When full time RV’ing was just growing in my heart, my family was very resistant to the idea. The thought of giving up our meager 1300 square foot home to even smaller 180 square feet, seemed to be too much to ask. I, however, browsed hundreds of blogs and fb groups on a daily basis, which continued to stoke the fire in my heart.
One day I came across a post about Padre Island National Seashore. I hadn’t even heard of this island on the coast of Texas before. As I was longingly looking at the pictures, my husband looked over my shoulder. I said “Hey, if we go full time in an RV, we can camp right on the beach at places like this!” He basically took the computer from my hands and as he scrolled through, I could see the ember of RV dreaming start to glow in his heart.
Fast forward three years…..
Our house is empty, our RV is overstuffed and overweight , our bodies are weary and worn. The exhaustion of the prepping for this major change has set in firmly within all of our hearts and bodies. However, there is still an ember, a glow in each of hearts burning for the adventure that is just around the corner. As we get ready to roll out, we know that our furthest point west on this particular journey is a place that turned all of my family nay sayers on to the dream. We have imagined it for the last 3 years. Padre Island National Seashore, Texas, here we come!
It took us several weeks of travel through many beautiful states to reach our western most point in this particular road trip. The weather was threatening to force us to postpone our dream. However, mama would not have any of that nonsense! We were going to see Padre Island if it was the last thing I did!
Padre Island National Seashore did not disappoint! The Lord blessed us with a 3 day window of clear and amazing weather. There really aren’t many words I can use that would adequately describe this amazing place, so browse through our pictures and just take it in. It seems to be endless miles of beautiful empty beaches, rolling waves, salty air, wildlife happily sharing their sanctuary with us humans, and sunrises on the gulf side and sunsets on the inter-coastal. For those of you interested in learning more about the actual details of what it takes to camp on the Island and the Junior Ranger Program, I will put all of those details below the gallery. Now close your eyes, take a deep breath and transport yourself to the south east corner of Texas with us.
AHHHHHHHHHH!!! Isn’t it just amazing?
Technical Details for people who want to camp here:
A). You need to get yourself a National Park Pass! You can get this at any National Park or online. There are many free or discounted programs to attain this. Most notably if you are Active Duty Military, have a 4th grader or are a Senior/Disabled Adult. Obviously you can just pay to get to the park each time you go in and out, but if your camping in the actual park this option does not make much sense.
B) There are several ways to camp here:
Many brave souls have parked for free directly on the beach. There is an entrance to an easy access beach road on the left about a half mile prior to the National Park entrance gate. This will give you direct beach access without the visual interference of the dunes. Several miles into the park and past the visitor center is a second free camping option. The paved road ends and the beach road begins. We were not brave enough to attempt direct beach camping. The images of the tide coming in or our RV sinking deep into the sand overpowered our desire to camp directly on the beach.
The next option is to camp on the North Beach. There are about 20 sites on pavement, with picnic tables situated behind the dunes. In this area, there is a bath house and toilets. It is first come, first served and payment of $8 a night is made to a camp host. There are not any hookups here, so be prepared to dry camp. Generators can only be run during day hours. The sounds of the Gulf waves are heard from your camper and access to the beach is less then a minute walk away through the dunes.
The option we chose for our trip was called Bird Island Basin on the inter-coastal side of the Island. The entrance is about a mile past the gate on the right side. When we arrived, there were only 3 other RV’s parked. The ground is hard and stony, but not paved. We were able to back Blanche up to the waters edge. We found our camp host and paid $5 a night to dry camp. This area does not have a bath house and has a very primitive outhouse. There are not any hookups here, so be prepared to dry camp. Generators can only be run during day hours. This area of the park is known to be one of the World’s greatest spots to wind surf. We have been told that during peak season, it is packed! There is a Wind Surfing Rental and Lesson Shop located in this area. The sunsets here were SPECTACULAR!
JUNIOR RANGER PROGRAM:
*This section will be added soon!