Destinations

~Padre Island National Seashore (PINS)

On September 28, 1962 the National Seashore was officially established. The seashore encompasses 130 thousand acres of grasslands, sand dunes, and shoreline. From the beginning of the shore to the Mansfield cut is roughly seventy miles one way. It has plenty of area to camp, fish, and relax on the Texas beach… or clean up trash in my case.

I joined Calvary Overland on their annual beach cleanup at PINS. This provided a great way to explore the beach, meet other people, and help preserve our amazing public lands.

Check out their website below.

Campsite Locations

~ The first night on the beach we stayed around mile marker five. We arrived at the beach late in the evening so we didn't want to go too far down the beach, as it takes at least an hour and a half one way to go to the the end of the shore. A few things I learned about beach camping is that sand gets into everything… drinks, food, and any other imaginable place.

The second night we made it all the way to the Mansfield cut. There is a jetty you can walk on that separates north and south padre, plenty of room to camp, and amazing views.

Campsite coordinates First Camp: 27.47458, -97.28464

Campsite coordinates Second camp: 26.56784, -97.27816

Campsite accessibility

~ Accessing the first campsite is easily accessed by any stock four wheel drive and even a two wheel drive. However, going to the Mansfield cut is a bit more challenging. The tide creeps up on the shore throughout the day. Around mile 43 it almost completely blocks off the shore, so I would recommend making your way towards the cut at least by four in the evening to avoid the tides encroaching on you. Early in the day around noon the tides are far out leaving hard packed beach which is easy to traverse, making the route to the cut accessible by two wheel drive vehicles.

Trails and Route

~ As I mentioned earlier the trails are not technical or require any heavy off-road modifications to traverse. I aired down my tires to around 20psi and ran in 4HI the entire time. When driving on hard packed sand it's easy driving but there are many patches of deep loose sand that require four wheel drive to push through with a little throttle negotiating. Again, that is why I mentioned if you have a two wheel drive vehicle making your way in the morning to the Mansfield cut is your best bet to drive down the shore without getting stuck as a lot of the hard packed sand is exposed.

~ I did not bring any extra fuel with me to the beach. Fueling up at one of the gas stations in Corpus Christi was plenty enough to make the drive up and down the whole beach and still have around a half a tank of fuel left. I averaged around 10mpg on the beach and I have a 24 gallon tank. Click the onX data button for all my route data and other waypoints of interest. For members only.