Bolivar Flats Free Beach Dispersed Camping

We ended up extending our planned stay days by day as the weather was good. Weekend can get busier than weekdays but is still relatively low traffic. Many People just drive to the end and back. No one camped anywhere near us. Watching Galveston ship traffic and birds was fun. Beach walking was hard packed and you can walk miles. The water came no where near us and there was always room for cars to drive. Humidity and sand in the camper is expected. Our Fantastic Fan kept shutting off even without rain. There is quite a bit of garbage on the sand - some of it daily and I think most gets washed up from Offshore. There are many garbage bins and I spent an hour a day picking up plastic. There are some tarballs as expected in this location. Some Natural and some probably Not. I walked and never got tar on me so it was not an issues. Can’t beat the price and it does keep the permitted side to fewer campers. Permit police were seen on patrol. We got a permit for our pickup and another for our towed vehicle. The local grocery/Ace hardware was well stocked. Some decent restaurants around but none we would recommend as yet. The first night the mosquitos were awful and nearly drove us out but the winds picked up so we stayed day after day based on weather. There does seem to be one or two Long term campers but they were fine and I guess it’s legal. I don’t know when they empty the trash bins but it is not daily and has not been emptied as yet. Only my trash I picked up is there after several days. Beautiful colorful sunsets. We really enjoyed it here and recommend it in the Fall. Summer is high season here and probably a totally different picture.

Got here the week before thanksgiving and had to move one night in to an RV park because the beach flood with surge. Tried coming back out a couple of weeks later and only made it a week before it got down to 20 degrees at night and 50mph winds. Went back to the RV Park (highly recommend My Happy Place RV Park). Beach itself is beautiful, but they don’t take this section like they do the others so it always had driftwood/trash/seaweed you have to drive through and park on. Maybe I’ll try in another season.

This was one of our best beach camping experiences in Texas. Isolated but nice and quiet. We looked at the other options on Galveston island and this is hands down the best. (State park is just as far away from the action) The private parks are noisy with no privacy so why pay the price!!
Beach was a bit dirty and water was murky (as is Galveston area) but loved the isolation with a good view of the tankers and cruise ships coming in to Galveston. We noticed the waves were less severe here as compared to Galveston beaches (depending on wind direction) but this area is a bit more protected by jetty etc. Very large compacted sand beach so getting stuck is not a concern. The Journey to Galveston on the ferry was a bit of a challenge with the ferry being delayed but very doable. (Just don’t go in every day, enjoy the private beach !!)
Crystal beach is down the road for supplies but is a run down town not recovered yet from the hurricane.

When entering from Rettilon Road, go to the left for FREE camping. Parking closer to the dunes keeps you above high tide line, and there are trash barrels located regularly - I was glad to use one close by. It was busy and everyone spaced themselves out pretty well to preserve a bit of space. A nasty thunderstorm ripped through the night I stayed and blasted for nearly half an hour before relenting into just poring rain. Woke up to low tide and a quiet morning.

Plenty of room for big rigs. Beach is very wide and it’s easy to stay on the hard compacted sand. There is some litter but that’s to be expected at any free public use area. Humidity and sea water will rust your equipment fast, be advised.
It was quiet (we were there Monday-Wednesday), with the occasional fisherman or beach visitor. 2-3bars of att, about 2 bars with Verizon. Overnight we felt secure.