Fellsmere Parks and Trailhead Preserve — Fellsmere, Florida

Indian River County's recreation element counts 7 parks in the City of Fellsmere, against 13 in Sebastian and 20 in Vero Beach, among 70 recreational parks countywide.

The count comes from Table 10.2 of the county's Recreation and Open Space Element, which lists City of Sebastian 13, City of Fellsmere 7 and the State of Florida 1 for Sebastian Inlet (Indian River County Recreation Element, Table 10.2). Appendix C names the seven Fellsmere sites with their acreage: Senior League Park at 10.72 acres, Little League Park at 3.72 acres, the Fellsmere Preserve at 98 acres, Grant Park at 1.59 acres, a tennis and handball court on 0.3 acres, Sonrise Villas Park at 2.41 acres and Whispering Pines Park at 0.37 acres (Appendix C, Parks and Facilities in the City of Fellsmere).

The appendix marks five of the Fellsmere sites as City of Fellsmere property and leaves the owner column blank for Sonrise Villas and Whispering Pines. The element's written summary says all of the City of Fellsmere's parks are neighborhood or specialty parks of six acres or less, and that Central Park has a basketball court and playground equipment, City Hall has horseshoe pits and playground equipment, and the City recreation area has a baseball field (Recreation Element, page 18). That six-acre ceiling does not fit the appendix, which credits Senior League Park with 10.72 acres and the preserve with 98, so each Fellsmere figure here is tied to the table it came from.

The City of Fellsmere lists its contact as 22 S. Orange Street, (772) 571-1616, with office hours of 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday or by appointment, closed daily for lunch from 12 pm to 1:00 pm (City of Fellsmere). The city pages cited here publish no park rental fees, so none are given.

The Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve and Welcome Center is the city's nature park at 11090 CR 512, opened on November 3, 2016, northwest of the I-95 and CR 512 interchange.

The City of Fellsmere says the Trailhead Preserve is situated on approximately 86 acres and that the site was acquired in 2008 in partnership with the Florida Communities Trust and Indian River County (City of Fellsmere, Trailhead Preserve page). The county inventory lists the same Fellsmere Preserve at 98 acres (Appendix C). Neither document explains the 12-acre gap. The county table sits in Supplement #14 of the element, adopted August 16, 2016 under Ordinance 2016-008 (Recreation Element, title page), a few months before the Fellsmere welcome center opened.

State conservation money helped pay for the land. In the Florida Forever Series FF7 cycle, the Florida Communities Trust scored, ranked and selected applications on November 2, 2007, and approved project 07-030-FF7, Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve, for the City of Fellsmere at $6,300,000.00 (Florida Communities Trust FF7 funding notice). The notice says the FF7 awards derive from the sale of Florida Forever bonds, and the same list carries Indian River County's South Prong Preserve, project 07-039-FF7, at $1,390,000.00.

The building at the Fellsmere entrance does a second job. The City of Fellsmere says the Welcome Center is a designated Visitor Center for the National Scenic Byway Program for the Indian River Lagoon National Scenic Byway, with information about the history of Fellsmere and things to see in the area (City of Fellsmere). The city also describes the Trailhead Preserve as a nature break for travelers and a trailhead for recreation.

The Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve is open from sunrise to sunset, and the city lists bicycling, birding, equestrian riding, hiking and mountain biking as its activities.

The city's listing for the CR 512 park names two amenities, a picnic area and a playground, and says pets on leash are allowed (City of Fellsmere, Trailhead Preserve page). For accessibility it lists braille signage, handicapped parking and ramps, and it puts the average visit at 1 to 2 hours. The Trans Florida Central Rail Trail can be accessed from the Trailhead Preserve.

Two numbers on that table come from different agencies. The Trailhead Preserve hours are the City of Fellsmere's own, and the state park hours and free day use come from Florida State Parks (Florida State Parks, St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park). The Fellsmere listing gives no entrance fee for the Trailhead Preserve.

The Florida Tech Challenge Course is a leadership and team-building course inside the Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve, with venues the city lists as including High Ropes, Leadership Reaction and Marine Obstacle courses.

The City of Fellsmere lists the venues and says the course offers leadership training and teambuilding events (City of Fellsmere). WFIT, a Space Coast public radio station, described the Fellsmere course on April 9, 2015, naming venues that include a High Ropes Course, a Leadership Reaction Course and a Marine Obstacle Course (WFIT, April 9, 2015).

That 2015 WFIT item placed the course in Fellsmere within an 86-acre preserve, the same acreage the City of Fellsmere gives today rather than the county's 98 acres. Neither the city page nor the WFIT item lists current group prices or booking rules for the Trailhead Preserve course.

Indian River County paid approximately 50% of Fellsmere's parks and recreation improvements, according to the county's Recreation and Open Space Element.

The same page of the element says the county provided about 50% of the cost of the Barber Street Complex in Sebastian, as part of a county focus since 1990 on user-based facilities built with Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere (Recreation Element, page 9). The element traces this to North County Recreation: when it was formed, both Sebastian and Fellsmere were small cities without the capacity to serve unincorporated county residents, so the county paid for north county programs (Recreation Element, page 10).

Table 10.4 of the element numbers the county's 70 recreational parks, and the Fellsmere entries run from 61 to 67: Senior League Park, Little League Park, the Fellsmere Preserve, Grant Park, the tennis and handball court, Sonrise Villas Park and Whispering Pines Park (Recreation Element, Table 10.4).

Fellsmere Grade, the levee road west of town, is one of five corridors the county designates as scenic or historic roads. The element defines the Fellsmere Grade segment as running from SR 507 west to Lateral M (Levee 76 and S-96-B), a St. Johns River Water Management District project (Recreation Element, page 34).

Florida State Parks gives St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park an address of 1000 Buffer Preserve Drive, Fellsmere, hours of 8 a.m. to sunset 365 days a year, and no fee required for day use.

Florida State Parks lists the Fellsmere state park phone as 321-953-5005 and posts a road improvement project at the park from October 5 to November 5, 2026, in three phases, with no access from the Babcock entrance on weekdays and the entrance accessible on weekends unless otherwise noted (Florida State Parks). The City of Fellsmere's tourism page credits St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park with 60 miles of picturesque, untouched natural beauty and with protecting the West Indian manatee, the red-cockaded woodpecker and the Florida scrub jay (City of Fellsmere, Community and Tourism).

West of the Fellsmere city limits, the same city page points to Blue Cypress Lake, which it calls one of the world's largest osprey nesting sites and one of the top fishing spots in the world for bass and crappie (City of Fellsmere).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Fellsmere website.