“If I could have, to hold forever, one brief place and time of beauty, I think I might choose the night on that high lonely bank above the St. Johns River.”
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Explore the St. John’s River aboard one of our houseboats and you will experience Florida light years removed from the glitter of Disney World. A cruise upon the St. John’s is a return to original natural Florida, appearing much as it did when Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings explored the St. John’s in the early 20th century. She and Dessie Prescott traveled the river in a small motorboat and camped on the river bank at night. In a chapter of Cross Creek, she wrote about her experience.
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Scenery along the river varies with the elevation. Pine flatwoods occur on the higher areas, while palm, oak hammocks, cypress swamps, and marshes variously border the river and its tributaries. Much of the land bordering the river is part of the Ocala National Forest and will never be developed. Wildlife is abundant. You will see Great Blue and Little Blue Herons as they pose among the thick clusters of moss-draped live oak and palmetto. Egrets dip for fish while Osprey and Eagles soar in the sky above you. Alligators and turtles bask in the sun on the banks. Bring your fishing equipment and fish for Crappie, Catfish, and Perch. At one time the St. John’s was locally dubbed the Bass capital of the world. It is very common to come upon deer crossing the river. Raccoons have been known to raid garbage cans on the front decks of houseboats tied up to the bank of the river at night.