South Beach Mile 0-5 (Padre Island National Seashore)

public land records

Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.

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/south-beach-0-5.htm (read 2026-08-16), verbatim: "Decimal Degrees: 27.41533, -97.30151". This is the first 5 miles of the 60-mile South Beach, starting where the paved park road ends half a mile south of the visitor center. ACCESS, verbatim: "Four-wheel drive vehicles are always recommended between mile 0 to 5 and many be required depending on conditions." [sic] Speed limit "Mile marker-0 to MM-2.5: 15 MPH year-round". Facilities NPS lists: vault toilets, trash dumpsters, primitive/tent campsites. Campfires permitted below the high tide line. IMPORTANT: "Camping is not permitted on Malaquite Beach" -- that is the stretch north of the bollards, not this one. Nearest incorporated town: Corpus Christi, 24.7 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.

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.

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.