Malaquite Campground

We were in site 8 for 4 days. Sites are first come, first served and spacing varied from fairly well spaced to somewhat close, but appeared to all be fairly level. The beach side campsites were asphalt surrounded by grass and these filled up first. The campsites on the opposite side were basically just parking lot stalls and generally had several empty sites while we were there during the week. Showers were clean, if somewhat dated, but also rather chilly, i.e., no hot water. The beach was nice, but there was a lot of trash, debris and Man O’ Wars that had washed up. I found AT&T coverage to be essentially nonexistent here, without a signal booster. With out it, my iPhone fluctuated between no service and 1 bar, but no connectivity either way. However, with the booster, I was able to get 2-3 Bars of LTE service, with speeds up to 4.5 MB/s. Since there are no trees, satellite coverage is not an issue, so we didn’t try to get any OTA channels. When we pulled into the dump station, we noticed that one side had backed up on a previous dumper, so we used the other side, which worked fine. We notified the office, so presumably that has been resolved.

It's a beach parking lot with a bit larger spots for your RV or tent. Mostly concrete or gravel. There is a dumpsite with water. You have your own bench but you don't see the water from your campsite since it is blocked by sand dunes. It is dry camping, so yes, people do run their generators all hours. There are quiet hours after 10 I think. I chose this because I didn't want to be right on the beach where tides can come and go. First-come-first-serve. You can stay up to 14 weeks. Internet however is really bad. I have ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile, all three were really bad. ATT was usable at times when it felt like it, but it wasn't reliable. If you climb up the sand dunes, you get better internet, the campground is blocked but if you work remotely, it's not really feasible to climb dunes with your laptop. The good thing about this park is that you can walk miles on the beach in each direction. Watch out for jellyfish, I saw many.

Stayed 2 week days here in April and park was 80% full with the nice sites mostly filled by noon. Campground has two areas : one side closer to dunes has 20 nice but narrow sites with bbq and sweet wooden pavilion over a large concrete picnic table. The other side is just open parking lanes with some scattered picnic tables. All sites easy walk to beach.
Flush toilets but cold water only showers. Area clean but very busy with lots of generators going during the allowed time. I would return but earlier in day.

The best part is the beach. From the campground you have miles of protected beach to walk. Unlike the rest of the Texas beach, vehicles are not permitted on the stretch by the campground. Ahhhhhh

April is the start of Turtle season so the rangers are out watching for turtles coming ashore to nest. Hope to see one.

Bird watching is fantastic. The near constant parade of pelicans is a real treat.

Cell phone coverage is none existant yet we have a Winegard 360+ with a 4g LTE antenna and were have enough data to stream YouTube and make calls. We are getting about 3 to 4 mbs up and down.

It was our first time camping at this beach. The campsite does have a park host and will help you out with any questions you might have. It is a first come first serve reservation kiosk.. You fill out your information on a preprinted envelope, pick an unoccupied spot, include payment, seal and drop in the box and you are all set! Get your campsite set and take a walk down to the beach(less then 5 min) for some fun in the sun!
They have sites on both sides. One side of the isle are grassed (beachside) sites and the other are paved. All sites have picnic tables. There are no hookups. They do have restrooms and showers and a separate open shower that is off to the side at the end to rinse sand off. There is no cell service so come prepared if you aren’t down lounging at the beach you have a few DVD’s to pop in.
If you are not up for the dry camping they do have nice size loop at either end to turn around safely. We had a great time and would definitely go back.

We stayed here in our 28ft 5th wheel and loved the view of the gulf from our spot and it was a short walk down to the beach. There is a very efficient system of self pay. We were in site #25 the first night and moved over to #14 for the next three nights for a better view of the gulf. It was a very relaxed feel with friendly neighbors and hosts and very little generator noise while we were there. The campground was full by noon most days. The bathrooms could have been a bit cleaner and there was only cold water in the showers so that is why I didn't give 5 stars.

The sites are close together, but who cares when everyone is inside watching Dish TV. The air is filled with the smell and sound of generators. You cant see the beach from the campground, but it is a short walk to an absolutely beautiful beach with clear water. The showers are just cold water only. The restrooms are "modern" but smelly. I could only find a weak Verizon signal out by the deck area, other wise zero coverage. But it safer and easier to navigate than free beach camping. The camp site reservation board is a nice feature.

Unlike Mustang State Park up the road, it's a short walk to the beach. No cars on the beach here so it's much cleaner than more south. The sites are close together. Many people run their generators nonstop. From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. is allowed. They aren't the quieter RV generators either. It's a shame because the sites are so close that you can hear the surf when generators are off.

It's basically a big parking lot, although the sites on the beach side are dirt and gravel and have a little gazebo over the picnic table. The sites on the opposite side are all asphalt, but they're twice as wide so if you have a big rig or need extra parking the asphalt side is the way to go. Either way you're a stone's throw from the beach but without the annoyance of tracking in sand all over the place. It's first-come-first-serve but I came on a Sunday late afternoon and there were spots available. You just go to the little bulletin board/kiosk thing right in the center, grab a payment envelope, fill it out, tear off the stub which goes up on the board to mark your site, and drop the payment portion it in the lock box. There's only one way in and out but there's a culdesac at each end so turning around is no problem.

The bathrooms and showers seemed pretty clean, although the showers use those annoying faucets that shut off every 10 seconds so you have to keep pressing the knob to keep the water flowing. Plus it was hard to get any hot water out of it so I gave up on the shower. It was super quiet at night except for the surf and people seemed pretty respectful of the rules and quiet hours.

Now here's the big negative, at least for me: NO CELL SIGNAL (well almost none, I'll explain) - despite the fact that at the time of this writing this page rates Verizon 4G LTE at 3 bars. I don't know who the hell gave the Verizon a 3 bar rating but it's not even close. With my cell booster I was able to OCCASIONALLY get a "theoretical" 2-3 bars. Theoretical meaning I would intermittently switch between no signal and a couple bars, but even during those brief moments of perceived signal any attempts at internet access were futile. The signal was just far too weak, even boosted. If you try over and over you might be able to get a single web page to load on your phone, but for all intents and purposes internet is pretty much unusable. Voice calls and texts barely work and I had to keep repeating myself because my voice kept breaking up. I require internet so I can work so I planned this whole trip based on the knowledge of this page saying 3 bars of Verizon 4G, and sadly I had to cut my week long stay down to just one night and go somewhere else. Btw, this is not a knock on the camping area itself, it's a knock against whoever gave these false ratings. I would love to return another time when I don't have to work.

We stayed here for two weeks in the end of March, beginning of April 2019 in spot #18. It is $14 per night unless you have a senior or Access (disability) National Park pass, then it is $7 per night. There is an entry fee to the park as well, but we have the annual park pass. Absolutely worth either price. You are right by the beach! No hookups, but they have fresh water and a dump before entering the campground. It is nice because there are two dumps and two fresh water stations. We planned to stay a night or two and then camp on the beach for free, but after seeing the crowds at the beach and the tide, we decided to stay here the whole time instead. I’m glad we did. The weather didn’t cooperate most days, but we had several days of gorgeous sun. It was constantly breezy which kept the bugs away but made it a bit too chilly for hanging out on the beach all day. The campground filled up most days but was quiet and relaxing. Everyone adhered to the quiet hours and was considerate. We have a solar setup and any site would be perfect for it. No trees to block the sun. Despite the cloudy days, we had no trouble with no generator backup. There is no cell reception at all with AT&T. None. However, we have a WeBoost cell booster and we were able to get enough for me to work remotely. There were a few times it crapped out, but for the most part it worked well, especially considering there was none without it. We arrived around 1pm and didn’t have any trouble finding a spot on the beach side. IMO, the beach side on the right (as you come in) is better. The spots are angled and when you open your door, you can see the beach and ocean easily. Here is the process for getting a spot. If you have arrived after check-out at noon, find an empty spot and claim it. There are occupied signs at campground host site (to the left of the registration area) or put out chairs or something to show it is occupied. You have one hour after claiming the site to pay. Since you have a spot claimed, you can go fill your tanks if necessary or just park your rig. Within an hour, go back and pay at the self-registration area. You will see the self-registration area immediately to the left when you arrive at the campground. It is cash or check, and they have an area you can write your credit card information if you want to do that. If you arrive before noon, you can pick an empty spot with no occupied sign or evidence it is occupied and follow the same process. You can also review the board to see if anyone in a spot is set to leave that day. The board is to the right of the self-registration area. It has slots for each camping site. The papers in the slots are filled out by campers as part of the registration process and it shows when they are leaving. I believe the camp host removes the papers in the morning for people who are leaving that day. If there is no paper in the slot, the site (in theory) is available once the person currently occupying it leaves. If you see a spot like that, I would recommend talking to the current occupants and confirming they are leaving that day. If they are leaving, I would recommend registering and paying for the site immediately. That will prevent other people from claiming it since your paper will show evidence the spot is taken. Then you can setup as soon as the other person leaves. The stay limit is 14 days. There are several access points to the beach, and you can be there in about 100 feet depending on site location. There are picnic tables at the campground and at the beach. There are showers, restrooms, and spigots for sand removal. Dogs are allowed at the campground and on the beach. As always, they must be leased and picked up after. Corpus Christi is about 45 minutes away so I would recommend bringing anything you may need with you, but in a pinch, you can go there for shopping. There are gas stations and a few stores on the island, but nothing close to the campground. The constant breeze helped when the temperatures increased in the late afternoon. It was a perfect time to be there temperature-wise with no hook-ups. There was some rain and it was humid some of the days, but overall, we loved our stay and will definitely be back.