The Tomoka River is a north-flowing

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Volusia County Volusia County (, ) is located in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Florida, stretching between the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the county was home to 553,543 people, an incr ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It drains an area of about and has a length of .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed April 18, 2011

Geography

The Tomoka rises in the forests of

between

Port Orange Port Orange is a city in Volusia County, Florida. The city's population was estimated at 64,842 in 2019 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The city is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area; the metropolitan area's populati ...

and

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

at an elevation of . The river then flows north-northeast, passing through the cities of

and

Ormond Beach Ormond Beach is a city in central Florida in Volusia County. The population was 43,080 at the 2020 census. Ormond Beach lies directly north of Daytona Beach and is a principal city of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL Metropolitan ...

until it empties into the

Halifax River The Halifax River is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, located in northeast Volusia County, Florida. The waterway was originally known as the North Mosquito River, but was renamed after George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (for whom ...

. Near its mouth the river passes through the Tomoka Marsh Aquatic Preserve and

Tomoka State Park Tomoka State Park is an Florida State Park located along the Tomoka River, three miles (5 km) north of Ormond Beach on North Beach Street. Fauna Among the wildlife of the park are West Indian manatees, alligators, white-tailed deer, gophe ...

. It also runs next to the

Ormond Beach Municipal Airport Ormond Beach Airport , also known as Ormond Beach Municipal Airport, is a general aviation airport located to the northwest of the city of Ormond Beach in Volusia County, Florida, United States. History OMN was established in 1943 as Outlying Fi ...

and

Addison Blockhouse Historic State Park Addison Blockhouse Historic State Park is a state park located in Volusia County, Florida. It features the Addison Blockhouse, a small coquina rock ruin that was on a 19th-century plantation and served as a kitchen as well as a fort. To preserv ...

Manatee sanctuary

The river and several of its tributaries (Strickland, Thompson and Dodson Creek) are designated as a

manatee Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species ...

sanctuary. Other

threatened species Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

that inhabit the river basin include the

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", though it is not an ibis. It is found in ...

and Atlantic salt marsh snake. The

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

can also be found in and around the river basin.

Paddling trail

There is a long designated paddling trail from the Riverbend Nature Park to the Tomoka State Park. This trail is unusual as it actually leads upstream from the put-in point, until the river becomes too narrow to continue, then turns around to continue to the end. The

Florida Department of Environmental Protection The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is the Florida government agency responsible for environmental protection. History By the mid-1960s, when the federal government was becoming increasingly involved in initiatives design ...

recommends this paddling trail for beginners.

List of crossings

References

External links