Six Hours in South Padre

South Padre Island, Texas

I was supposed to go on a road trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado for a week with my family, but since I have been caring for covid positive patients, this trip not surprisingly had to be cancelled. Out of my disappointment, I spontaneously and impulsively decided to go to South Padre Island for a day. I figured a day on the beach by myself far away from other people would be safe. I would not stop anywhere on the way there, bring my own food and drinks, and sit as far from other people as I could. Essentially, my human contact and my contact with anything but sand, sidewalk, my car, and the ocean, would be zero. From Kingsville it is only about a two hour drive to the beach. The county beaches were closed for the fourth of July but the South Padre City beaches were open.

I spent the early afternoon on the South Padre Sand Dunes beach at the end of the island. It’s actually a national seashore so it’s governance is different than the other beaches. It was an alright spot but the water was a bit more stirred up. Being in the sand dunes was very neat though.

I later found a great parking spot at Beach Access #23 and spent the afternoon and early evening camped out on this beach. The water was a stunning turquoise blue, and although not entirely clear it was very clean. Surprisingly it was not crowded at all, and I had at least 40 feet around me in all directions between me and other beach goers.