McCarty Ranch Preserve

McCarty Ranch Preserve offers trails for walking, biking and horseback riding, lakes covering over 300 acres that are open to fishing, canoeing and kayaking, an 18-hole disc golf course and tent and RV camping.

The city's preserve page sums up the site as a mix of land and water activities in a rustic setting, with cleared trails and a lake system it describes as spanning over 300 acres (City of Port St. Lucie, McCarty Ranch Preserve). Its amenity snapshot lists a boat and canoe launch, camping with RV and tent sites, disc golf, equestrian use, fishing, open space, parking, ADA restrooms, trails and free wifi. Day visitors can come from 8 a.m. to sunset; the page notes that extended hours are available for paid camping reservations, and the number the page lists for the preserve is 772-878-2277.

The preserve's posted address is 12525 Range Line Rd., Port St. Lucie 34987, west of I-95 and south of the intersection of Glades Cut Off Rd. and Range Line Rd. (McCarty Ranch Preserve, Directions). Coming from the north, the city's directions run from Midway Rd. to Glades Cut Off Rd., then south on Range Line Rd. for four miles to an entrance on the right. From the south, the route heads west on Martin Hwy. (FL-714) and north on SW Allapattah Rd. for approximately seven miles, a road the page says becomes SW Twigg Ave. and then Dairy Rd./Range Line Rd., with the entrance on the left.

McCarty Ranch Preserve offers 6 RV trailer sites plus 13 primitive tent sites, booked online or in person at the Community Center, with posted rates of $20 a night for tents and $23 a night for RVs, plus tax.

Every site has a lantern hook, a fire ring fitted with a cooking grate and a six-foot picnic table, and tent pads measure approximately 20 x 20 feet, according to the campsite features list on the preserve page (McCarty Ranch Preserve, Primitive Tent and RV Camp Sites). Two ADA fire rings sit at RV Site #1 and Tent Site #1, and bathroom facilities with showers are on site. The page is plain about the limits: there is no parking, no water connection and no electricity at the sites themselves. Leashed pets are allowed.

Reservations are first-come, first-served, made online or at the Parks and Recreation offices at the Community Center. The department's Reservations and Rentals page repeats that the preserve's RV and tent sites are reserved either online or in person at the PSL Community Center, says no reservation is taken by phone, and notes that its fees carry Florida Department of Revenue sales tax under Chapter 12A-1.001 (City of Port St. Lucie, Reservations and Rentals, Camp Site Rentals).

At McCarty Ranch, anglers aged 16 and up need a Florida freshwater fishing license, paddling is limited to designated areas with life jackets for every occupant, and swimming and wading are not allowed.

The preserve guidelines add that no lifeguard is on duty and that boats have needed no permit since March 2025 (McCarty Ranch Preserve, Preserve Guidelines). The guidelines warn of alligators, snakes, bobcats, panthers and feral hogs among other wildlife, and call the terrain natural and uneven. Helmets are required by Florida statute for equestrians and cyclists under 16, and safety gear is recommended for every rider. Dogs must be on a leash of 6 feet or less and carry a current rabies vaccination; legitimate service animals are permitted.

The McCarty Ranch prohibited list covers feeding wildlife; collecting or disturbing plants, animals, rocks or minerals; littering and dumping; fireworks; ATVs, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles; gas-powered motorized watercraft and remote-controlled boats and planes; charcoal and wood fireplaces; and hunting and archery. Fires and alcoholic beverages appear on that list for visitors who lack a camping reservation.

City documents put McCarty Ranch Preserve at 3,107 acres in total, though one master plan passage says 3,097 acres, and they list either 600 or 700 acres as open for public outdoor recreation.

The Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update describes McCarty Ranch Preserve as one of three nature preserves in the system, with 600 acres available for public outdoor recreation including hiking, biking, fishing, canoeing, disc golf, horseback riding and camping, and states that the preserve totals 3,107 acres and includes +/- 370 acres of water impoundment areas (Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update, Nature Preserves). Its inventory table lists the site at 600.0 acres with a 2014 date in the Preserve class, while a later passage on the Naturally PSL initiative names the 3,097-acre McCarty Ranch Preserve, Recreation and Water Quality Project. The Recreation and Open Space Element inventory also lists 600 acres, under the PA-P designation, at 12525 Range Line Road (Recreation and Open Space Element, park inventory).

The Future Land Use Element gives a different figure. It says the city owns and manages approximately 3,960 acres of parkland and that an additional 700 acres is available for public outdoor recreation at McCarty Ranch Preserve, 53% of which is water (Future Land Use Element, parks and recreation). The preserve page itself describes a lake system spanning over 300 acres.

The City of Port St. Lucie acquired the land in 2012 to serve as a water storage and treatment facility, and the city says future recreation there will complement that primary utility role.

According to the preserve's history section, the 3,107 acres of old Florida pinelands and lakes were formed from former mining operations, acquired by the city in 2012 and incorporated in 2013, with the aim of serving as a water storage and treatment facility that meets the city's water demands for decades (McCarty Ranch Preserve, History). The name honors the McCarty family, which the city credits with growing pineapples in St. Lucie County beginning in the 1880s before expanding into citrus farming and cattle ranching.

The water project on the land is the St. Lucie River/C-23 Water Quality Project. Utility Systems describes it as converting approximately 1,871 acres of fallow citrus grove and a 315-acre water impoundment at the preserve into a shallow water storage facility of seven reservoirs that receive water diverted from the C-23 Canal, and says it is anticipated to keep up to 21% of excess C-23 Canal discharges from entering the North Fork of the St. Lucie River (City of Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie River/C-23 Water Quality Project). The same page lists Area 1 complete in July 2019, Area 2 in August 2020 and Area 3 in March 2021. The city's Water Quality Initiatives page dates the groundbreaking for the McCarty Ranch Extension Water Quality Project to late 2017 (City of Port St. Lucie, Water Quality Initiatives). A separate Digital Towns guide to the C-23 water quality project covers that work in depth.

The city has run a public process for a McCarty Ranch Preserve Conceptual Master Plan, and its parks master plan lists camping enhancements at the preserve with a conceptual plan approved.

The preserve page says the city invited the public to a survey, open from Oct. 20 to Dec. 11, 2023, to gather ideas for recreation amenities, and that the ideas would be reviewed for feasibility and alignment with the site's core purpose (McCarty Ranch Preserve, Master Plan for Recreation Amenities). It adds that future recreation will complement the site's primary role in meeting the city's utility needs while preserving its natural resources, and that public and stakeholder engagement sessions will shape the plan, with dates and times to be announced.

In its list of park and trail projects, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update includes McCarty Ranch Camping Enhancements and describes the conceptual plan as approved (Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update, project list). The preserve's ADA policy states that the city aims for the highest feasible level of physical access to wilderness areas while keeping undeveloped areas away from buildings and roads typically unmodified.

Last verified: October 22, 2026, by re-reading the McCarty Ranch page's own camping, guidelines and history sections, the Reservations and Rentals camp site entry, both water quality pages and the acreage passages in three adopted city plans.