Palm Coast Parks and Facilities

The City of Palm Coast has many parks and facilities for your enjoyment, including 50 miles of biking and walking paths.

Belle Terre Park

This 10 acre park is located on Belle Terre Parkway behind Wadsworth Elementary School and Frieda Zamba Swimming Pool. Park amenities include:
(3) Tennis courts (lighted)
(2) Three Wall Handball/Racquetball Courts (lighted)
(2) Soccer/Football fields (unlighted)
(1) Gazebo
Frieda Zamba Swimming Pool with Meeting Room

Bird of Paradise Nature Reserve

Bird of Paradise Nature Reserve, located on Bird of Paradise Drive, offers the better of two worlds in one Neighborhood Park. As a resource based park, it is on the shoreline of Bird of Paradise Lake. As a passive park, it provides neighborhood residents a place to sit and enjoy nature.

Central Park in Town Center

Swiftly becoming one of the City’s most popular event venues, Central Park in Town Center boasts several acres of open space in the heart of Palm Coast’s new downtown. Located on Central Avenue near Bulldog Drive (just north of Flagler Palm Coast High School), Central Park is surrounded by a one-half mile walking path around its perimeter, has a sound speaker system throughout the park and offers a concrete extension designed for staging performances or ceremonies. Parking is abundant and brand new restroom facilities were recently added to the property.

Children’s Memorial Garden

A Place to Rest, Reflect and Recall

A child’s death violates all that we expect from life’s natural course of events. We assume that children outlive their parents and when this unthinkable tragedy occurs, it is hard to imagine that anything can make a family whole again.

With the possible exception of a garden…gardens are inspirational, healing, restoring and beautiful. Gardens are sites where memories can grow freely, much like its greenery and plants.

A Children’s Memorial Garden will soon flourish along the Intracoastal Waterway, situated north across the walking bridge, along the beautiful new trail at the City’s St. Joe Walkway and the future Palm Coast Waterfront Park. The venue will be dedicated to all residents and especially to those whose children have passed on. It was created to especially encourage families to accept and remember our precious children as they continue with the process of healing.

The idea was introduced to the City Council and staff by several residents who have lost children and it germinated into a tender tribute that will open this summer. Elements of the Children’s Memorial Garden will include several 8-foot benches, bronze plaques and engraved granite, as well as native plants and trees along a natural shell pathway. Distinctive bluestone pavers will mark the walkway through the garden, many marked with dedications written by families wishing to honor the memory of a child. Funding for this project is enlisted entirely from private donations.

The Garden is designed to be a comfortable, peaceful sanctuary for people to contemplate, a public site that will not focus on religion, ethnicity, age or circumstance of death. Nestled in the shade of old oak hammocks, in view of passing boats on the waterway, it will instead soften the sadness of visitors who need a special place to rest, reflect and recall special memories.

“This garden celebrates love and the innocence of children,” says Bill Butler, City of Palm Coast Landscape Architect. “Its beauty and tranquility helps one to relax and restore their inner peace.”

For more information on how to dedicate a memorial to a child, please contact Bill at 386-986-3760

Community Center & Park

Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE, is the site of the Recreation and Parks offices and activity rooms. It also has a large fenced playground and lighted basketball court. The Community Center is currently the host location for the Palm Coast City Council, its various advisory committee meetings, recreation programs and activities. In addition, the meeting rooms may be rented on a space and time available basis. For rental information, please call (386) 986-2323.

Frieda Zamba Swimming Pool

The Frieda Zamba Pool has recently undergone renovations and is now a heated, outdoor facility. Recreational swimming, classes, facility rentals, classroom and swim team activities will be continued on a year-round basis, from now on.

The Frieda Zamba City of Palm Coast Pool serves 800 residents per week on average throughout the year. It is a focal point for families as well as residents of all ages and abilities. The water is constantly sanitized and chemically balanced. The decks and bath house facility is also sanitized and disinfected routinely, on a daily basis.

Hours of Operation
Monday – Saturday: 10:30AM – 7:30PM
Sunday: 11:30AM – 7:30PM

Geocaching

The City of Palm Coast GIS Division is proud to introduce a new activity for residents and visitors called Geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which participants use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to hide and seek containers called “geocaches”. There are currently thousands of geocaches hidden around the world and more added each day as geocaching has increasingly gained in popularity.

The City is using geocaching to promote the many beautiful, public resources available in the area. We’ve taken the time to plant 10 geocaches in locations we feel are the hidden gems of Palm Coast. From parks to trails to natural reserves, we’ve hidden the caches and now we’re asking you to find them.

Heroes Memorial Park

A memorial to law enforcement personnel, firefighters, EMTS and members of the military from the City of Palm Coast who lost their lives in the line of duty.

2860 Palm Coast Parkway NW
Palm Coast, FL 32137

Indian Trails Sports Complex

Indian Trails Sports Complex is our newest facility located at 5455 Belle Terre Parkway next to Indian Trails Middle School. Amenities include:
(4) Soccer Fields (lighted)
(4) Baseball/Softball fields and concession stand (lighted)
(2) Sets of restrooms and pavilions
(1) Playground
The complex is heavily used by several local sports organizations. For information on reserving a field, please contact Recreation and Parks at (386) 986-2323.

James F. Holland Memorial Park

This park is located at 18 Florida Park Dr., approximately 1/2 mile north of Palm Coast Parkway. This is currently the City’s main active park. The many amenities include…
(2) Little League Baseball Fields (unlighted)
(2) Soccer Fields (unlighted)
(2) Outdoor Basketball Courts (lighted)
(3) Tennis Courts (lighted)
(4) Three Wall Handball/Racquetball Courts (lighted)
(2) Bocce Ball Courts (unlighted)
(2) Shuffleboard Courts
(3) Pavilions & (1) Gazebo and Restrooms
(1) Sand Volleyball Court
Stop by and visit our newest addition to Holland Park, our dog park! The dog park is now open daily during park hours. The park is located between pavilions #2 and #3 and is neatly fenced in. The park is open to all types and sizes of our favorite animal friends.
In the near future, we plan to install benches for dog owners and water fountains for dogs and owners.
There are three (3) pavilions available for reservations.
The park is open 7 A.M.-11 P.M. daily.

Palm Harbor Golf Club

When Bill Amick was pulled out of Daytona Beach to design and build a golf course for ITT, the second links layout in Palm Coast, no one realized the character that this young genius was about to install. As the years flew by only the smallest number held the fairways and greens to such status.

But when the course was sold and eventually demolished, reality began to set in, the Palm Harbor Golf Course suddenly took on a warm glow for what it really was and that pride is on the lips of all who ever played it. Now, it is Kemper Golf assigned the challenge of bringing this once proud name back to its glory days and, by golly, they are well on the road to getting it done, the character and all that Amick originally gave us.

Yes, Nancy Lopez was there for an extended period of time as the “Resident Pro.” She lived in a condo a few long hops from the 17th green while she kept her tour golf skills at the highest level. As a nice a lady as you’ll ever meet in golf or anywhere, Lopez took it upon herself to play 18-holes with Palm Harbor members, storied names like the late Joe East and Hal Kendrick. Tales of fondness and joy about Lopez and her days at Palm Harbor are told even today by such as Norma Kendrick, Patricia Eldridge, Hank Whitham and other Palm Harbor members of that time.

Palm Coast of those days was at the very beginning of a population growth that saw retirees pour in from New York, New Jersey, New England and other places north. As Lopez related while competing in a tournament at LPGA two years before she retired from the tour, “We didn’t have much back then, a gas station or two and a McDonalds. But I loved it at Palm Harbor.”

The Men’s and Women’s Association were huge factors at Palm Harbor, both for volume of play and introductions for the popular course to follow. Golfers swarmed in from Pine Lakes, Matanzas and Cypress Knoll to play in these weekly game challenges. The Palm Harbor Niners was hugely popular, golfers choosing to forego their preferred 18-holes of play just to be with the people involved. And it is seemingly as popular today, even without play activity. Joyce Jackson, a Palm Coast resident who ran the Niners for two of its last years, is ready to go once more. She has so many players signed up to re-join that the roster is filled even though the course is not yet ready for play. Jackson will be the President of the Niners again, all to the acclaim of everyone involved, and she can’t wait to take on the duty.

The roster for the Men’s Association was huge and among the last to serve as Committee Chairman before closing were people like George Rhatigan, David Kelsey, Hal Kendrick, Ed Mylis, Bill Brown, Bob Ross and Bob Jones. The most famous of all Palm Harbor Presidents was Joe East who saw to it that his Last Will and Testament donate an ongoing amount of money to Palm Harbor.

Names of Presidents that will return fond memories to this day include Joe Handrahan, Harry Shaw, Earl Kaufman, George Driscoll, Larry Sheridan, Bill Stoetzer, Don Oppert, Russ Leary and Joe East. The complete roster dates all the way back to 1973, a time when Palm Coast was just beginning to grow and, as Nancy Lopez pointed out, surviving with a gas station or two and a single restaurant.

Judd Canty was another special factor in the success of this golf course. He ran, directed and oversaw every phase of a number of golfers under the umbrella of “The Canty Group.” To site this band of golfers as popular is understating the regard and value.

Canty is a retired Massachusetts State Trooper, resides just off one of the Palm Harbor fairways and plays with the same enthusiasm for the so-called Jackson Group. The leader of these golfers, Mike Jackson, was a reasonable golf beginner when joining Palm Harbor. Canty became his close friend, took him into his organization and taught him everything he had to know in leading a group of men who want to play with friends by their side. Jackson leads the way even today at a variety of courses, from The Pine, to Grand Reserve, Halifax Plantation and several more. As a West Point graduate and retired Army colonel he hardly needed pointers from anyone but Canty’s lessons are something no one learns in school

There is not a lengthy portfolio of golf pros that served Palm Harbor because when they came they stayed. Among the most loved and respected even today are Gary Freeman and Kevin Doetch. Freeman, a gentle man of color, was treated far less than equally by owners of the time and eventually left to lead and teach at Bethune Cookman College in Daytona where he is now. Doetch left for Pine Lakes and today is the head of management at a beautiful golf course just outside of St. Mary’s in Georgia. It is better known as Kings Bay and the golf course is the property of the Atomic Submarine Base located there.

Among the names that bring a smile to golfers in Palm Coast today are Roy Barfield, a Past President of the Men’s Association, Don Bach who wrote member heroics for two different newspapers and Dale Bell who preferred Matanzas Woods where he lives but who is also chomping at the bit to play this special golf course many times more.

Although Sue Gronwoldt denies today the value she gave Palm Harbor members of the Women’s Association are quick to tell us different. She was and is a leader of the first order, a person who gives tirelessly of her time and knowledge and goes in the book as a Palm Harbor Icon.

Tony Maltese, a CPA from Brooklyn, NY, lives on the golf course and back then gave every bit of himself to keep the Men’s Association healthy and wealthy. Because of people like Maltese the organization never had money problems, could toss holiday banquets without fear of going broke, and ran the financial ship like only a brilliant mind could do. I’m not sure that we will ever see the likes of a Maltese at Palm Harbor again but if we do the organization will thank its lucky stars.

Another living just off the golf course and monitoring every half inch the grass grows is Dan Kelly. This member of the New York Softball Hall of Fame is playing here and there but make no mistake, Palm Harbor is in his soul and that’s where his humor will be heard two and three times a week. Toss another Palm Harbor coin and you’ll come up with names like Ed Ricker, Pat Van Dine and her late husband Jim, Don Wike, Ed Benedit, Art Branfeld, Ross Marteney and Bob Lawrence, a member everyone loved and does to this day even though he now plays the game at Halifax Plantation.

I know and cherished these many people, and so many more, because Palm Harbor gave me the privilege of serving their Men’s Association for three years. It was a wonderful honor – as well as a lot of hard work – and I’m grateful to the hundreds who allowed me to be one of them.

Palm Harbor was so loved back then that this beautiful golf course fit perfectly the words written by the famed Harvey Penick: “And if you play golf you’re my friend.” Boy, did that place have friends, men and women who to this day have Palm Harbor in their memory banks like no other golf course in Florida.

As for original designer Bill Amick, he is still in the business of building golf courses and probably doesn’t know the fame he has to this day because of what he did with Palm Harbor. What he did was create an icon that is cherished long after the first tuft of grass began to grow.

Now it’s Kemper Golf’s opportunity, the challenge of bringing these wonderful memories back into reality and of shaping the Palm Harbor we all knew and loved. From what former members have seen of the building stage prior to opening, the task is well on its way to a huge success.

Ralph Carter Park

Ralph Carter Park, adjacent to Rymfire School at 1385 Rymfire Drive, extends across 13.1 acres of land. It offers residents lighted multi-sports fields, a mini skate park, a lighted basketball court, walking trail, playground, bar-b-que grills and restroom facility. The park was named in memory of former City Council Member Ralph Carter who proudly served the City from 1999-2005.

St. Joe Walkway/Palm Coast Linear Park

St. Joe Walkway is located in the hammock area between the east and west bound lanes of Palm Coast Parkway just west of the Hammock Dunes Bridge. St. Joe Walkway, which begins at Clubhouse Dr. in front of the Palm Coast Community Center and can be followed to the Intracoastal Waterway. This is a beautiful shaded walkway that exhibits the true beauty of Florida. The walkway is two miles long (Community Center to Ocean Hammock Resort) and has been active for many years.

Palm Coast Linear Park is now open to the public. Opening hours are 7:00am to 7:00pm, daily. There are three (3) picnic areas which are all covered, an enclosed playground area for children, a main building which will serve as a concession area with restrooms, bocce and shuffleboard courts.

The park is surrounded by several mountain bike and palmetto trails that join St. Joe Walkway while being adequately shaded by a mixture of tall trees.

Trails (Trek it Out)

Seminole Woods Neighborhood Park

Seminole Woods Neighborhood Park, located at 350 Sesame Boulevard, has something for everyone to enjoy. The park is located on Sesame Blvd in Seminole Woods subdivision of Palm Coast. This is the first neighborhood park built in Palm Coast. The primary focus of neighborhood parks is to provide an easily accessible park for local residents to walk to.
Park amenities:
(1) Lighted Basketball Court
(1) Lighted Tennis Court
(1) Multi Purpose Ball Field (not lighted)
Children’s Playground
Pavilion with Restrooms & Charcoal Grills
Nature Trail around perimeter of park
Total: 13.2 acres

Palm Coast Tennis Center

  • 10 New Top of the line Welch HydroGrid Clay Tennis Courts
  • All ten courts are lighted to tournament standards
  • Top of the line Professional Instruction
  • Certified Professional Staff
  • Membership is not required to participate in any of our programs
  • Programming for all ages and abilities
  • Official Tennis Welcome Center
  • Certified Cardio Tennis Site
  • Certified Quickstart Tennis Site
  • League & Tournament Play
  • Clinics
  • Ball Machine
  • Exhibitions & Special Events

We are extremely proud of our new Tennis facility and hope you and your family will have some time to spend with us. Regardless of your age or ability our professional staff has a program for you.

Welch Tennis Courts is the largest constructor of tennis courts in the world. They specialize in the construction of award-winning clay / Har-Tru tennis courts.

Waterfront Park

This utterly stunning recreation area is nestled in the existing canopied trees along the Intracoastal Waterway. The facility will serve as a natural trailhead to our popular St. Joe Walkway/Linear Park pathways, as well as to the newly completed trail through Graham Swamp.