Orange Lake is in Alachua County, Florida

Alachua County, Florida

Alachua County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county is 227,120. Its county seat is Gainesville, Florida. Alachua County is the home of the University of Florida and is also known for its diverse culture, local music, and artisans...

, about ten miles south of Hawthorne

Hawthorne, Florida

Hawthorne is a city in Alachua County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,417 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hawthorne is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of...

. It has an area of about 750 square km, and is part of the Orange Creek Basin. which is in turn part of the Oklawaha River watershed. Cross Creek

Cross Creek (Florida)

Cross Creek is a natural waterway in Florida connecting Lochloosa Lake to Orange Lake, in southeastern Alachua County. It is 1.8 miles long, and carries the outflow from Lochloosa Lake into Orange Lake. It is normally navigable by small boats, but has completely dried up in droughts. The Creek has...

 flows into it from Lochloosa Lake

Lochloosa Lake

Lochloosa Lake is a lake about 6,000 acres in area in Alachua County, Florida, about 4 miles south of Hawthorne. It is drained by Cross Creek into Orange Lake. It is largely surrounded by the Lochloosa Wildlife Management Area. The lake is noted for bass fishing...

, and Orange Creek drains it into the Rodman Reservoir

Rodman Reservoir

Rodman Reservoir, or Lake Ocklawaha, is a reservoir located on the Oklawaha River in Putnam County and Marion County in north central Florida. The lake, located about 15 miles southwest of Palatka, is between State Road 19 on the east and State Road 315 on the west.The lake was created in the 1960s...

. Orange Lake also receives water from Newnans Lake that has been diverted from its historic destination of Paynes Prairie

Paynes Prairie

Paynes Prairie is a Florida State Park, encompassing a savanna south of Gainesville, Florida, in Micanopy. It is also a U.S. National Natural Landmark. It is crossed by both I-75 and U.S. 441 .- History :...

. Orange Lake is noted for fishing, especially bass, with many fishing camps on its shores. The lake also has many natural floating island

Floating island

A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat ranging in thickness from a few inches to several feet. Floating islands are a common natural phenomenon that are found in many parts of the world. They exist less commonly as a man-made phenomenon...

s, which have an "unusually high diversity", especially of amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s.