Halpatiokee Regional Park — Attraction in Stuart

The park is nice. My lack of stars concerns something that certainly could have been helped. We drove over 3 hrs to attend my niece's only child, (first great-grand child)'s 1st birthday- a huge event, to be sure. There were approx. 40-60 guests throughout the day. After 3 hours of setting up the closed in Pavilion, down to the most minute detail (as her mother, my sister, has gifings of), the decorations just so, the goodie travel boxes perfectly placed, the signage arranged precisely (a feat in itself if you knew the quantity of various activities)- They were met with another family that told they'd rented the pavilion. So, for the next long time, just as the party should have been starting, everything had to be removed, taken down, put away and moved to a pavilion a third of the size, with no screen. I did not see my niece for over half an hour as she went to cry. Here's the issue, as I found out later. She had tried, several months ago, to reserve that covered, screened in pavilion. Online says to call 'this number', however, her calls were not answered and the messages she left, never returned. Then she called another number and was told to call 'this number' yet again. She tries, again, several times, several different days, etc. No answer, message left. No return call. Another person she did talk to at a different number than the one supposed to make the reservation, once being told by my niece that there's never an answer, nor a call back, tells my niece that as far as they can tell they no longer take a reservation for the pavilion, that it is a first come, first served basis. So, she gives up contacting the absent reservation person, figuring that is the answer for why no one seems to be 'there'. Fast forward to party day. All of the decorators, set-up-ers plan a very early morning to snag the pavilion before any others, (and you now know, they did! Jubilee!). No signage anywhere around to say it had been reserved (and HOW had someone reserved it when the person apparently taking reservations is AWOL for months?!?). Even if she was in the wrong for not continuing to try to reserve the pavilion, she was NOT wrong to assume it was open this particular day as a first come basis, because the signage telling of a reservation is as absent as the reservation taker! 3 hours' work, only to be made to spend time DURING the party at this point, to remove it all, move it all, TRY to reset it all up (that, unfortunately, and sadly, did not happen.) Obviously, the birthday boy had no complaints, but as the very first birthday party his mother gets to plan for her only child, and his grandma gets to make home made almost everything for her first grandchild, to be almost ruined by something that should never have happened if SOMEONE had done their job (who knows who this person may be, but I sincerely hope they'll take their job more seriously, or find a more suitable job to an apparent plain laziness). I hope anyone planning a big event that has plans or desires to use said covered pavilion gets to read this and doesn't have to go through the nightmare my poor niece...

At 65 acres, Halpatiokee Regional Park is the largest park in Martin County. The park is well known for sports activities and it has soccer/football fields, tennis courts, softball/baseball fields, disc golf course, and an open air roller-hockey rink. The park also has picnic pavilions that can be reserved and a playground.

The reason I love the park however is for the 500 acres of wetland preserve that surrounds the park. The park has 4 miles of river front on South Fork of the St. Lucie River so you can kayak. Ecosystems in the park include pine flatwoods, oak hammock, scrub and river land. These habitats provide protection for hundreds of species of native flora and fauna, including 13 species that are designated by the State of Florida as endangered or threatened. Going through the preserve is a mile long hiking trail built by Tropical Trekkers. The South Fork Nature Trail connects together two prior trails that the Tropical Trekkers built along the South Fork of the St. Lucie River. There is also a separate mountain bike trail built by the Airborne Mountain Bike Club. You can find the trailheads past all the ballfields, at the very back of the park where the park road ends.

This week a cyclist was bitten by an alligator in the park after he fell off a bridge into the water. Unfortunately he landed next to what was likely a mother alligator protecting her nest. The cyclist is going to be okay and the nest and mother were relocated. The parks name, Halpatiokee is actually the Seminole Indian word meaning "Alligator Water." Although alligator attacks are actually very rare in Florida it is best to stay out of the lakes and wetlands whenever possible. The bike paths in the park...

I’m in from out of town visiting my parents. Brought my bike in hopes to find something decent to ride. This place is pretty neat . Nothing to exciting for intermediate or experienced riders . But an excellent ride to get in a good workout. They have done a great job on the trails. Trail work done by Airborne mtb crew. The park in general is very clean and well maintained!

The only bad experience I had was an older man coming up behind me yelling and basically cutting me off the trail to stop me and cuss me out. I came into a turn fast and skidded through the berm so He had to cry and moan about it. He let me know that’s why they have to fix the trails so much. (More like Probably because they are made out of sand buddy) I struggle with a lot of health conditions and spend most of my life in and out of hospitals and specialist offices. It really must be nice to not have any real problems in life so all you worry about how people are riding trials you help maintain. These ones are on State Park property to boot. Ok, Paul Blart trail patrol calm da heck dahn. I’ve been building trails in different states for 20 years. I’ve never worried about how people rode them unless they were purposely destroying something.

Other than that, it was a blast. I wanted to make a nice donation to the Airborne trail crew since I rode it a bunch and I might be coming back and fourth a bit from Pa to Fl. But the encounter with that man put a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I still will if I find out he’s not a part of it. Don’t...