Agency-listedNPS · dispersedFee
North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
Drive-up · National Park Service · TX · 27.47735, -97.27410
Inside a national park unit
This camp sits inside Padre Island National Seashore — a national seashore run by the National Park Service.
Park rules apply, and they are stricter than dispersed camping: inside a National Park Service unit you camp in a designated campground or on a backcountry permit, not wherever you find a flat spot. Check the park before you go: nps.gov/pais ↗
This page calls it a dispersed camp because that is what the source record says. Inside a park unit that word does not mean camp anywhere.
Placed by point-in-polygon against the National Park Service’s own boundary layer (NPS Land Resources Division, 442 units, fetched 18 Sep 2026; this unit’s polygon edited 2018-07-26). Nothing about the price or the legal status on this page was changed by it.
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →National Park Service lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4 ft.
Fire & smoke — around North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)NIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore) · National Park Service · TX
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- ShShower4 mi
- GGrocery9 mi
- FFuel9 mi
- RxPharmacy10 mi
- OOutfitter12 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- +Urgent care14 mi
- WWater14 mi
- DDump15 mi
- AAir-up15 mi
- MMechanic16 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- HHardware16 mi
- LLaundry17 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 9 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
Access
Drive-up
Land
National Park Service · dispersed
Elevation
4 ft
Ground slope
1.1% · flat
State
TX
Coordinates
27.47735, -97.27410
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore) · National Park Service · TX (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townChapman Ranch · ~13.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.9 mi
- FuelStripes · ~10.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~14.8 mi
- GroceriesIsland Market IGA · ~8.9 mi
- PharmacyH-E-B Pharmacy · ~13.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicFamily Health Clinic & Minor Emergency Room · ~13.5 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~27.1 mi
EV charging — from North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore) · National Park Service · TX — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger15.9 mi straight-line N — 2519 AutoNation Honda South Corpus Christi · Blink Network · J1772, CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach6 within 25 mi · 10 within 50 · 33 within 100 · 69 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)17.1 mi — Corpus Christi, TX - Tesla Supercharger, Corpus Christi
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.0 mi — CC HYUNDAI DC1, Corpus Christi
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)10.9 mi — Best Western Padre Island - Tesla Destination, Corpus Christi, TX · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 349105 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore) · National Park Service · TX — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomBoat Ramp Vault Toilet-BIB · ~2.2 mi W · NPS
- RestroomBIB Center Vault Toilet (Day-Use Area) · ~2.4 mi W · NPS
- RestroomWindsurfer Double Vault Toilet · ~2.5 mi W · NPS
- RestroomMalaquite Campground Showers · ~3.4 mi S · NPS
Coming out here — North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore) · National Park Service · TX
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1.1% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (3 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore) elsewhere
Other camps near North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bird Island Basin Campground~2.5 mi · fee
- South Beach Mile 0-5 (Padre Island National Seashore)~4.6 mi · fee
- Yarborough Pass (Padre Island National Seashore)~20.1 mi · fee
- Nueces County~24.9 mi · fee
Who holds the land at North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Padre Island National Seashore, manager on record: National Park Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
Stay limit
14 nights (maximun of 14 consecutive nights [sic])
Source
public land records
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Padre Island National Seashore (NPS). Camping page https://www.nps.gov/pais/planyourvisit/camping.htm and Fees & Passes page https://www.nps.gov/pais/planyourvisit/fees.htm, both read 2026-08-16. FEE, verbatim from the fees page: "The fee for dispersed beach camping is included with your valid 7-Day, Annual, or Lifetime park entrance pass." There is no separate camping charge for the beach areas, but you must hold a park entrance pass -- and the fees page states "Park entrance fees are required year-round, for all areas of the park." So this is FREE CAMPING BEHIND A PAID GATE, not free camping. The fee flag on this row is set to 1 for that reason. STAY LIMIT, verbatim from the camping page: campers may stay "a maximun of 14 consecutive nights" [sic] and "not stay for more than a total of 28 calendar nights per year"; the place pages add that after 14 nights you "must vacate their site and leave the national seashore for at least 14 days". NO HOOKUPS ANYWHERE: "No electric or water hook-ups are available in the park." Quiet hours 10pm-6am, generators prohibited during quiet hours, pets must be leashed. Coordinates from the NPS official GIS layer NPS_Public_POIs_Geographic (https://mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services/NationalDatasets/NPS_Public_POIs_Geographic/FeatureServer/0, queried 2026-08-16 by UNITCODE). Coordinates published by NPS on https://www.nps.gov/places/north-beach.htm (read 2026-08-16), verbatim: "Decimal Degrees: 27.47735, -97.27410". NPS description: "North Beach includes 1.5 miles of sandy beach along the Gulf of Mexico", accessed 1 mile south of the park entrance sign along Park Road 22. Amenities NPS lists: primitive campsites, tent campsites, trash dumpsters. This is the EASIEST of the three beach camps to reach -- unlike South Beach and Yarborough Pass, NPS does not flag 4WD as needed here, though it is still driving on sand. No camping permit required; entrance pass is. CAMPFIRES ARE ALLOWED: "Campfires are permitted along gulf beaches where camping is allowed." Nearest incorporated town: Corpus Christi, 20.1 mi (US Census TIGERweb Incorporated Places, straight-line to the place's internal point). | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about North Beach (Padre Island National Seashore)
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it