Sebastian Inlet State Park

Sebastian Inlet State Park is the 1,000-acre state park that wraps both banks of Sebastian Inlet on the barrier island east of Sebastian, along State Road A1A at the Brevard and Indian River county line.

Florida State Parks describes Sebastian Inlet as a manmade cut through the barrier island that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian River Lagoon. Stretching over three miles of barrier island, the park spans 1,000 acres (Florida State Parks history page). The north side of the park sits in Brevard County and the south side in Indian River County, so a visitor driving A1A crosses the Sebastian Inlet bridge between the two halves.

The park was established in 1971 and is managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Sebastian Inlet District FAQ). The inlet itself belongs to a separate public body: the Sebastian Inlet District, created by the Florida Legislature in 1919, maintains the channel, the jetties and the sand bypass, while the Florida Park Service runs park access, the fishing catwalks, the boat launches and the campground. The district counts Sebastian Inlet State Park as consistently one of the most visited parks in Florida, with an average of 750,000 to one million visitors annually.

Sebastian Inlet State Park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and admission is $8 per vehicle for two to eight people (Florida State Parks hours and fees).

The 24-hour access comes with one change at the south end. Effective Nov. 12, 2025, operating hours at the South Ranger Station at Sebastian Inlet State Park changed to standard park operating hours (8 a.m. to sunset), while the North Ranger Station on the Brevard side continues to operate 24 hours a day. After dark, the south gate admits registered campers and holders of an annual pass with an after-hours permit. Campers arriving after sunset call the park at 772-589-9659 on the day of arrival for the gate combination.

The McLarty Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Entry fee for the McLarty Museum is $2 a person, and the Sebastian Fishing Museum charges nothing beyond normal park entry (Florida State Parks amenities page). Florida residents 65 or older, and holders of qualifying disability certificates, receive 50 percent off the base campsite fee. Last verified: October 11, 2026, on the Florida State Parks website.

Sebastian Inlet State Park is built around surfing, jetty and boat fishing, diving, camping and lagoon paddling, split between a beach-oriented north side and a south side with the marina, campground and McLarty Treasure Museum.

Surfing is the park's best-known use. One of the most consistent surf breaks in Florida is Sebastian Inlet's first peak, located next to the north jetty. A second break, Monster Hole, is a shoal located about a third of a mile off the beach, on the south side of Sebastian Inlet, where waves form long lines when the surf is big (Florida State Parks).

Anglers fish from two jetties that reach into the Atlantic, and Florida State Parks notes that both jetties are ADA accessible. According to the Sebastian Inlet District, the north jetty was extended to 1,000 feet in length with an elevated concrete cap, handrails and a grate system after construction finished in 2003, and the south jetty is 575 feet. Boat ramps on both sides of the inlet give access to the Indian River Lagoon, the Intracoastal Waterway, the Sebastian River and the ocean.

The campground near the Sebastian Inlet bridge has 51 campsites, and all 51 campsites have water and electrical hook-ups, a fire ring with grill and a picnic table, with a maximum RV length of 40 feet. Primitive sites sit at Campbell Pocket Marina. On land, the Hammock Trail is a mile-long nature trail under a coastal palm and oak hammock along the mangrove fringe, three mountain bike trails start and end at the Bayside Marina, and a paved multi-use path runs parallel to A1A. Picnic pavilions on the south side of Sebastian Inlet each hold up to 60 people and are reserved through the park office.

Swimmers who want calm water use the cove on the north side of Sebastian Inlet, which Florida State Parks describes as a protected area with a hard bottom and a gentle slope; depths in the surf and the cove range from a few inches to 15 feet.

The McLarty Treasure Museum at the south boundary interprets the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet, and the Sebastian Fishing Museum near the marina covers Sebastian's commercial fishing families on the Indian River Lagoon.

Florida State Parks places the McLarty Treasure Museum at the south boundary of Sebastian Inlet State Park. Situated on a survivors camp of the wrecked 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet, the museum features artifacts, displays and an observation deck that overlooks the ocean, and the last film showing of the day at the McLarty Museum begins at 3:15 p.m. (Florida State Parks).

The Sebastian Fishing Museum tells a mainland story inside the park. It commemorates three of Sebastian's early families who operated fish houses: Sembler, Smith and Judah, and its exhibits include a replica fish house and dock, a homemade fishing boat, nets and photographs of fishing in the lagoon. The fishing museum also hosts some Sebastian Inlet District commission meetings; the district calendar lists its Nov. 11, 2026, meeting there.

Sebastian Inlet State Park follows Florida Park Service rules: pets stay off the beach, alcohol is prohibited, spearfishing is banned inside park boundaries, and divers stay out of the boat channel and from under the Sebastian Inlet bridge.

Pets on a leash of six feet or shorter are allowed in the campground and day-use areas, but Florida State Parks states that well-behaved pets are allowed in the campground but are prohibited on the beach; service animals are welcome everywhere. Consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in the picnic areas on both sides of Sebastian Inlet.

For divers, Florida State Parks says scuba diving and snorkeling are permitted in waters of Sebastian Inlet State Park with the exception of under the Sebastian Inlet Bridge and in the boat channel. A dive party needs at least two divers and a diver-down flag, divers keep 50 feet from manatees, fossils and artifacts may not be disturbed or removed, and dives must end one hour before sunset. Rock reefs stretch for miles starting south of the inlet in the nearshore waters, and the park notes that visibility is best in summer.

Saltwater fishing licenses are sold at county tax collector offices, online or by phone, and fishing regulations are posted at both entrance stations of the park. Parking on the north side of Sebastian Inlet fills quickly on busy weekends and holidays, and the park points visitors to additional parking over the bridge on the south side.

Sebastian Inlet State Park shares the inlet with the Sebastian Inlet District, which maintains the channel, and sits inside the stretch of coast protected by the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

The Sebastian Inlet District was created as an independent special taxing district in 1919 by special act of the Florida State Legislature and is governed by a five-member elected commission (Sebastian Inlet District). Its work inside the park includes the jetties, shoreline armoring on both sides of the inlet and a sand storage area northwest of the tide pool. The district's history page records that the bridge over the inlet opened on Feb. 27, 1965, and that the Florida Department of Transportation will begin replacing the bridge in 2026 (Sebastian Inlet District history).

On the ocean side, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge as 20.5 miles of beach and shoreline habitat between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach, designated to protect the most significant area for loggerhead sea turtle nesting in the world. The Sebastian Inlet District notes that the inlet sits between two segments of that refuge, which is why the beaches of Sebastian Inlet State Park are part of a longer protected nesting coast running north to Brevard County and south toward Wabasso.