Malabar Parks Guide: Town Parks, Scrub Sanctuaries and the Cameron Preserve

The Town of Malabar runs Malabar Community Park, the Disc Golf Sanctuary, Eschenberg Park and two trailheads, and posts the three parks and the Sandhill Crane Trailhead as open dawn to dusk (Town of Malabar).

The disc golf course has 18 holes with concrete tee boxes, chainstar baskets, a pavilion and a restroom (Malabar Disc Golf Sanctuary). Eschenberg Park on Weber Road was bought through the Florida Communities Trust Preservation 2000 Program and acquired in 1999 for passive, nature based recreation (Thomas M. Eschenberg Park). The Sandhill Crane Trailhead on Marie Street has a pavilion, picnic tables, horse stables and ADA accessible bathrooms, and it is the southern door to the Al Tuttle Trail (Sandhill Crane Trailhead).

Those trailheads are why the state named Malabar a Florida Trail Town: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection cited the town's vigorous efforts to build walking, bicycling and paddling trails through its conservation areas (A Florida Trail Town). The Malabar Parks and Trails guide walks through every town site and the trail connections to Palm Bay. The fiscal year 2026-2027 budget summary the town advertised for its September 21, 2026 final budget hearing sets aside $344,865 for Parks and Recreation (FY 2026-2027 budget summary).

Malabar Community Park at 1850 Malabar Road has one main pavilion, picnic benches, a baseball and softball field, a soccer pitch, basketball and tennis courts, a playground, restrooms, a fitness park and a bridge over the lake (Malabar Community Park).

A Malabar group that wants the pavilion or another designated area files the Town of Malabar Park Reservation Form, which covers any Malabar park, trailhead or conservation area for the appropriate fee (Park Reservation Form). The form asks for proof of insurance for contact sports, alcohol, public food sales and gatherings built around amplified music. Its standing conditions at Malabar Community Park are blunt: no vehicles on the grass, no activity on the soccer field, no fires outside the designated fire pits, and no activities that use water. The applicant also takes responsibility for damage and clean up, and the town advises bringing extra toilet paper and hand towels.

A larger Malabar event such as a block party, festival, race or walk uses the Special Activity Permit Application, and the fee for a special activity is $100.00 (Special Activity Permit Application). The Malabar Community Park guide covers the facilities and rules in more depth.

Malabar Scrub Sanctuary is a Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands site listed as open Monday through Sunday for day use only, with pets, smoking, alcohol and motorized vehicles prohibited (Brevard County EEL Program).

Brevard County gives the sanctuary 577 acres and a location of 1501 Malabar Woods Boulevard, with free parking and activities that include biking, horseback riding, geocaching, hiking and wildlife viewing (Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, EEL). It shelters the Florida scrub-jay, gopher tortoise and Eastern indigo snake, and restrooms are at the adjacent Malabar Community Park.

The Cameron Preserve splits the Malabar sanctuary into an east side and a west side (Town of Malabar, Malabar Scrub Sanctuary). The east side is reached from the Sandhill Crane Trailhead, Malabar Community Park or the Capon Street pedestrian bridge in Palm Bay, and it carries the White loop and Red loop. The west side is reached from the Briar Creek Blvd Trailhead, the Al Tuttle Trail via Port Malabar Blvd, or an Englar Ave trailhead in Palm Bay, and it carries the Red loop, the Blue loop and the Yellow Trail.

Hours differ by source. The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail lists the Malabar sanctuary as free and open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 568 acres (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail), while the county page says only day use and 577 acres. A visitor planning an early start in Malabar does best to call the EEL contact at (321) 255-4466 first. The Malabar Scrub Sanctuary guide has the trail by trail detail.

The Cameron Preserve is a 100 acre Malabar preserve owned and maintained by the Town of Malabar, entered from the Swallow-Tailed Kite Trailhead at the northern end of Corey Road (Swallow-Tailed Kite Trailhead).

Its full name is the Richard E. Cameron Sr. and Volunteers Wilderness Preserve, and it was bought through the Florida Communities Trust Preservation 2000 Program in cooperation with the Town of Malabar. The Yellow Trail in the Cameron Preserve now carries one way signage: hikers and mountain bikers follow the arrows, and riders on horseback go the opposite way so nobody comes up on a horse from behind. The marked routes are designed to flow into the EEL trails on both sides of Malabar Scrub Sanctuary.

What is changing: the Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee is working with state agencies on a revised management plan for the preserve. The Cameron Preserve guide covers the trailheads, the trail shelter and that plan.

Jordan Scrub Sanctuary is a 354 acre Brevard County EEL sanctuary at 2425 Marie Street in Malabar, open for day use with free parking, biking, horseback riding, geocaching and wildlife viewing (Jordan Scrub Sanctuary, EEL).

The Jordan sanctuary holds lakes, seasonal marshes and scrubby flatwoods, where bald eagles fish the lake and scrub-jays forage in the flatwoods, and it was acquired in partnership with the State of Florida. The same rules as Malabar Scrub Sanctuary apply: no pets, smoking, alcohol, motorized vehicles or hunting. Today the sanctuary is entered from the county parking lot at the southern end of Marie Street or from the access point at the western end of Jordan Blvd (Eagle's Nest Trailhead).

The Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee is developing the Eagle's Nest Trailhead for the northwestern corner of Jordan Scrub, with restrooms, a viewing platform, picnic tables, horse stables and horse trailer parking in the plans. The Jordan Scrub Sanctuary guide follows that project.

Malabar sits on the Indian River Lagoon (Malabar Florida Trail Town presentation), but the town plan states that there is no publicly owned waterfront or designated public water access in the Town (Coastal Management Element, page 2).

The same December 2019 plan says nearly the entire town shoreline is restricted to water dependent, non commercial piers, boat slips and docks on private parcels that give water access only to the adjacent owners (page 2), and the Town maintains a Coastal Preservation zone that limits development along a large portion of its Indian River Lagoon frontage (Public Facilities Element). The town's recent shoreline work was road protection, not a park. On Rocky Point Road a contractor was scheduled to restore the shoreline in four areas from April 1, 2024, with completion estimated for September 1, 2024, to prevent further erosion and roadway collapse, and docks or private items inside the right of way in those areas were to be removed and not restored (Rocky Point Road Reconstruction).

For paddling, the town's Trail Town presentation points to the kayak launch parking at Turkey Creek Sanctuary in Palm Bay, a short distance from a connecting trail of the Malabar Trail System (Trail Town presentation, page 40). The Rocky Point Road reconstruction guide in the Malabar transportation section covers the shoreline project in full.

Five Malabar parks guides sit under this hub, and the table below matches each common question to the key fact and the guide that answers it.

One stale item: the Malabar Community Park photo list still captions its burn pit as burn permit required, but the Town of Malabar stopped issuing burn permits on March 2, 2026 and says permits for burns in the town are now issued by the Orlando Forestry District at (407) 888-8760 (Burn Permit Information). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Town of Malabar and Brevard County websites.