Tomoka State Park

    

Tomoka State Park, near Ormond Beach Fl                        10/6/13 to 10/12/13

We finally got some free time, five days, Monday through Friday with no doctor appointments or other issues to keep us at home. So, I made reservations at Tomoka State Park which is a short distance away in miles (about 66 miles) but is a world away with respect to our daily lives.

      

                         




The sites are range from small tent sites to sites capable of handling larger motorhomes. Since ours is 32 feet we found several sites that would work.

  

There is archaeological evidence that the Timucua people were here as far back has 1100 to 1300AD, predating the European founding of St. Augustine. So they were probably waiting to be “discovered” by Ponce de Leon in 1513. The people in this area had a chief named Tomokie and the park has a statue at the north end.

There is a camp store where besides supplies you can rent canoes. There are docks and vwery comfortable veranda where Jackie & I spent time relaxing, looking at the salt marsh, Tomoka river and reading from our Kindles.

                                              

Taking a ride north of the park we came across the remains of a sugar mill.

                                       

One day we took a ride along AIA to look at Anastasia State Park for a possible place to go camping. Along the way we found a campground on the beach in Flagler Beach. We stopped and walked around. Looks like we will be doing some camping here.  We need to check the calendar for next week with no appointments.

                                    

                                           

There was a turtle nest on the beach. It was marked with stakes and orange tape.

One item of interest at Anastasia State Park was the trees. Here are a couple of pictures that show how they bend away from the water. The two explanations I know are that they bend away from the salt spray or it wind cause them to bend.

CR 4011 leads to the park from Ormond Beach. We found many scenic roads, mainly due to how the branches of the Live Oaks, that lined the road, grew to over the road and in some places formed a canopy. Some of the limbs are the base for other plants like ferns and of course no self-respecting live oak would ever be caught with some Spanish Moss clinging to it.

Another place we visited was the Bulow Plantation Ruins.  Land for the 4675 acre plantation known as Bulowville was purchased in 18521 by Charles Wilhelm Bulow. When he died two years later, his son John inherited the plantation and built a sugar mill. Between 1823 and 1836 Bulowville was the largest sugar plantation in East Florida. In 1835 and against Bulow’s objection the plantation was occupied by the military. Major Benjamin Putnam and a company of men coverted Bulowville into a military fortress.  Refugees from the Seminole War came there. It is believed that the plantation  was burned down by the Indians after Bulowville was abandoned by the soldiers on January 23, 1836.

The sugar mill then………..

  

And now………………………………….

Today there is very little left of the plantation home.

There is canoe rentals and access to Bulow Creek.

                

Here are some photos of a pond near the house, a visitor building and some trees that looked interesting.

There was a small garden with examples of the crops that were grown on the plantation.

 

As usual the time slips by too fast and tomorrow we will be heading home. However, today was another fun day. We met with a couple from motorhome club, the National Untied Travelers, more commonly known as “The NUTS”.  Did some sight-seeing, had lunch at a restaurant on the water and a great time. We will be together in the near future at our first rally of this season starting November 7.

There are more pictures on my shared site at: https://jackbarbic.shutterfly.com/6402