North Beach

I was really excited about this spot. It was stunningly beautiful and perfect. Until it got dark. Then the mesquitos came out. Sooooo bad. Everywhere. Then morning came and the sunrise was amazing! Our dogs got to play in the water and the water was warm even at 7:30 am. We got the boogy boards and headed out. After about 20 min my son, daughter and I started feeling stings all over our body. It was horrible! Turns out it was sea lice. It was bad enough for us to leave. Cool experience but I wouldn’t go for the swimming. Fishing probably but we weren’t set up for that. The flies were biting too!

I would probably go back another time of the year to see if it was just a bad time. The views are amazing though. I have mixed feelings. The sting from the lice were pretty horrific for us all.

This was our first experience boondocking and what an AMAZING place to "get our feet wet!" There is access to water and a dump station (once you go through the fee station.)

I'm giving this 5 stars for noise because we enjoyed hearing the surf. Absolutely awesome!

Here is a link to a video explaining the camping options at the National Seashore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxhTvSihCo

Stayed here from Jan.26-29 2019. Beach was not crowed except for Sunday. It rained the first day in but cleared up around midnight. Sunday and Monday was clear and in the mid 60's.Sand was well packed and I had no problems with my 26 ft TT. I gave a 3 star for noise only because of the surf, but then again isn't that why one comes to the beach. A lot of trash in the sand dunes behind me that I cleaned up before I departed. Will stay here again on my way back through.

A great place to unwind. We spent a few days there over Christmas with our five kids and it was a perfect place to relax. The cell service is minimal (unless you stand on top of your rig to get over the dunes), but for us that was kind of what was so appealing. Most campers were parked right off the access road, but we traveled a little farther north (almost the beach barriers) and it was really quiet. The Park Ranger stopped by to say hello and wish us a Merry Christmas and was very kind. The beach was very clean, but there were a couple pieces of small trash that had blown into the dunes. The saying of 'leave it cleaner than when you arrived' seems to be followed by most people and it was a very enjoyable stay. Keep an eye on the tide, but it never went farther than a couple of feet into the packed 'road/path' while we were there. We stopped at a local gas station and purchased firewood for an evening fire on the beach and it was a lot of fun of our family. If we were ever in the area, or needed a place to unwind, this would be on our list of places to stay.

This boondocking spot was absolutely amazing! This is a must stay spot if you are in Texas! The locals were very kind and helped us out with any questions we had. Unfortunately we could not find the free showers people talked about but we found $1 showers at a campground up the beach. The beach was a little dirty but we picked up the trash around us and it made it perfect. It is dog friendly which our dog loved! There is a lot of wildlife! We only had one other camper join us on the beach and it was only for 2 nights.

I used to camp here often many years ago. Make sure you watch the tide and be prepared for sand driving. Too hot and humid in the summer but the rest of the year it’s fantastic. Best to come out on a weeknight especially for full moon! Lots of trash washes up on the beach from the golf so be cautious of where you step especially if you’re not wearing shoes mostly up in the sandy areas. Closer to the water is going to be a little bit better but again be cautious. Lots of nude sunbathers and campers so if you’re offended by that sort of thing this probably isn’t the place you want to go.

We stayed here in January and there was a ton of wind throughout the week. Upon our arrival at PINS the wind and choppy sea led us to spend the first few nights at the paid campgrounds. Once we finally got out to North Beach mid-week it was unbelievable!

The access road is just outside the entrance gate to PINS and by the lone cell tower in the area. Once you get to the beach it becomes fairly clear what all this "beach-road" talk is about. There is a very well packed part of the beach just above the normal high tide line that is somewhat well trafficked throughout the day. We simply drove down a ways and found a spot that we could tuck up between the road and the dunes.

The downside here is the stress of watching high tide come in and hoping that it stops where it should. On one windy day, the tide came right up t within a foot of our rig. Knowing that it had turned and was heading back out, we didn't want to leave the beach but we had to move because we were now blocking traffic which had moved up closer to the dunes with the "road" under water. We tucked up closer to the dunes without any problem though, this is a fine sand that packs pretty tight.

After a few days the wind started coming out of the east and brought the water up to the RV hours before high tide, so we decided to leave and head back to the paid sites for the remainder of our stay.

The Malaquite Campground has a dump station with potable water for use by all guests to PINS, it is only a few miles away and is near the visitors center. Verizon 4G is a weak signal but offered plenty of bandwidth speed for us to work throughout the day.

If the weather is good, then boondocking simply doesn't get better than this spot. When it is bad you can take comfort in the paid campgrounds inside PINS that are only a few miles away.