Fellsmere Parks Guide: City Parks, the Trailhead Preserve, Ramps and Camping

Indian River County counts seven City of Fellsmere parks, from a 0.3 acre tennis and handball court to the 98 acre Fellsmere Preserve (Indian River County Recreation Element, Appendix C).

The county Table 10.2 sets the Fellsmere count of 7 beside 13 for Sebastian and one state park at Sebastian Inlet (Table 10.2), and the county says it paid about half the cost of Fellsmere parks and recreation improvements (Recreation Element, page 9).

Read the Fellsmere inventory with its date in mind. The element is Supplement #14, adopted August 16, 2016 (Recreation Element, page 1), and its own text describes Fellsmere parks as six acres or less and names Central Park with a basketball court and playground, City Hall with horseshoe pits and a playground, and a City recreation area with a baseball field (page 18). Those names do not match the appendix, and the 98 acre preserve is far above six acres, so the county list is a starting point, not a current city map. The Fellsmere Parks and Trailhead Preserve guide sorts the sites one by one.

The Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve is a City of Fellsmere preserve approved for $6,300,000 in Florida Communities Trust funding, with a welcome center that opened on November 3, 2016 (Florida Communities Trust; Florida Scenic Highways Program).

The Florida Communities Trust scored and ranked its Florida Forever FF7 applications on November 2, 2007, and project 07-030-FF7, Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve, City of Fellsmere, appears on the approved list at $6,300,000 (FCT notice). The county inventory lists a 98 acre city specialty park named the Fellsmere Preserve (Appendix C), and the Fellsmere Parks and Trailhead Preserve guide sets that county figure beside the city's own acreage for the Trailhead Preserve.

The Fellsmere welcome center sits on the Indian River Lagoon National Scenic Byway; the state scenic highways program records the open house and ribbon cutting on November 3, 2016, with a 10 foot wall map of the byway inside (Florida Scenic Highways Program). The Fellsmere Parks and Trailhead Preserve guide gives the preserve hours, the rail trail connection and the challenge course.

St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, at 1000 Buffer Preserve Drive in Fellsmere, is open 8 a.m. to sunset every day of the year and charges no entrance fee (Florida State Parks).

The visitor center keeps shorter hours, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Campers with reservations who will arrive after 5 p.m. call the park on arrival day at 321-953-5005 Monday through Thursday or 321-953-5004 Friday through Sunday for gate instructions (St. Sebastian River Preserve hours and fees).

The preserve is pine flatwoods with more than 60 miles of multi-use trails for walkers, riders and cyclists and more than 70 listed species, and its boat launching facilities on the St. Sebastian River sit outside the preserve (Florida State Parks).

Check the closure schedule before driving out from Fellsmere this fall. A road project runs from October 5 to November 5, 2026, with no weekday access from the Babcock entrance; the stretch from I-95 to the Manatee Overlook closes Monday through Thursday from October 5, I-95 to the volunteer village from October 16, and the main gate to the volunteer village from October 28 (Florida State Parks closure schedule). Weekends stay open unless the park posts otherwise.

The main launches west of Fellsmere are the Stick Marsh ramp, the Headwaters Lake ramp in the Fellsmere Water Management Area and the two county ramps at Middleton's Fish Camp Park on Blue Cypress Lake.

FWC describes the Farm 13/Stick Marsh as a 6,500 acre impoundment in northwest Indian River County, 4 to 8 feet deep, with a double lane concrete ramp, an airboat launch site, a restroom and a paved lot, and no gas, food or bait on site (FWC, Farm 13/Stick Marsh). Largemouth bass there are catch and release only, and FWC warns of submerged and floating timber, and it advises boaters new to the Stick Marsh to navigate with extreme caution.

The St. Johns River Water Management District closed the Headwaters Boat Ramp and kayak launch during the first full week of each month through September 2026 for maintenance, keeping the western levee trails open and pointing boaters to the Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area (Stick Marsh) and the C-54 Boat Ramp (SJRWMD). That schedule ended with September 2026, so a closure notice dated later than that is a new one.

On Blue Cypress Lake, Indian River County runs Middleton's Fish Camp Park at 7400 Blue Cypress Lake Rd., a 23 acre park with two boat ramps and a floating dock; the county phone is (772) 226-1875 (Indian River County, Middleton's Fish Camp Park).

Primitive camping near Fellsmere is at Middleton's Fish Camp Park on Blue Cypress Lake (Indian River County) and at St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, which has six primitive camping sites and two equestrian areas (Florida State Parks).

The Blue Cypress Lake park lists primitive camping, kayaking and canoeing, hiking and restrooms with showers, and the county calls Blue Cypress Lake, at about ten square miles, the largest lake in Indian River County (Middleton's Fish Camp Park). The 2016 county element still calls the site Blue Cypress Lake Park, on the west shore of the lake with boating, fishing, concessions and pavilions (Recreation Element, page 28); the element does not use the Middleton's Fish Camp Park name.

The Fellsmere Parks and Trailhead Preserve guide is the section's deep guide, covering the city parks and the preserve; the table points to the official page for the state and district lands around Fellsmere.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida State Parks, FWC, St. Johns River Water Management District and Indian River County websites. Hours and closures around Fellsmere change with the seasons and with project schedules, so the agency page is the final word on the day of a visit.