Wabasso Causeway Park — Sebastian, Florida

Wabasso Causeway Park is a 13.4-acre Indian River County park built along the Wabasso Causeway, the County Road 510 crossing of the Indian River Lagoon between the Wabasso mainland and Orchid Island. Indian River County describes it as four lobes along the causeway, with a boat launch and restroom facilities on the south-east lobe, covered pavilions, grills, picnic tables and plenty of shoreline for fishing, canoe launching and sunbathing. The park is open daily from 7am to sunset.

For Sebastian, the causeway is the nearest lagoon crossing to the south. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service routes drivers heading to Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge from County Road 512 (Sebastian Boulevard) onto 90th Avenue and then straight onto County Road 510 toward A1A, which carries traffic past the park lobes and over the Wabasso bridges. The park itself carries a Vero Beach mailing address at 3105 Wabasso Bridge Road, but it sits in the north county corridor that links Sebastian, Wabasso and the north end of Orchid Island.

The county park listing counts 9 grills, 9 pavilions and 14 picnic tables spread across the four Wabasso Causeway lobes, along with boat trailer parking spaces, open parking, a drinking fountain, restrooms and an outdoor shower. The boat ramp is on the south-east lobe, and the county lists the water as 6 feet deep at the end of the ramp. The county also describes beaches on the river for wading, fishing, sunbathing and canoes. Those river beaches line the Indian River Lagoon shoreline of the causeway between Wabasso and Orchid Island.

Indian River County applies its standard park rules at Wabasso Causeway Park. Pets are not permitted (County Ordinance 205.03.22), alcohol is not permitted (County Ordinance 205.03.26), and open fires, camping, overnight parking, fireworks, remote controlled aircraft and golfing are prohibited.

The causeway shoreline has been used for more than picnics. In June 2013, Vero News reported that thirty amateur radio operators gathered on the Wabasso Causeway for the annual two-day Field Day. In November 2024, Vero News reported that ORCA's Day in the Life of the Lagoon event sent students from schools including Sebastian River High School and Sebastian Charter Junior High to sampling sites that included the Wabasso Causeway.

Published accounts of the Wabasso bridge's age differ. In July 2022, Vero News reported that the high span over the lagoon was built in 1970 to replace the historic wooden swing bridge constructed in 1920. A 2015 Vero News article instead states that the bridge dates back to 1927 and was rebuilt as a concrete span that reopened in 1970. Both accounts agree on the 1970 concrete high span that now carries County Road 510 between Wabasso and Orchid Island.

The low bridges have been rebuilt more recently. In July 2014, Vero News reported that construction on three low-level bridges on the Wabasso Causeway between the Wabasso mainland and Orchid Island was expected to continue until summer 2015, as part of a $2.11 million Florida Department of Transportation project.

The look of the causeway parks changed in 2021 and 2022. According to Vero News, FDOT removed the Australian pines that had shaded the little parks along the causeway for decades, at a cost of approximately $112,000, because they are officially considered invasive non-native species. They were replaced with gumbo limbo, pigeon plum, sabal palms and buttonwood. On the high span, a $180,000 chain-link bike and pedestrian fence was halted in September 2021 after FDOT received more than 150 complaints, mainly from Town of Orchid residents, according to Vero News. A redesigned $1.4 million railing project was scheduled to start in April 2023, with a first phase on the north side of the County Road 510 bridge, according to Vero News.

Indian River County has begun planning a redesign. In October 2024, Vero News reported that the county had secured a $75,000 grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) to redesign Wabasso Causeway Park, one of three grants collected while the county prepared its Parks, Recreation and Conservation Master Plan. In January 2025, Vero News reported that Wabasso Causeway Park will receive parking lot and boat ramp improvements in the coming years, with the FIND grant paying for the design. The same report noted that other new county docks and ramps had been raised about 12 inches to accommodate rising water during storms. No construction cost or schedule for the Wabasso Causeway work had been published in the sources reviewed as of October 2026.

The Florida Inland Navigation District also has a long history on this stretch of the Indian River Lagoon. In October 2014, Vero News reported that FIND and the Army Corps of Engineers would dredge the Intracoastal Waterway in north Indian River County for the first time in more than 50 years, removing 300,000 cubic yards of muck from the navigation channel between the Wabasso Causeway and the Sebastian Inlet at a cost of $6,058,675. The dredged material went to a containment site in Sebastian.

The Environmental Learning Center is located off County Road 510 at the end of the Wabasso Bridge, on a 64-acre campus with exhibit areas, native plant gardens and a visitor center, according to Vero News. For events at the center in 2010, visitors were directed to free parking in the Wabasso Causeway parking areas with shuttles to the center.

At the ocean end of Wabasso Beach Road, Wabasso Beach Park is a 0.46-acre county beach park with lifeguards on duty from 9:10am to 4:50pm, restrooms, showers and an ADA crossover. North along A1A, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service places the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge public use areas on the Historic Jungle Trail, 3.7 miles north of Wabasso Beach Road (CR 510) or 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet.

On the mainland side, conservation land has been assembled along the lagoon south of the causeway. In April 2024, Vero News reported that Indian River Land Trust holdings in Wabasso extended north to a large block of lagoon-front land owned by the Florida Inland Navigation District near the Wabasso Causeway.