Long Creek Nature Preserve

Long Creek Nature Preserve is a nine-acre park lying between two waterways - Long Creek and College Waterway. The park provides fishing, non-motorized boating access, hard-packed shell, and raised boardwalk walking trails. The property is a major archaeological resource, home to the Hernandez Landing Site, dating back to the early 1800s Plantation Period in Florida. 

Environment

Long Creek is a unique estuary system – known as the ocean's nursery because of the bounty of marine life that starts there. Visitors will see Florida's natural beauty, majestic birds, oyster beds, leaping mullet, and much more. The preserve is connected to the 225-acre Long Creek Basin and Palm Coast's saltwater canal system. Its natural beauty serves as a living laboratory for  environmental education programs, including the Children Helping in Resource Protection - or CHIRP - program, offered by the
City for Flagler County schoolchildren.

Boating

Long Creek is a beautiful spot to enjoy kayaking, paddleboarding, and canoeing. A path winds through the hammock and leads to a boardwalk with a non-motorized boat launch that drops into Long Creek. A concrete slope on the other end of the park allows non-motorized boat access to College Waterway.

Paddling markers have been installed along Long Creek to help paddlers safely navigate the creek. On the water, 15 marker signs guide the way from Long Creek Nature Preserve to the Intracoastal Waterway and beyond – the waterway goes to Bing's Landing. Each of the marker signs is numbered for location-finding in case of emergency.

History

The six-mile trip from Long Creek Nature Preserve to Bing's Landing closely follows the 19th-century shipping routes to the Hernandez Landing Site, the first point of commerce for the county. The Hernandez Landing Site is on the southeast side of the Long Creek Nature Preserve, and future phases of the nature preserve will highlight this archeological resource. For more information about the Hernandez Landing Site, visit the Flagler County Historical Society here.