Lakewood Regional Park and Preserve

Lakewood Regional Park and Preserve is a 156-acre St. Lucie County park at 5990 Emerson Avenue, Fort Pierce, where 120 acres are kept as preserve beside ball fields, courts and a pool.

The county's Lakewood Park Preserve page describes the site as a mix of developed athletic facilities and preserved natural landscape, run jointly by the Parks and Recreation department and the Environmental Resources department (St. Lucie County, Lakewood Park Preserve). That split shows up in the contacts: the page lists (772) 462-2110 for Parks and (772) 462-2526 for the Environmental Resources Department preserve contact, with the address 5990 Emerson Avenue, Fort Pierce, FL 34951. The county's Disc Golf Courses page gives the same street address with the ZIP code 34953 (St. Lucie County Disc Golf Courses).

The address carries a Fort Pierce mailing city. The Census Bureau geocoder matches it as 5990 EMERSON AVE, FORT PIERCE, FL, 34951 and, among the census designated place, incorporated place and county layers requested, returns only St. Lucie County (Census Bureau geocoder result for 5990 Emerson Avenue). The county facility directory also lists a different site, Lakewood Neighborhood Park at 6102 Kings Highway, Fort Pierce, so the Emerson Avenue regional park and the Kings Highway neighborhood park are two separate county listings (St. Lucie County facility directory).

Lakewood Regional Park combines sports facilities with a nature preserve, so one visit can include a ball game, pickleball, disc golf, a swim and a walk on more than two miles of trail.

The county lists these amenities on the Lakewood Park Preserve page: multi-purpose nature trails, picnic pavilions, bike racks, a bike fixing station, educational signage, benches, athletic fields, baseball and softball, pickleball courts, a disc golf course, a playground, a swimming pool and splashpad, and restrooms (Lakewood Park Preserve amenities). The county's preserves overview sums up the site in one line as two miles of trail beside a disc golf course, pickleball courts and a pool (Preserves of St. Lucie County).

Phones for the pickleball courts and pool come from the county facility directory, which lists both at 5990 Emerson Ave, Fort Pierce (facility directory listings for Lakewood Regional Park).

The Lakewood Regional Park disc golf course is a free, 18-hole layout created in 2018 to Professional Disc Golf Association standards, open for play during daylight hours.

St. Lucie County's Disc Golf Courses page, which lists Lakewood Park Regional Park first, says the county keeps three disc golf courses at county-maintained parks and preserves, all open to the public for free play during daylight, and that players must bring their own discs (St. Lucie County Disc Golf Courses). At Lakewood, the course was built in 2018 to PDGA standards with help from volunteers of a local nonprofit disc golf group, is regulation size, and has its 18 baskets spread through the 156-acre multi-use sports complex.

The same county page describes the other two public courses for players who want to compare. Gordy Road Recreation Area, at 3650 Gordy Road, Fort Pierce, opened its course in 2007 and currently plays 18 holes over water hazards and narrow fairways. Donald B. Moore Preserve, at 305 Torpey Road, Fort Pierce, has a 9-hole course designed in 2006 with an average hole length of about 300 feet, which the county calls a good course for beginners.

St. Lucie County posts Lakewood Park Preserve hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and the park's fields and pavilions can be rented through St. Lucie County Parks and Recreation.

Those hours come from the Lakewood Park Preserve page, which also lists Environmental Resources Department office hours of Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Lakewood Park Preserve hours). For county preserves in general, the preserves overview gives different hours, dawn to dusk seven days a week including holidays, and says there is no gate fee, parking fee or reservation (St. Lucie County preserve visiting rules).

For bookings, the Lakewood page says athletic fields and pavilions are available to rent and directs renters to Parks and Recreation. The county's Athletic Fields page adds that field rental information is on its county map or at 772-462-1523, and it filters fields by baseball and softball, basketball, and football and soccer (Athletic Fields in St. Lucie County). Pool questions go to the Lakewood Park Pool line, (772) 462-3772, from the facility directory.

Lakewood Park Pool is one of three pools in the St. Lucie County Aquatics program, which posts swim lessons at $75 for an 8-class session as of October 22, 2026.

The county Aquatics page lists Ravenswood Pool, Lakewood Park Pool and Arthur Lee Boatwright Pool in its menu and describes Red Cross-approved swim lessons taught by certified instructors (St. Lucie County Pools and Aquatics). Every lesson runs 35 minutes, a session is 8 classes, and the posted price is $75 per session, with financial aid available. Registration is online or in person at one of the county pools, full payment is due on the day of registration, and classes are group lessons filled first come, first served.

The county says its swim lessons take place outdoors and can be canceled for weather. The county says staff will try to call about 30 minutes before a lesson if bad weather will cancel it, will try to make up canceled classes on one of two potential make-up days, and will not make up a class that weather ends after it is more than 50% complete. For the pool's own questions, the facility directory lists Lakewood Park Pool at 5990 Emerson Ave with the phone (772) 462-3772 (Lakewood Park Pool listing).

The preserve side of Lakewood Regional Park has easy trails over more than two miles through pine flatwoods and wetland, where gopher tortoises and herons are commonly seen.

The county rates the Lakewood trail easy and describes paved, gravel and natural-surface trails that total more than two miles (Lakewood Park Preserve trail and habitat). Habitats listed are mesic flatwoods, palmetto flatwoods, wax myrtle wetland and wet pine flatwoods, and the commonly seen wildlife named is boat-tailed grackle, various heron species, northern mockingbird and gopher tortoise.

The Lakewood Park Preserve belongs to the county's Environmental Lands program. According to the preserves overview, the program dates to 1994, the year voters approved a $20 million bond to buy and protect land before it was developed, and the county has since added money through partners including the Florida Communities Trust and the South Florida Water Management District (how the St. Lucie County preserves came to be). The overview's general advice for county preserve visits: natural-surface trails can flood in the wet season, and the county suggests water, sun protection, insect repellent and closed shoes, leashed pets, staying on marked trails, and packing out trash.

The park was once called Capron Trail Park and now honors the Hernandez-Capron Trail, a route the county says carried troops and supplies between Fort Capron, Fort Vinton and Fort Dallas.

According to the county's Lakewood Park Preserve page, the site was previously referred to as Capron Trail Park and was renamed to pay tribute to the historic Hernandez-Capron Trail. The county describes that trail as running from Fort Capron to Fort Vinton in Indian River County and on south to Fort Dallas close to Miami (Lakewood Park Preserve historical interest). The page says the trail served as the only pathway for troop and supply transport for more than twenty years.

The county facility directory lists the Lakewood Park Branch Library at 7605 Santa Barbara Dr, Fort Pierce, phone (772) 462-6870 (Lakewood Park Branch Library listing); the Lakewood Park Library guide on Digital Towns covers that branch. Last verified: October 22, 2026, through same-day reads of the county Lakewood Park Preserve page, the preserves overview, the facility directory, the disc golf, aquatics and athletic field pages, and a Census geocoder lookup of 5990 Emerson Avenue.