Ravine Gardens State Park, State park in Palatka, US

Ravine Gardens State Park covers 59 acres in Palatka, with two natural ravines cut by Whitewater Branch, a spring-fed creek. The Works Progress Administration built cypress structures, rock gardens and fieldstone terraces into the slopes, and near the entrance stand the Court of States and a 64-foot obelisk dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The site was transformed during the 1930s through Works Progress Administration projects that provided employment during the Great Depression. Workers planted tens of thousands of flowering plants to convert the natural ravines into a public garden and visitor destination.

The gardens reflect the vision of workers and designers who shaped these ravines during the Depression era. Their choices about plant placement and pathways still guide how visitors move through and experience the landscape today.

The park is open daily from 8 a.m. until sundown, holidays included. A 1.8-mile paved perimeter loop road circles the ravines, and a parcours trail adds fitness stations. The annual Florida Azalea Festival takes place the first weekend in March, when the azaleas planted by the WPA bloom.

Near the park entrance stands the Court of States and a 64-foot obelisk dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt, erected by the Works Progress Administration crews who built the park in the 1930s. The monument is easy to pass by on the way to the ravines.