Camping on the beach at Padre Island

Salt, sand, mild steel underbody/framing. Not for me.

South or North Padre Island?

South - I sure would not do it, and nobody ever does.

North I guess it's possible in certain areas and many do. Just watch out for the salt damage if you're out for any length of time.

Malaquite Beach in Padre Island National Seashore just south of Corpus Christi has a paved parking area where you can camp for a couple dollars a nite. No hookups, but there are restrooms, showers and a dump station. The parking lot is within about 100 ft of the beach. You can also drive onto the beach and camp if you'd like. The beach road for about 5 miles south is a State Rd and in good enough condition for any vehicle, beyond that you could have some problems.

But, as others have said - sand and salt water spray. Even in the parking lot you'll get some salt water spray. The sunrises are nice though as is the warm breeze coming on shore.

There's also a parking area where you can camp on the lee side where the salt spray and breeze isn't as strong.

At Port Aransas you can camp on the beach or there is a state park campground. The campground is electric and water with a dump station. Port A is about 20 miles North of Padre Island National Seashore. It would be my choice if I were wanting to camp on the beach.

Had a couple of friends, who happen to be retired science teachers that volunteered at a wildlife refuge on the coast several years back with their fairly new Bounder during sea turtle hatching season. They were parked on a paved hookup site on the land side of the dunes for two to three months. When they got back home, he ended up replacing around 300 rusted screws with with stainless steel screws, along with some prepping and touch up of rusted steel frame components, in and around the basement compartments. Needless to say, they declined when invited back the next year. He said the off shore winds were terrible for salt spray and they had hosed down their coach every week or so.

Bob hall pier is where you need

It really depends on your risk level or your experience level with beach camping. I stayed at the govt camp ground 4 or 5 days 3 years ago for $4/night with the senior pass. I saw quite a few 5th wheels and Class A's camping along the beach north and south of the CG for free. We drove our tow car 7 miles south along the beach and the sand was hard packed and the tires did not sink in. It looked like fun to camp and fish right on the shore line. I figured for $4/night why get myself stuck not knowing what I was doing. If you are going to stay for a while and fish it may be worth talking to someone that does it all the time.

I don't know that I'd take something that heavy out on that sand. I've never seen a class A out there at the National Seashore. It's a pretty expensive tow is you get stuck.

Thanks for all your info.. I think I would go and check it out first. I know the sand beach is hard in some area but I don't think I would venture if I do not see any other MH.

barmcd wrote:
I don't know that I'd take something that heavy out on that sand. I've never seen a class A out there at the National Seashore. It's a pretty expensive tow is you get stuck.

There are 18-wheelers that travel the first couple of miles down the beach every day servicing the oil wells out there.