At 3115 Del Prado Blvd. N., about 200 acres of pine flatwoods, oak hammocks and cypress forest sit behind a city gate that was supposed to open in February 2024. The City of Cape Coral set a public ribbon-cutting there for Friday, Oct. 30, at 10 a.m. and described the event as a celebration of the preserve's opening, with staff-led tours afterward and a suggestion to wear rubber boots.
The boots tell you something. The preserve that opens this fall is mostly the dry-ground half of the plan, meaning campsites, a disc golf course, a fishing pond and a welcome center. The boardwalks that will take visitors out over the wetlands got City Council approval in early September 2026, and they're funded and permitted under a separate track. For the next stretch, Yellow Fever Creek works best as a North Cape campground and day-use park, with deeper wetland access still to come.
What the October 30 announcement actually covered
The city's Oct. 16 announcement listed the opening-day amenities as individual and group campsites, nature trails, a fishing pond, a disc golf course, an outdoor classroom, a welcome center and restrooms. The Cape Coral Breeze ran the same list on Oct. 20. Older planning documents add detail on each piece. Here's how they line up with what the city has said this fall.
| Feature | What the plans describe | Status in fall 2026 city materials |
|---|---|---|
| Campsites | 20 primitive single sites and three group sites, per a February 2024 city presentation | On the opening amenity list |
| Disc golf | An 18-hole course, per the 2022 project description | On the opening amenity list |
| Welcome center | A 1,439-square-foot multipurpose room and an 886-square-foot exhibit hall; the 2024 presentation adds a camp store | On the opening amenity list |
| Parking | 32 paved spaces, three ADA spaces and 35 unpaved spaces by the disc golf course, per the final site plan | Shown on the final site plan |
| Wetland boardwalks | Three boardwalks totaling 2,205 linear feet, each with a 120-square-foot viewing platform | Approved by Council in early September 2026; not on the opening amenity list |
Something else is missing from every list. Neither the final site plan nor the opening announcement includes a kayak or canoe launch, so anyone hoping to paddle Yellow Fever Creek from the city side won't find a put-in there.
The boardwalks were approved about eight weeks before opening day
The reason the boardwalks run on a different schedule goes back to 1997. That year, the city granted the South Florida Water Management District a perpetual conservation easement covering 23.5 acres inside the preserve. It was mitigation required to build the North Del Prado Boulevard Extension. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was added as a third-party beneficiary in 2021.
So the city needs the district's permission before it can put anything in that wetland, even a passive-recreation project. At its meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2, Council approved the second amendment to Ordinance 51-26 with the water management district, which allows the three boardwalks and their viewing platforms, the Cape Coral Breeze reported. The same article said the Parks and Recreation Department drew up the boardwalk plans because the preserve's existing access points and trail network "did not fully support public access or environmental education."
The money comes from a different place, too. The boardwalks are paid for by a Lee County Tourist Development Council grant, not the voter-approved $60 million Parks GO Bond that funded the rest of the preserve. Councilmember Bill Steinke said at the meeting, "Thanks to the county and TDC to provide the funding for the boardwalks to go in that spot," according to the Breeze. The city's FY26 look-ahead carries the boardwalks as a separate $967,000 grant-funded line item. For comparison, the city's budget for the main preserve contract is $6,026,287.
The city hasn't published a construction date for the boardwalks. Permission to build arrived in September, and the build itself comes after that.
The buildings set the opening date
The campground half is the one opening now because the buildings were what held up the project for more than two and a half years.
The city's own project page gives February 2024 as the original completion date. It also says the project fell behind, liquidated damages were assessed through Aug. 7, 2025, the original contractor was removed from the site, and the surety's general contractor took over repairing the buildings to reach occupancy. In February 2024, the Breeze reported that the city still expected completion later that year.
By the end of September 2026, the city's FY26 fourth-quarter report put construction at 99% complete. It said the surety contractor was "completing repairs necessary to achieve occupancy in buildings" and listed a temporary certificate of occupancy inspection expected Oct. 16. The city announced the Oct. 30 ribbon-cutting that same day. Building occupancy was the last hurdle before opening day. The boardwalks were waiting on the water management district.
The trails next door have been open the whole time
Long before the city's gate opened, Yellow Fever Creek already had a public trailhead. The city's roughly 200 acres sit beside a Lee County-owned parcel, and the two together cover about 525 acres. The county trailhead is at 2801 Del Prado Blvd. N. Its parking area closed June 1 through June 4, 2026, for improvements, and the trails stayed open during the work, the Breeze reported.
The city's 2024 plans called for its new trails to connect to the county's trail system. Whether that link opens with the city side hasn't been announced. A hike starting at the county lot may or may not lead you onto the city's trails this fall.
The creek itself matters well beyond either parking lot. When the county approved the Yellow Fever Creek and Gator Slough water project in 2019, the Breeze reported that controlled releases would run through the creek. The goal was to restore its historic flow and improve the water reaching Matlacha Pass and the Caloosahatchee River. Once the boardwalks are built, visitors will be able to walk out over the wetland system tied to that water.
Planning a first visit
The city has posted camping fees, reservation dates and adopted hours in very few places. The most detailed operating plan is still the one presented to Council in February 2024, which marked its welcome-center hours as subject to change. These are the proposals from that presentation, not confirmed policy:
- Preserve and trails open sunrise to sunset, year-round
- Welcome center open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends
- Well-behaved, leashed dogs allowed
- Campsite check-in from 1 to 4 p.m., checkout by 11 a.m., quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
- Stays capped at 14 days, with seven days between reservations and at least one adult 18 or older staying overnight at each site
- No alcohol, no fireworks, no motor vehicles past the paved parking, no feeding or approaching wildlife
Cape Coral takes Parks and Recreation bookings through its online registration system, where you create an account, add selections to a cart and check out. Before you plan an overnight trip, check with the Parks and Recreation Department to confirm that campsites are listed there and what they cost.
The preserve is also part of a busy year for North Cape parks. Festival Park, at 2609 NW 11th Court, opened after its Aug. 14 ribbon-cutting with soccer fields, festival grounds, a walking path and Seahawk Airfield. Yellow Fever Creek is a different kind of park, with campsites and a disc golf course now and wetland access coming once the boardwalks are built.
If you're weighing a home in North Cape Coral, a growing preserve a few minutes up Del Prado is part of what you're buying into. Dr. Daniela Mitchell and the team at Mitchell Properties & Salty Hook Homes keep track of projects like this one so clients know what's open now and what's still coming. Schedule a consultation, and we'll walk you through how the North Cape parks buildout fits the homes you're considering.
