campfire area where groups can gather around a fire ring and rangers give interpretive talks.

  

The main road into the park is well maintained and made of packed sand and crushed shell material. There are no lights in the camping area, nor on this road.  We came back to our campsite late one evening after enjoying some fine entertainment at the camp store/boat ramp area without flashlights.  Very scary and precarious. Talk about feeling your way home.  Lesson learned. We now carry flashlights when out and about near sunset.  On another occasion we were on our way to the camp store and nearly hit by a large buck that darted across the road.

At the end of the road is a boat ramp where one can rent canoes or kayaks and a camp store. The store is small but carries essentials. On Saturday night the couple that ran the store and rentals performed folk and some popular songs unplugged.  They are very good.

  

Along the Halifax River and the Tomoka River, great places to kayak, there is a lot of shoreline that is walkable at low tide. 

 

Part of the Halifax River behind our campsite.

Besides walking the shoreline and biking the roads, there is an easy half mile nature walk with interpretive signage along the way. It wanders through the hammock, and...

...along the shore line. Benches on the way allow seating and watching the world go by. 

 There is also a one mile paved trail... 

....and a south area walking trail.

Drive all the way to the north point and you'll find another day area, the Chief Tomokie statue and a small museum or interpretive area. This area was home to the Timucuan Indian village of Nocoroco and the British rice and indigo plantation of Mt. Oswald.  

The statue was built in the 1950s and portrays the story of a poem about a mythical princess known as "Oleta".

Things to do on the river and surrounding tributaries:

Crabbing

Heading out to fish.  Fishing can also be done from the shoreline and a pier at the boat ramp/camp store area.

Kayaking or canoeing

Or, enjoying a nice sunset.

Back at the campsite enjoying a nice campfire and some libation.  It was a very cold weekend at night.  And, there are no lights in the park.  That's great, but when you are the only campers in the loop, save for the camp host, it can get vewwy, vewwy quiet and spooking.  That we will always remember about Tomoka in December. We heard every critter in the park, and some that weren't.