Mustang Island State Park: Easy Beach Camping Between the Towns

Tucked onto Mustang Island between Port Aransas and North Padre, this state park is the laid-back, set-up-for-you counterpart to the wild National Seashore — more than five miles of Gulf beach with real campsites, hot showers, and a famous paddling trail, all an easy drive down Highway 361.

Camping made easy

There are two ways to stay. About 50 drive-up primitive sites sit right on the sand for the full toes-in-the-Gulf experience, and 48 campsites with water and electric hookups are set back roughly a third of a mile from the beach, near full restrooms with hot showers. It's the comfortable middle ground between a beach resort and roughing it down South Beach. Reserve through Texas Parks & Wildlife.

What to do

• Swim and beachcomb along five-plus miles of Gulf shoreline
• Fish the surf or the back bay
• Launch a kayak — the park anchors the Mustang Island Paddling Trail
• Bird the dunes and flats, especially during spring and fall migration
• Hunt a geocache or fly a kite in the steady breeze

Hub of the paddling trail

The park is the launch point for the roughly 20-mile Mustang Island Paddling Trail — three connected segments that hug the calm back-bay shoreline on Corpus Christi Bay, gliding over shallow seagrass flats full of redfish and trout. It's some of the most beginner-friendly flatwater on the coast.

Wild vs. developed

If the National Seashore is about solitude and self-sufficiency, Mustang Island State Park is about ease — hookups, hot showers, a ranger station, and gentle, accessible sand. It's a great first taste of Texas coast camping before you graduate to airing down your tires for South Beach.

Pitch a tent where the dunes meet the Gulf, shower off the salt, and fall asleep to the surf — without needing four-wheel drive to get there.