Hiking trails — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian's hiking trails sit in three clusters: county scrub preserves inside the Sebastian Highlands, the 60-mile trail network of St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park west of I-95, and short lagoon and hammock walks along Jungle Trail and the barrier island.

No single agency runs them. Indian River County manages the conservation tracts in town, the City of Sebastian maintains the Stormwater Treatment Area on Englar Drive, Florida State Parks runs the river preserve and Sebastian Inlet State Park, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs Pelican Island and Archie Carr. The table compares the main hiking options by distance on foot, using each manager's own figures.

The two longest networks, St. Sebastian River Preserve and the North Sebastian Conservation Area, are also the only ones near Sebastian where trails are shared with horses. Everything on the lagoon and the barrier island is short, flat and measured in fractions of a mile.

Inside Sebastian, the hiking is on four connected scrub and wetland tracts: the North Sebastian Conservation Area off Main Street, and the Sebastian Harbor Preserve, Stormwater Park and Sebastian Scrub Conservation Area along Englar and Schumann drives in the Sebastian Highlands.

The North Sebastian Conservation Area is the largest. Indian River County lists it at 1295 Main St with about 407 acres and over 10 miles of trails, boardwalks across the wetlands, two equestrian stalls at the main entrance and restrooms at Friendship Park. The county bought it between 1996 and 1999 under three Florida Communities Trust grants to protect scrub for the Florida scrub-jay, and it is the only county conservation tract that allows equestrian use (Indian River County). The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail counts eighteen trail segments there, names the Jays Walk from the equestrian entrance off Main St. just west of Gibson St. and the Territory Trail as the best routes for scrub-jays, and lists a Little Loop trail and a Powerline Road Trail; it gives the size as 553 acres, a figure that differs from the county's (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail).

The second cluster lies in the Sebastian Highlands. Sebastian Harbor Preserve, at 184 Englar Drive, is a 163-acre county tract bought in 2007, open 7:30 a.m. to sunset, with walking trails, no parking spaces and a no-pets rule (Indian River County). Its southern edge meets the Stormwater Park, which the City of Sebastian describes as a stormwater treatment area at 297 Englar Drive where 163 acres were set aside for walking trails through oak hammocks, pine flatwoods, scrub and herbaceous wetlands, entered from the south side of Englar Drive between Barber Street and Schumann Drive (City of Sebastian). County pages give the stormwater park as 166 acres in one place and 179 acres in another, owned by the St. Johns River Water Management District.

The smallest link in the corridor is the 10-acre Sebastian Scrub Conservation Area at 1258 Schumann Drive, about half a mile north of Barber Street. Indian River County lists its walking trails as under development, though it has cleared trails and firebreaks and put up an informational kiosk (Indian River County). County pages describe Harbor Preserve, Stormwater Park and the Scrub Conservation Area as one connected wildlife corridor through the Sebastian Highlands.

The longest hikes near Sebastian are in St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, whose 60 miles of trails are split evenly between Brevard and Indian River counties west of Interstate 95.

Florida State Parks warns that most of the preserve's trails are very long and better suited to horseback riding, mountain biking and extended hikes, and that all visitors should carry water and sun protection. Riders must stay off any path posted with the park's blue hikers-only sign. The Indian River County side is the closest to Sebastian: the scrub-jay viewing area is on the southwest side of the preserve, 1 mile west of Interstate 95 off County Road 512, and the two picnic pavilions sit on the southeast side in Indian River County. Red-cockaded woodpeckers are found on the northeast side, reached from the Stumper Flats or Horseman's Headquarters parking areas, and the visitor center on the Brevard side opens Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with trail maps for each section (Florida State Parks).

The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail lists the preserve at 21,628 acres, free to enter, open daily 8 a.m. to sunset, with a south entrance on WW Ranch Rd in Sebastian and a north entrance at 990 Buffer Preserve Dr in Fellsmere. For the woodpeckers it points hikers to the yellow trail from the equestrian trailhead on Buffer Preserve Dr (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail). Pets are welcome on a hand-held 6-foot leash, which sets the preserve apart from Pelican Island and Sebastian Harbor Preserve, where pets are not allowed.

Along the Indian River Lagoon east of Sebastian, the trails are short walks at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, Captain Forster Hammock Preserve on Jungle Trail, and Sebastian Inlet State Park.

Pelican Island has the most mileage. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages approximately seven miles of trails reached from Historic Jungle Trail, 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet, open daily from 7:30 a.m. until sunset with no drinking water on site (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). The Centennial Trail is a three-quarter-mile accessible boardwalk with more than 569 engraved planks, one for each refuge in the system, ending at an 18-foot observation tower with two spotting scopes aimed at the Pelican Island rookery. The Joe Michael Memorial Trail runs 2.54 miles around a managed mosquito impoundment with a salt-marsh observation deck about a mile in, and Bird's Impoundment Trail runs 2.72 miles with bank fishing on the lagoon side. A 0.63-mile Wildlife Trail completes the set (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

Farther south on Jungle Trail, Captain Forster Hammock Preserve at 8650 Jungle Trail has about a mile of walking trails through 111 acres, one mile south of County Road 510. Maritime hammock covers about 68 percent of the site, and Indian River County calls it one of the last remaining mature maritime hammocks in the county. Access is only from Jungle Trail, bicycles are prohibited and dogs must be leashed (Indian River County).

At the inlet, Florida State Parks describes the Hammock Trail at Sebastian Inlet State Park as a mile-long nature trail under a coastal palm and oak hammock along the edge of the mangroves, with plant identification signs (Florida State Parks). The Fish and Wildlife Service lists the same Sebastian Inlet State Park Hammock Trail as a 0.9 mile loop, and north of the inlet in Brevard County it lists the Barrier Island Sanctuary Trail at .75 mile, running from the Barrier Island Center to beach access (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

Rules differ by manager around Sebastian: Pelican Island bans pets and bicycles, Sebastian Harbor Preserve bans pets, and St. Sebastian River Preserve and the North Sebastian Conservation Area allow leashed dogs and horses.

The Fish and Wildlife Service states that bicycles are not allowed on Pelican Island trails and that no pets are allowed, only service animals (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). Indian River County applies its own lists tract by tract: leashed dogs, no alcohol, no camping and no fires at the North Sebastian Conservation Area; no pets, no alcohol and no glass containers at Sebastian Harbor Preserve; and no bicycles plus a ban on taking plants or other natural resources at Captain Forster Hammock Preserve on Jungle Trail.

Hours are similar everywhere except the state preserve. The county tracts in Sebastian and on Jungle Trail all open at 7:30 a.m. and close at sunset year round, the same hours as Pelican Island, while St. Sebastian River Preserve opens at 8 a.m. Cyclists who want trails rather than footpaths have options too: Florida State Parks lists three mountain bike trails at Sebastian Inlet State Park, all starting at the park's Bayside Marina, and mountain or fat-tire bikes on the river preserve's sandy trails west of Sebastian.