Piping Plover Campground

Very nice concrete pads Within 3-400 yd of the beach. Water and Electric , but no full hookup . Beach has a lot of debris blown in from the Gulf but should be good for swimming. Excellent long Boardwalk in the
marsh. Easy to ride bikes on the beach . Good calm water kayak launch point within one mile of Campground. No Wi-Fi, one bar AT&T signal, some mosquitoes.

I saw all the reviews about mosquitoes, and thought, ‘what’s the big deal? We’ve got an RV and are working during the day. They can’t bother us too much.’ NO! They got in through any little hole in the slides, through the AC… I even saw one get through the bathroom vent fan while it was pushing air out! It was a part time job trying to not get bitten alive in our own home. It’s been rough.

Come prepared cuz town is 30 minutes away.

It is nice being right off the beach in a water/50 amp site. Starlink service is good. T-mobile is not.

We are excited to try the 5 mile kayak trail in the other part of the park.

Camped for 1 week in Jan 2023.

The Mosquito Coast
Dec 2022 • Couples
We had RV campground reservations for 3 nights but left after one because of the mosquitoes. We came prepared with Thermacell repellent and DEET spray but were overwhelmed by the mosquitoes. My Labrador had mosquitoes swarming him.
The campground and park is surrounded by a marsh. The mosquitoes are not bad on the beach where there is a breeze.
The park rangers are very nice and the campground itself is nice with spacious flat spots with electric and water hook ups. A dump station is available. Verizon coverage is poor. About half the RV spots were used however I only saw one other camper outside of their RV while we were there. I guess everyone else stayed inside their RV because of the mosquitoes.
If you are a first time beach camper to the Texas Gulf Coast, try boondocking on the beach here or further down the Bolivar Peninsula near Crystal Beach. You need to be away from the marsh.

If you like to camp within 300 ft from the beach, this is the place. Site 008 offers a view of the Gulf too. This a wide open small campground (15 sites) no shade but great breeze coming from the Gulf. Watch out for your awning! Electric and water at site 008. Dump station.
You can drive on the beach as well but not on the beach directly in front of the park, only East or West of that beach in front of the campground. Dog on leash are allowed on and off the beach.

Great place to relax and enjoy the beach. The park has 5 miles of beach to camp or drive. There is no hiking or boardwalks. The daily costs, in addition to the site fee is $3 per day per person. There are vault toilets and 2 rinse off stations. Each site has 15/30/45 AMP service with water. There were sites in the open and others waterside that had privacy. If you have a choice, you can use https://www.campsitephotos.com/ to choose a site fitting to requirements. The biggest disappointment was no shower-house.

Very close to the ocean. Lovely tall grasses all around. Marsh and sea birds aplenty. You can drive out onto the beach as the sand is packed hard. We were there in January and it was pretty windy. The bugs were not bad during the day, but once dusk hits there are thousands of mosquitos! Just opening our door briefly resulted in dozens coming into the RV. The strange thing though, was that they didn't seem that interested in us. I don't know if they were mostly male, but we were not bitten by them. We passed several oil refineries on the drive to the park. This was really interesting to us coming from CT. Luckily though, they were not near the park itself.

The positives: this is a quiet, small, not very busy campground with incredible beach access. You can even primitive camp on the beach for only the entrance fee. Not many did, it was very windy, but the sand is very hard packed. Enough that we biked out onto the beach and it was great. Great shelling here, whelks and sea moon snails and thousands and thousands of tiny little shells. It's shallow for a long way so the bird watching is great too on the tidal flat. Easy access a mile down the road to marsh kayaking trails. Free wifi at the visitor center and we slightly picked it up from the furthest campsite. Didn't work as well at night.

The negatives: as others have mentioned, the mosquitoes are FIERCE. Bring bug spray and cortisone. Stand in windy places. Don't expect to be outside for any length of time if you're not on the beach. Even with a fire it still wasn't pleasant. The long boardwalk was destroyed in the last hurricane. No cell signal at the beach.

Final notes: you have to want to get here, it's 30 minutes out of Port Arthur.

Camped here last two days. Every water spigot has a leaky valve. So many mosquitoes that you can’t be outside your RV after dusk. I got eaten alive unhooking my trailer. So windy during the day, you cannot have anything outside that isn’t nailed down. Other campers porch mats and tables were blowing around and in the water. The staff leaves at 4:30, not 6pm like the website says. Beach is hard and dirty sand. Bathrooms are so full of mosquitoes that you won’t want to go in them, much less pull your pants down. Outside showers only with cold water. Overall, I would give this park zero stars except the view from inside trailer was good. If you like being trapped in your RV the whole time, then this is a perfect place.

Camped in a 35” motorhome. We are self-contained so cannot comment on restrooms/shower facilities. Overall – We will return.
Pros –
- Level sites
- Very quiet – lots of space between sites
- Most have views of Gulf and Marshes
- Beaches are very quiet and peaceful. Much more beach than people.
- Very friendly staff
- Good cell service
- Water and electric sites

Cons –
- For those who are staying for longer periods – the dump station is about a mile down the road. Might be too far for those with the portable dumping tanks?
- The mosquitos are many and quite aggressive when the wind isn’t blowing and it’s warm. Make sure to have spray. Or go when it’s cold.
- Verizon and T-Mobile internet service is good except in the evening – then very spotty.
- During duck hunting season (which seems to be months long) you can hear the shooting beginning very early in the morning.