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Paddler's Guide To Sunshine State Description Doris Leeper, president of the Friends of Spruce Creek Preserve, raves about this waterway. “You can spend a lifetime exploring all the little creeks and back bays and backwaters here in the preserve,” she says. “It’s a fabulous opportunity.”
To the
west you’re inside a dark-water Florida river that originates in a freshwater
cypress swamp. Watch for red-cockaded woodpeckers, wood storks, and Florida’s
ever present alligators. Sandhill cranes have been spotted here too.
Timucaua
Indians had large towns here when the area was first explored by Europeans in
the late 1500s. A French artist named Jacques LeMonye made a sketch of the area
back in 1564.
Archeologists tell us that the Timucuans had sophisticated astronomy, toolmaking,
a trading and tribute system that reached for hundreds of miles, and elaborate
tattoo and hair arranging practices. Nowadays the only traces left by these
tall, powerful people are the few shell mounds that dot the coast. One of the
largest is the enormous ceremonial Spruce Creek Mound located in another park
upstream from Spruce Creek via Martin Dairy Road.
The
two-thousand-plus acres of the Spruce Creek Preserve were established in 1997,
thanks to Leeper and her band of determined folks. Some of the land is still in
private hands, but monies from the state, the county, cities, and other
organizations have been earmarked to buy up these parcels, so the area will
someday be restored to its pre-European state.
In
addition to being an official Florida canoe trail, Spruce Creek has been dubbed
an Outstanding Florida Waters designation, and has class III (darn good) water
quality.
1) Spruce
Creek Park. By car, take I-95 and get off north of New Smyrna Beach at exit 85,
Dunlawton Avenue/SR421.Go east on Dunlawton, then turn right/south on Nova
Road/SR5A. Turn right/south again on US1. Pass Rose Bay Bridge. Go about a mile
and a half, and watch for the brown and white Volusia County Parks and
Recreation sign on the right. If you pass the three bridges at the head of
Strickland Bay, you’re to far south. The twenty-four-acre Spruce Creek Park has
a ranger on duty, and a new ramp was recently installed.
From the
park, head east to enter the wide saltwater estuary system, with rivers, creeks,
and tiny rivulets that braid the marshes all the way out to the Intracoastal
Waterway. If you’re feeling really strong, you could paddle past the barrier
island and out Ponce de Leon Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. There’s a boat ramp at
the extreme south tip of A1A, on the north side of the inlet. This opening to
the sea drains a huge body of water, and the current and wind are usually rough.
2) The
next access is a wide spot in the road used by local boaters. It is the
southeast side of US1, the northbound lane, south of the three bridges of Spruce
Creek. For more information, contact Spruce Creek Park, 6250 South Ridgewood Avenue, Port Orange, Florida 32127, phone (386) 736-5953. You can contact the Friends of Spruce Creek Preserve at (386) 428-6578. Spruce Creek Park office is at (386) 322-5133, and the Volusia County Parks and Recreation Department at (386) 736-5953.
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