![]() From here, I saw lizards scurrying about, ghost crabs emerging from their burrows and even a coyote that snuck out from the dunes one early morning to see what was going on at a neighboring camp. The park offers some great paths for walking through the diverse landscape, but even from the beach where we were set up, you can stand up on top of the foredunes (careful not to disrupt the diverse grasses ) and look out over the flat grassland that stretches out behind it. Originally created from years of winds piling up sand, they now form a gracious ridge that separates the beach from the marshy grasslands where all kinds of animals and vegetation make their homes. The South Beach dunes aren’t just there to create a dramatic stage for the sunsets. Before planning a stay, I recommend researching the most common of the 380 bird species that frequent the area at the seashore’s website to help identify who’s who on the beach and at the various birding stations set up throughout the park. ![]() ![]() From large brown pelicans and great blue herons, which sat proudly amongst the energetic laughing gulls, to the small wave chasers that weaved in and out of the flocks of Caspian terns that lined the shore - every day brought a new bird to spot.Īrmed with only a small pair of binoculars, I sat on my beach chair and watched the bird politics unravel on the beach for hours on end. Never had I seen so many different species on one beach. Throughout the whole experience, my favorite part of the stay was bird watching. Dustin Baker, a park ranger and acting public information officer of Padre Island National Seashore, says the boat had been in distress and abandoned before running aground on the South Beach. However, following in the wake of the storms came intense, high and low tides that allowed us to discover all sorts of treasures that washed up like coconuts, halves of giant sand dollars and a variety of beached finds.Īlong with the many beached discoveries, another interesting sight included a small boat that had washed up and been tacked down. With our trip being in early March, the waves were still rough from the storms out at sea. Once set up and with a whole mile of beach all to ourselves, it quickly became one of my favorite Texas camping trips. We decided to stop around mile 10 so we would be close enough to Yarborough Pass at mile 15, which gives access to the laguna. This stretch in particular is open to primitive camping so long as you have four-wheel drive and can make it without getting stuck in the unpredictable sand (this didn’t stop the high school kids with two-wheel drive we helped get unstuck around mile 8) and don’t mind being a good 30 minutes or more from a shower or toilet.Īt first, I thought we would need to make the trek all the way down to mile 30 to find a secluded spot, but by mile 7, the “spots” were about a mile long. The Padre Island National Seashore has 60 miles of beach that stretches along the South Beach section of the island. ![]() I hadn’t taken a camping trip that extended past a long weekend in over a year, always in fear of being unable to check my emails or answer messages, so this idea of seclusion and solitude (the cell service at Padre Island National Seashore is spotty to nonexistent) was both alarming and enticing - and I found that my anxiety began to drain from my body with each wave that crashed upon the shore. This fleeting hue, combined with the cool sand between my toes and the relaxed sound of the waves meeting the shore created an immense sense of peace I hadn’t realized I needed.Īt first, the thought of leaving the world behind for a camping trip on the beach roused only anxiousness instead of excitement. As the sun descended slowly, a fusion of pink, yellow and blue silently settled itself over the waves, the dunes and everything on the coast of Texas.
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