Padre Island National Seashore

Very few people past mile 5. Mile 20+ only saw two vehicles. Only 1 vehicle past mile 40. Trail is clearly marked closed at mile 55. That’s where the biggest unbroken shells are. The NPS were patrolling the beach regularly looking for turtles nesting and laying their eggs. Please watch out for the TURTLES! Turtle patrols were driving side by sides, 3/4 ton dodge trucks, Tahoes, all stock and not aired down. Debris that washes up on shore can be problematic. Driving at low tide on packed sand uses less fuel. High tide you’re pushing through soft deep powdery sand. I drove a mix of both and averaged 9.5mpg allowing me to do the 55 miles, plus back and forth across Yarborough Pass all comfortably on a single tank of gas.

Perfect weather. Crowded the first 5-ish miles to only somewhat crowded through mm20. I only went to mm30 but it was empty those last 10 miles due to some loose sand and driving at high tide. Only us and a HMMWV out there driving. Would have gone farther but the boss (wife) wanted to collect shells and sand dollars and there were plenty of them. All in all a great day at PINS.

Beach driving conditions were generally good, but it was very soft around the 19 mile marker.

Not much of challenge, sand was fairly firm in most places. Saw AWD’s all the way down to the 30 mile mark which was as far as we went. Lots of open beach at that point for plenty of privacy.

Several vehicles on beach at entrance. Pretty busy for the first mile or so. After about 5 miles, more spread out. After 15 miles, just a few people camping or fishing. After 25 miles, the beach is covered in seashells and hardly anyone around. We made it to about 32 miles when my truck stalled. Took a while to figure out the air filter had come loose inside the box, and a paper towel got sucked into the intake screen. Luckily that happened so sand didn’t cause any engine damage. Had it not been for that, would have gone further down. Only two vehicles passed us in the couple hours we were there. Very limited cell reception, even up on the dunes. Definitely recommend a cell booster or satellite phone. The sand was easy. Some deep grooves in the driving lane, but super smooth near the water. Aired down to 20 and had no issues. Didn’t see air on the way out, brought my own compressor. Highly recommend this trail! Beautiful and secluded! Park Ranger at gift shop was helpful. Got a map and stickers.

lots of wind, wave action and few people. Mile marker 31 was campsite.

Pretty sparse people. Loose sand at times but pretty packed sand most of the time.

Highly recommend this trail on a low tide to avoid any disruptions with loose sand. Due to us mostly driving on compact sand, all our vehicles completed it with half a tank of fuel. I’d still recommend carrying extra fuel if you get loose sand. (At the time we did this trail we had a lot of rain for consecutive days so the sand was compact.) “Hardest” part would be between marker 25-35, we noticed more loose sand and a lot of debris. If you decide to take kids, the beach at the end of this island is beautiful and worth it. Water is shallow by the jetties and wind was lower than the northern section with smaller waves.

99% of the obstacles are vehicles parking/camping on the “trail.” I maybe needed 4WD and clearance 4 times and that was to get deep in sand to pass parked rigs/campers. The posted speed limit is 15mph. This is Texas, you will get ran over on this beach at 15. I aired down to 25 and comfortably did most of this trail at 25-30 mph. I pulled over to let several approaching rigs pass. Even with the other traffic we found our own unused area of the beach around mile 25 for a night of beach camping since we arrived late. There is no cell service south of mile 5 until you get to the very end. At mile 60 there is a trail that goes towards the bay. That trail was an actual fun trail with minimal technical climbing and some washed out spots that needed some work. The trail becomes less and less traveled and I almost felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there. I eventually turned back because of the high grass and high fire danger.

Open and not too soft. Stay closer to the shore (assuming low tide) and you can glide over the beach smoothly on that hard packed sand!