Free Camping on the Gulf Coast

I love the sound of the surf as I’m drifting off to sleep at night.

January 1 – 23, 2020.

Sometime this past summer I found out that you could camp on the National Seashore beach at Padre Island in Texas for free for 14 days (*free if you have an America the Beautiful pass or for the cost of the entry fee to the park if you don’t). We weren’t planning to go that way at first but then all of our plans changed when we had van trouble and ended up in an entirely different location than we had planned at the beginning of November. I love traveling the borders of things – especially the water, so I conjured up a new trip following the Gulf Coast from Caravelle, Florida to New Orleans with my ultimate goal being Padre Island for relaxing in the sun and listening to the roar of the surf for 14 lovely days.

While I was contemplating our trip to Padre when we were house sitting in New Orleans I discovered that Padre Island wasn’t the only beach along the Gulf Coast where there was free camping. Actually there were quite a number of beaches that allowed camping for free or for the purchase of an inexpensive permit – and a few in Louisiana too!

Now I was planning a leisurely journey down the coast beach hopping. In order to help us on our beach adventure, I created a map with all of the possible beaches (and a few bay spots directly on the water)  where we could roll up onto the sand and spend a few days. I’m sharing it here with the hope that you might find this guide helpful.

Clicking on any icon on the map opens the specific listing for that site in the index with my notes and links to reviews of each site and any other pertinent information. Click on the icon in the top right corner of the map header to reveal the entire index – from there you can click on individual site names. Click the icon in the top right corner of the header to open the map in a new tab. If you have a Google account you should be able to now find this map in your Google My Maps account and be able to load it in your Google Maps app on your phone or tablet or in the Google My Maps app.

*There may be more free or cheap camping locations than I discovered for this map. There are also numerous County and State Parks as well as RV parks along the Gulf Coast where one can camp close to or right on the beach for a reasonable or not so reasonable fee.

 

It all seemed like such a good idea. But then we realized that perhaps winter wasn’t the best time for such a trip. It was rainy, foggy, and often cold. On the plus side, the beaches weren’t too crowded. Let see where we went.

Rutherford Beach

Our first stop was a free beach in Louisiana. The sand was too soft for us to drive on but there was a road that ran behind the sand dune where most people parked. There was also a small paved lot that was available for parking. We didn’t spend much time on the actual beach here because of the cold and gloomy skies. But we did meet some nice people traveling in an RV who invited us in for drinks.

The soft sand of Rutherford Beach. Four-wheel drive vehicles shouldn’t have a problem here.
We could see oil wells from the beach.
Our parking spot our first night.
We spent our second day at Rutherford Beach at the library. When we returned in the afternoon we parked in the paved lot. Rain and a possible storm surge were predicted for that night.

Bolivar Flats

Most of the beaches on Bolivar Island in Texas are permit beaches. The permit is only $10 and is good for the entire year. Although there are free beach areas on Bolivar Island we had intended to purchase the permit. What I didn’t realize until it was too late was that during January and February permits are only $5 but they are only available for purchase Thursday through Sunday. We were arriving on a Monday so we just opted for one of the free beaches.

We cruised the island checking out the free locations. At the north end of the island the beaches were narrow and very close to the highway – not the choicest beaches. But farther down island we turned on to a long street to arrive at Bolivar Flats. To the right was a permit beach and to the left was the free beach – no difference between them except that the free beach was more crowded.

Sunset at Bolivar Flats.
At the south end of the beach, we could see Galveston and tankers lined up, coming and going.
We were at Bolivar Flats for 4 nights and then the weather turned bad. There were tornado warnings. We decided to find another location where the winds wouldn’t be blowing as hard. The morning we left the beach was deserted.

Galveston-Port Bolivar Ferry

There are 3 free (and practically free) ferry crossings along this part of the Gulf Coast (see map). Not only do you not have to drive a long way out of your way to get to the next island – you get to ride on a boat and in your rig at the same time!

Ballena Blanca riding the ferry to Galveston.

Haterius Park

From Bolivar Flats, we ended up at Haterius Park. This park is not on the beach but rather on Keller Bay.  We were heading just a tad bit farther south to Magnolia Beach but I found this site on iOverlander as we were on our way. Because this site was not as far as Magnolia Beach but still far enough from the tornado winds and because I knew nothing about it we decided to stop.

It was a nice park with a playground, a boat landing, and a big grassy field. A sign told us that free camping was allowed for 5 days. A few other rigs showed up just around sundown. It seemed like a great location until the wee dark hours of the morning when the fishermen started showing up. The sounds of trucks pulling up in the parking lot probably wouldn’t have been too bad if one truck hadn’t decided that parking right next to us and idling very loudly for 15 minutes was a good idea.

When the sun came up we saw 10 trucks with boat trailers parked in the lot. I wouldn’t recommend this location on a weekend – even if the weather is going to be bad.

Alone at Haterius Park before everyone else showed up.

Matagorda Jetty Park

After the storm passed we decided to head back north and hit some of the places we missed. There was a kayaking trail I wanted to paddle near on East Matagorda Bay near Matagorda Beach (more about this in the next post).

Matagorda beach is a permit beach ($10 for 72 hours) but it is a soft beach and not good for us driving our 2WD rig. But according to the website for the beach, we could camp free at Jetty Park next to the beach for 72 hours. When we arrived we found a sign that said that we could only camp for 24 hours. I chose to believe the website since it is much easier to update something online than a sign. We spent two nights here – no problem.

The jetty. The beach around the park is very soft in places but some people still try driving on it anyways. We helped get a car unstuck at this location.
Greg poses with the spray.
The seawall is made of large pink granite slabs.
The Jetty Park was very nice. We had access to real bathrooms here and an outdoor cold shower rinse off where Greg washed his hair. There was also a very nice picnic area.
The sun going down on the parking lot at Jetty Park.
Sunset on the beach.

Freeport Beach

Continuing north we stopped at Follett’s Island in Free Port, Texas. We spent a free night of beach camping here on our way to Houston to do some museuming (another upcoming post). We scouted out several spots going north on the beach before landing on this one. Not much else to say here as it turned foggy overnight and we left in the morning.

We fell asleep to the roar of the surf and woke to fog.

Magnolia Beach

After Houston, we started heading south again and finally made it to Magnolia Beach. I think almost everyone we talked to along the Gulf Coast mentioned this beach. It is not on the Gulf but rather on Lavaca Bay southwest across the water from where we stayed at Haterius Park. There is no sand here, the “beach” is covered with crushed shells. I think the attraction to this location is that it is not only free but developed. There are regular bathrooms, an outdoor rinse shower, and indoor hot showers (closed during the winter). This beach gets so busy a sign asks people to park perpendicular to the water to allow room for as many rigs as possible. We spent 3 days here.

More fog. Can you see the rigs parked on the shore?
A beach ode.
Leaving Magnolia Beach.

Port Aransas

Port Aransas was the only beach we camped on that had a commercial family vacation feel to it. The town is full of convenience stores and beach shops. There are big hotels. RV parks pack them in so tight motorhome slideouts nearly touch. And the beach is full of life – campers, day-trippers, couples strolling, bicycles. birds, and kids playing in the sand.

This was the only permit beach we stayed at. For $12 we bought a yearly permit that allows us to camp for 3 nights on the beach in any 3 week period. We only stayed for 2 nights.

And there was accordion playing on the beach too.
Cruising the beach.
On our stroll up the beach, we ran into these decorated bollards. Curious about them we asked the first person we saw if they knew the story. She told us that yes she did, she had written an article about them for the Houston Chronicle.
So the story goes – that, Diana Vondra, a Texas snowbird from Iowa decided that the bollards needed some sprucing up. In the summer of 2016, she crocheted 30 bollard covers and “yarn-bombed” them that next winter. With permission from Nueces County, there are now 140 dressed up bollards along the beach. To learn more click here for the Houston Chronicle article.
Looking south from the north end of the Port Aransas shore. There is no camping on this part of the beach.

Padre Island

The irony of this whole trip was that we didn’t camp on the beach in Padre Island. We had talked to many other campers on our way down the coast who told us that the beach on Padre Island was narrow and that when the tide was high it came too far ashore. There are two beaches available for camping as part of the Padre Island National Seashore. You arrive at the first, North Beach, before you actually enter the park (you don’t have to pay the park entrance fee to access this beach). We drove down to it to check it out. It did look narrow and the few rigs camped on there were parked as close to the sand dunes as they could get.

After entering the park we checked out South Beach. This beach is about 60 miles long but only the first 5 miles from the north are available for 2WD vehicles. As we later learned, you don’t want to drive past this 5-mile mark in a 2WD rig unless you have an extra 3 to 10 thousand dollars laying around for an inevitable tow.

The beach also looked narrow here. Hightide wouldn’t come until late afternoon and since we wanted to make sure we had a place to stay we ditched our beach plan and went to one of the pay campsites in the park. I don’t include either of these campsites on my map since they are neither free or what I consider super cheap.

We spent our first night on the island beachside at the $12 Malaquite Campground. Perched atop a sand dune, there were a lot of rigs in sites that were very close together. The weather was gloomy and when we woke up the next morning almost every RV was running their generator. We decided to switch to the Bird Island Basin campsite on the bayside.

There were much fewer people camped at Bird Island Basin, which meant fewer generators, and the cost was only $8. We also had a great view of the bay and of lots of wildlife.

The irony of our irony was that the next week after our trip to Padre Island we met a tent camper who had visited the island the same time we did. He told us the tide wasn’t an issue at all.

No camping on this part of the beach.
Rigs spread out at Bird Island Basin.
Another view of Ballena Blanca at Bird Island Basin.
View of the bay from inside the van. It almost felt like we were actually on the water.

Have you ever camped on the beach or do you have a favorite beach? Tell us about it in the comments. We’d love to read any comment you have about this post! If you have a WordPress account, you can press the “like” button below and let us know you enjoyed our little tour of Gulf Coast beaches!

10 thoughts on “Free Camping on the Gulf Coast

  1. I enjoyed your little tour of Gulf Coast beaches! 🙂

    Well, that sure is ironic about Padre Island. Better safe than sorry, though. Thank you for this extensive guide and for checking out all the sites. I wonder what the scene is in the spring or summer. Must be much busier.

    Talking about generators… We just spent ten days at a WMA campground in Florida (they are amazing once you can snatch reservations) and every day, generators were buzzing! Our neighbor and Zesty were the only ones who were set up enough with solar panels and never ran the generator. (Mark cut his hair on the inverter this time. :-)) It was annoying. Luckily, quiet time ran from 8pm until 8am.

    1. It seems like it would be expensive to run a generator all the time. And if you are going out into the woods I’m not sure why you’d want to hear your own generator.

      Anyways – glad you enjoyed the tour. I imagine some of these spots are way busier in the spring and summer but some places there was hardly no one at all so I imagine they wouldn’t be to bad. There was no one on south Padre Island when we went (except, I guess, the camper we met but he was a lot farther down the beach).

  2. This was such an enjoyable read! Thank you so much. I always try to travel the coastline whenever the chance comes my way. Have not done this one yet. Now I am informed, thank to You!💗👍

    1. Thanks Christine! And thanks for stopping by the blog. Texas doesn’t have the most beautiful coastline but you can’t beat the camping.

  3. You really picked out an amazing route! Thanks for all the pictures and information, and especially the map. This fall I’m actually staying in Louisiana and will car camp from there. Your route is absolutely perfect and it feels like I’m meant to have found your post!

    1. I’m so glad you found the post and found it helpful! Camping on the beach is really special and I was so pleased to find so many places to do it on the Gulf Coast, I had to share. And I love making maps!

  4. Thank you for sharing this information! I am driving from Austin, TX to Gainesville, FL over 3-4 days next week and am looking for places to camp but almost all the places along the coast I’ve found are RV primarily and super paved and expensive and already booked for months. I have a small pickup truck and wouldn’t mind parking at the end of a dirt road or in a small park parking lot and sleeping in the back of my truck but I can’t figure out where that is done/legal… Is there a way you found these spots?

    1. Hi Amy. You’re welcome! There is plenty of free camping in between Austin and Gainesville – you will just need to do some research.

      I recommend you look at some camping apps/websites. iOverlander is my go-to app. On iOverlander you can find lots of free campsites, many just like you are describing – just a place to park for the night. But be sure and read the reviews, all sites may not be ideal for what you are trying to do.

      Two more apps/websites that I recommend are Campendium and Free Campsites Campendium is nice because you can filter out pricey campgrounds. Free Campsites only includes campgrounds for $12 or less.

      Good luck with your trip! If you have more questions you can contact me through the contact page on the blog.

  5. Very interesting. I am researching winter gulf coastal, free or very inexpensive, beach camping for 26′ GMC classic. Many years back we camped free on South Padre with 23′ GMC and really enjoyed it with the kids….now it will be grand kids of about that age. Since family will be driving down from MN I think, for that period at least, something closer to Galveston like near the bridge on the south end if not all built up, or Bolivar. I have no recent experience with the area so must rely on posts like this.

    I would prefer the Keys for warmer weather, but a few thousand others are seeking that warm weather also. I am 100 percent open to suggestions.

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