Padre Island National Seashore

Padre Island National Seashore

Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS) is a National Seashore located on Padre Island off the coast of South Texas. In contrast to South Padre Island (well known for its beaches and vacationing college students), PAIS is located on North Padre Island and consists of a long beach where nature is preserved. Primitive camping is available there and most of the beach is only accessible to four wheel drive vehicles.

North Padre Island is the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world. The National Seashore is 70 miles (110 km) long with 65.5 miles (105.4 km) of Gulf beach. The Park hosts a variety of pristine beach, dune, and tidal flat environments, including the Laguna Madre on its west coast, a famous spot for windsurfing. It is located in parts of Kleberg, Kenedy, and Willacy counties, with Kenedy County having the majority of its land area.

Read more about Padre Island National Seashore:  Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, Birdwatching, Shoreline Trash, Oil and Natural Gas Drilling

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    “I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

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    “The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)