First acquired in 1977, Big Lagoon State Park is a 705-acre (2.85 km2) Florida State Park located on the northwestern Florida coast, approximately 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Pensacola on Gulf Beach Highway. It encompasses the northern boundary of Big Lagoon as it snakes toward Pensacola Bay to the east. Wild Grande Lagoon and its minor tributaries lay within the boundaries of the park, as does the alligator-inhabited Long Pond, a man-made freshwater pond.
The park is a 'gateway site' for the Great Florida Birding Trail. It features nine distinct natural communities including estuarine tidal marsh, mesic flatwoods, wet flatwoods, and is dominated by scrubby flatwoods. The park features a number of threatened and endangered species such as the Large-leaved Jointweed, Gopher Tortoise, migratory shorebirds such as Snowy Plover, Least Tern among some twenty other listed species.
From Big Lagoon, the Florida Park Service manages two neighboring state parks - Perdido Key State Park to the southwest and Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park to the north.
Read more about Big Lagoon State Park: Recreational Activities, Gallery, References and External Links
Famous quotes containing the words big, state and/or park:
“One of the things I considered a delightful experience in school was the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I didn’t realize the gap was so big from the Founding Fathers until now. And I didn’t realize they weren’t talking about me.”
—Maxine Waters (b. 1938)
“Today democracy, liberty, and equality are words to fool the people. No nation can progress with such ideas. They stand in the way of action. Therefore we frankly abolish them. In the future each man will serve the interest of the state with absolute obedience. Let him who refuses beware.”
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)
“and the words never said,
And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)