Donald MacDonald Park and Campground on Roseland Road

Camping at Donald MacDonald Park costs $25 a night for a primitive site and $35 a night for an electric site, set by Indian River County for the Roseland Road campground.

The county lists 26 primitive campsites, including 1 group or double site, and 5 sites with electricity, and every site has a grill, a fire pit and a picnic table (Indian River County Parks, Recreation and Conservation). The park sits at 12315 Roseland Road, Sebastian, FL 32958, on the Saint Sebastian River, covers 37.19 acres and is open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year (Indian River County).

The county page now carries a RESERVE A CAMPSITE button and a CAMPSITE MAP link above the fee list, so a site can be booked online before driving out to Roseland Road (Indian River County).

One number on that page does not match. The description counts 5 sites with electricity, but the fee list prices only electric sites 27 to 30, which is four sites. Campers who need power should confirm the electric site count with the park at (772) 226-1875 before booking, since that is the scarcest site type at Donald MacDonald Park.

The Donald MacDonald campground limits each stay to two weeks, allows pets on a 6 foot leash and bans alcohol, generators and swimming.

Indian River County sets the camping procedures (Indian River County). A single visit can run two weeks at most, a one week gap must follow it, and guest visits may not exceed 6 total weeks per year. Guests of campers are asked to leave by 10 p.m., when quiet hours begin.

The equipment rules decide what kind of rig fits the riverside sites. For rigs longer than 30 feet the county points campers to the Indian River County Fairgrounds Campground instead, and no generator may run at Donald MacDonald Park. Motorbikes, ATVs, go-carts and golf carts are not permitted either (Indian River County).

Fire and wildlife rules are strict on the St. Sebastian River grounds. Only a small fire inside a site fire pit is allowed, never a bonfire, and wood must come from home because no tree or plant on the grounds may be cut. Hunting, harassing or feeding wildlife is banned, and so are remote controlled aircraft (Indian River County).

Pets are the main difference from the neighboring day park. Donald MacDonald Park allows pets on a 6 foot leash at all times, while the county bans pets at Dale Wimbrow Park at 11805 Roseland Road under County Ordinance 205.03.22 (Indian River County). Dog owners heading to the Roseland Road river parks should plan around that split.

Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the Indian River County website.

Donald MacDonald Park has a public boat launch on the Saint Sebastian River with 13 boat trailer parking spaces, and the county closes the ramp at sunset.

An observation boardwalk and walking trails cover the land side of the park, and swimming is not permitted (Indian River County). From the campground ramp, boats run at slow speed all year: Florida rule 68C-22.007 sets that limit on the river and its South Fork west and southwest of the US 1 Bridge centerline and north of the S.R. 512 Bridge (Fla. Admin. Code R. 68C-22.007).

Paddlers can arrive from upstream. The county describes a three to four hour paddle north from the Sebastian Canoe Launch on the South Prong toward Donald MacDonald Park, Dale Wimbrow Park or the Indian River Lagoon, and advises arranging drop off and pick up (Indian River County). Campers with kayaks can use the campground as an overnight end point for that route.

Dale Wimbrow Park, the county day park down Roseland Road, has its own ramp, listed as 7 feet deep at the end, and its pavilion rentals are handled by phone through Donald MacDonald Park at 772-589-0087 (Indian River County).

The St. Sebastian River beside Donald MacDonald Park is a major Indian River Lagoon tributary that the City of Sebastian says has been named a priority waterbody for water quality rehabilitation.

Sebastian fronts the river for nearly 9 miles along its lower eastern and southern banks, and the city takes up about 9,000 acres of a 100,000 acre Sebastian River Watershed (City of Sebastian). In the late 1950s General Development Corporation built street and drainage infrastructure for about 15,000 single-family home sites, which is why so much Sebastian stormwater reaches the river through canals and swales. The city reports 9 baffle boxes installed at outfall points to cut nitrogen and phosphorus (City of Sebastian).

The city names who flagged the river: the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program and the Indian River Lagoon SWIM Program identified the St. Sebastian River as a priority waterbody in need of water quality rehabilitation and protection, and agricultural lands west of Sebastian account for a major portion of the run-off to the watershed (City of Sebastian). The city also says its canal, ditch and swale system was installed to 1950s standards and does not provide the storm water storage or water quality treatment that present day development standards require, which is why the baffle box retrofits matter for the water off the campground boardwalk.

Donald MacDonald Park sits in the Roseland area of the St. Sebastian River, where the state historical marker dates the first settler to 1877 and traces the Roseland name to wild roses.

The Florida Division of Historical Resources Roseland marker (2014, 12973 Bay Street) says Roseland's first citizen, Dempsey Cain, settled on the north side of the river in 1877 and is credited with naming the community on the south side of the river Roseland after the wild roses that grew there in abundance (Florida Division of Historical Resources). A post office followed in 1892, and in 1893 a depot and water tower were built for Henry Flagler's East Coast Railway. In 1910 the A.A. Berry Land Development Company bought the remnants of George Fleming's 1816 land grant on both sides of the river.

No county or state source located for this page explains who Donald MacDonald was or when the campground opened, so the name's origin is left open rather than guessed.