HALFWAY BENCH

12/25/17

PINS Camping

Adventure Location:  Rockport, Texas
Adventure Date: 12/25/17

The migraine has followed the normal 48 hour recuperation pattern and the OFM is doing well. Today was a nice lazy day so the OFM dug into his dwindling supply of pictures to get something to write about tonight.

Padre Island National Seashore ( PINS) has three kinds of camping available. The first we showed a couple of days ago is camping on the beaches. The OFM Teams do not do that type of camping.

The next camping is at Bird Island Basin (BIB). PINS is a long island with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and a bay named Laguna Madre on the other side. BIB is on the bay side. The first part you come to is the RV camping area. It is a long strip of sand right next to the water. RVs are parked in close together slots perpendicular to the waters edge. From the end of the slot to the water is about five feet most of the time. There is no water or electric or sewer at the campground. There is a nice outhouse in the area. There is water and a dump station over near the visitors center about four miles away. Check the website for cost and rules.




When you drive past the RV camping there is some day use parking and then a small parking loop that holds about twelve vehicles. This is the parking spot for the tent camping area. You have to carry your gear a few hundred feet to get onto the beach style area for tent camping.

There is an out house at the parking lot but no water, electric, or showers at the tenting area.
tenting area.



This is how close you can camp to the water. The view is looking south the length of Laguna Madre. Yes the tides here can move the water line a few feet from high to low.



From the tenting area you can look back toward the island and see some of the many dunes on the island. Many of them are really neat up close.



In another blog entry we will cover the paved RV campground. But a caution for all folks not familiar with this part of the coast. You will encounter mosquitoes, flies and lots of salt coating on your equipment. You will also have a wonderful opportunity to see the only place like this left on the earth. PINS is the least developed barrier island in the world. Yes it is a place really worth visiting at least once. The Teams do not recommend June, July, August or September due to the heat and humidity. However if you enjoy any kind of beach activity this is definitely one of the better places for trying to have tooooo much fun.


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