Craft Access
✓
Motorboat ✓
Kayak / Canoe ✗
Jet Ski / PWC ✗
Large 22ft+ Site Details
Conditions change rapidly due to water levels, prop wash, and weather. Always visually inspect before backing down.
RampConcrete, 2 lanes
Water DepthDrought advisory: only small outboards, airboats, mudboats, and paddlecraft can launch under current low-water conditions — big rigs should wait for the refill.
DockFixed launch dock
Trailer Parking71 spots · paved
Vehicle-Only71 spots
Crowding Crappie-season weekends and literary-pilgrim afternoons share the big lot; under drought restrictions the trailer field runs mostly mudboats, jons, and kayak racks. Even then, 71 spots means parking is never the problem.
Plan B — if this lot is full Heagy-Burry Park (~9 mi, Marion shore — freshly reopened, best big-outboard option in low water)
Sportsman's Cove and Mike's Fish Camp for small-craft fee launches
Sportsman's Cove and Mike's Fish Camp for small-craft fee launches
FeeNo fee
HoursRamp open 24 hours
SeasonOpen year-round (water levels govern usability)
RestroomsModern restroom (1)
Not Available Fish cleaning · Fishing pier · Pier
Scout's Notes
Ramp Quirks & Etiquette
Cross Creek's Own Ramp
The county park at Cross Creek is the lake's north-shore door — two concrete lanes, a fixed dock, flush restrooms, and a 71-spot lot that tells you what normal years look like here. It sits in the hamlet Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote into American literature, so crappie trailers and literary pilgrims split the parking lot like old friends.
Two Lakes From One Ramp — Usually
At normal water this is the system's crossroads: down the creek to Orange Lake one way, up to Lochloosa the other, 1.8 miles of storied water between. Under the current drought the creek passes only the smallest craft — plan single-lake days. When the water returns, the two-lake day from this ramp is one of inland Florida's quiet classics.
Name Care
You'll see this access called three things: the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings County Park (Alachua County's facility), the Kate Barnes ramp (naming used around the adjacent state historic park), and simply the Cross Creek ramp. Same neighborhood, one public launch — don't let the aliases send you down the wrong dirt road.
The Drought Watch
County officials said in early 2026 that continued low water could force even this ramp to close — on Orange Lake, the water level is the schedule. Check conditions the week of any dry-year trip, favor mornings for the small-craft run, and keep the fish camps in mind as fallback doors.
Make the Literary Stop
Even on a fishing day, give the Rawlings homestead an hour — the cracker farmhouse, the orange grove, the typewriter on the porch where The Yearling took shape. The lake and the book explain each other; you'll launch differently after.
Sources: FWC boat-ramp inventory (AL10010QP), Alachua County, FWC Orange Lake site profile, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, county-commission updates (March 2026)
About This Lake
Orange Lake →