Hontoon Island State Park

This is a nice state park located near Deltona and convenient for us to visit. A nice place to walk. I didn’t get to see the Indian Mound. They have camping and fishing. My brother said he has brought his boat in around here. It’s very peaceful but I’ll bet it gets super busy in the summer. I like the area it is located. They old Florida pre-​1970s. Rustic, simple but friendly. A little ferry boat takes less than 5 minutes to cross over to the island.

This review is based on camping and geocaching on the island. We had a really great time, but there are some things that I would have liked answers to ahead of time.
First of all to get to the park, you have to take a ferry and the last ferry runs an hour before sunset. But don’t worry, it’s a short trip and it’s easy to grab. Simply stand at the dock or give them a call and tell them you’re waiting.
It doesn’t matter how much you bring, they’ll make multiple trips for you, but it is important to understand that you can’t leave to grab rations, or more ice — so be sure you have all your things.
As you pull up to the dock, they’ll let you know that there are wheelbarrows behind the main building, and they’ll offer you ice and fire wood from the island store. From there, you load up your things into the van and they drive you to the campsite.
#11 is where we stayed, and it was all the way to one side. We loved it. It didn’t have a pad like the others, but it was a little more secluded. There is also a #12, which is walk-​in only. There are no reservations for this site, but it’s by far superior to all the others — as it’s by itself.
They also have very, very inexpensive cabins. 6 person cabins are $ 35 and 4 person cabins are $ 30. They include light, a small screened in porch, a single outlet, a ceiling fan and mattresses on bunk beds. Bring the rest of your bedding.
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So, some other things to keep in mind — this is mosquito central. So be sure to bring plenty of repelling candles, and spray.
Hiking the Hammock Hiking Nature Trail is shady and beautiful. Bring your walking stick to help you climb Indian Shell Mound and to keep the spider webs out of your face. There are many geocaches along this route, all relatively easy to grab — even with a partly cloudy sky and only a smart phone GPS.
The rest of the trails are sunny.
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Additionally:
— You can rent kayaks, canoes and bikes at the store.
— The showers have plenty of hot water, and the bathrooms do have an outlet.
— The grills at the day use picnic area are standing grills, the grills in camp sites are over a fire ring.
— Water at the campsite is potable, but not tasty.

I used to come here as a child and recently have visited and camped there twice. This is in fact an island and you have to ferry over to it. Ferry stops running around 5. First, I must say the park rangers there are very helpful and friendly. They offered up lots of information about the park, sold us wood for our campfire and will van you to campsite as well. Even when ferrying across river to stow our camping gear in order to ride back and kayak the ranger waited for us as we packed our things, very courteous. The cabins are 30 dollars and are very primitive– electric, a small screen in porch which we loved, and 4 bunks in the smaller unit. Cabins are open air, so cold weather will get in! Also had a ceiling fan. The couple times we’ve been the campsite has been barely occupied. Once, we were the only couple on the island. When we tented it we were visited late a night by a bear, so be careful! The island has a little museum and store. They will also lend you a board game as well for the night. There’s a nature trail and Indian mound to explore. We saw lots of wildlife and kayaked the 11 miles around the island (about halfway you’ll hit Blue Springs Park) Probably the only downfall was getting our kayak in on land side wasn’t the easiest — launch area is pretty sad. I was also a little sad to see they had removed the lookout tower I remembered as a kid (you could see a birds eye of whole island) all in all this is a great day trip and cool park! Recommend!!!

Review from a camper’s perspective…
I stayed at Hontoon Island State Park for three days and two nights. It was surprising to stay at an island in the middle of Florida, but was nice to be surrounded by water!
I have to say that this camp site is marked as primitive on the state park website, and it does have a few things that make it qualify as primitive. Aside from no electricity and parking your car off of the island, calling these campsites primitive is misleading — in good and bad ways. When you load up your gear on the ferry and taken across the river, you sign in and load your gear into a van and are driven right to your campsite (pro). From your campsite you can see every other campsite, there is nothing private about any of the sites at this park.
If you are looking for things to do during your stay, there is plenty to do on Hontoon Island from hiking, fishing, canoeing, and there is even a playground.

Gators
snakes
and spiders
Hontoon Island Park is indeed an island, assessable only by boat. You can take your private canoe, kayak or boat across or take the public ferry. The amazing thing is that that access to the island is free. Even the ferry ride will cost you absolutely nothing.
The island is primitive, you can pay a fee and camp in of the six rustic cabins or use one of the twelve tent sites. Most people choose to just spend the day biking, hiking or yakking around the island. There is a little snack place and running water but not much else. Once you stray from the ferry dock you are pretty much on your own.
There are trails and roads through the island but they are covered by exotic and very tropical plants. I felt like I was on another planet. One of the interesting things about the island are all the warning signs. Some tell you not to swim because of the gators, others describe all the different venomous snakes and others show you pictures of the different scorpions and nasty spiders that make the island their home.
I talked to the ferry guy and and he said that the island does have a large population of Pygmy Rattlesnakes but even though people do get bit from time to time they probably won’t kill you. Nice to know. The Black Widows and Brown Recluse spiders can be a problem so you better take common sense precautions like shaking out your boots and watching where you sit or go to the bathroom.
To be honest we didn’t see one single snake or spider or scorpion while were were on the island. Just lots of cute little Anole lizards and some very cool butterflies. They even have a very nice little museum that describes the history and archeology of the island.
Hontoon Island is definitely one of the places that I wish I could give more than five stars to. It’s a wonderful, fun and inexpensive way to spend a day.

I love canoeing and was looking for a new run. I came across Hontoon Island State Park online and thought it looked like an interesting place. It is located 6 miles west of Deland so is an easy day trip from Orlando.
The island is located in the St. Johns River and is only accessible by boat or park ferry. You park in a dirt parking lot and are ferried across to the island by park employees (free). The ferry operates daily from 8:00 a.m. to one hour before sunset.
You can camp (either by tent or they have cabins for rent for $ 30/​night), fish, canoe, hike, bike, or picnic. They have restrooms with hot showers for the campers. There is a large Indian mound at the southwest corner of the island that you can access via their trail. There are five miles of trails for anyone who might want to bring their bike. This park is pet friendly.
The island has a limited number of canoes for rent. The canoes are in good shape and they have safety gear. The canoe rental was pretty pricey — $ 20 for two hours or $ 40 all day. The river is wide and there aren’t many canoes on the water, but you will see a few local fisherman. Because the river is wide it is easy to navigate, however, the run is not as pretty as Wekiva Springs (which is winding and has trees which canopy the run). While we were there we saw many egrets, wild turkey, alligator, and turtles.
I would give the canoeing experience three stars, but the park as a whole four stars. We will be back for the cabin rentals and bike trails.