Phipps Park

SPOTLESS BATHROOMS! We tent camped here 2 nights in January. This is a great park for convenience to other things (we ubered to downtown Stuart for live music at Terra Fermata) but being convenient means it’s not quiet. The highway noise if significant but we were just there to sleep while we paddled and did other stuff during the day so we didn’t mind it at all. The bathroom building is large and the bathrooms were very nice and absolutely spotless! It’s right on the river and there is a small lake/​pond in the park complete with gators. The sites are open without much tree cover so would be hot in summer but they were perfect for winter camping. Fairly good sized with a fire pit and picnic table. Quite a few long term RVers in the park in January. It’s difficult to book ahead, there doesn’t seem to be any way to call the park directly that I could find, so plan to arrive first to secure your site and get the gate code and then return after your adventures.

What an awesome, educational experience at this park. When you first pull up, you’ll see a playground, and then lots of fences that look like top security. Well, what lies behind those fences is the next to last lock before you reach the Atlantic Ocean when traveling along the man-​made Okeechobee waterway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. This waterway was made to provide storm drainage throughout the state, allow a way for boaters to pass through the middle of the state to get from one body of water to another, and as a way to keep water in the Okeechobee Lake. I grew up on the Treasure Coast of FL, but never knew this existed! There are quite a few locks along the waterway, which keeps the water dispersed and prevents it all from draining out into the ocean.
Depending on the water level, the locks open to allow boats in. Sometimes they do this on a schedule, other times on demand. While I was there this weekend, I saw it open twice. On the western side is a lake/​river that is 14 ft higher than the lake on the other side of the lock. The lock is a passageway that serves as a dam between the two waterways. There is a walkway over the lock, which allows you to go to the other part of the park, where there are picnic tables, an outhouse, several nature trails, and a fire ring. Apparently this is also a campground. You can watch the lock open from either side, but you are stuck on that side until it closes back up. When it’s time for the lock to open (you will usually see boats waiting on the one side of it), an alarm will ring which will cause the fences in front of the walkway over the lock to close. Then, what looks like a dam will open slightly, and water will begin to pour in from the higher side to the inside of the lock (14 ft). This continues until the water is the same height, and then the lock opens all the way and the boats come inside. Then, they close the lock and the boats tie up, but allow themselves 14 ft of slack, as they will now drop to the level of the lake on the other side. The lock gate on the other side then opens slightly to allow the water to drain out, and when the water levels are even it opens, allowing the boats to pass, and then the gates close. Pretty neat to watch!
The park itself is kind of an eyesore with all the gates and equipment, although there are pretty views overlooking the water if you venture far enough away. The trails are pretty, and there are lots of wildlife.