Beach Camping?

[Randya]

Anyone ever camped on the beach with their egg? In particular near the Gulf of Mexico?

[ddayton]

Many years back did some camping on the wonderful sands of Daytona Beach, FL - not allowed anymore though. I think you can still camp on the southern end of Galveston, TX, beach.

Tip: When camping on any beach plan on getting sand inside your trailer.

Suggestion: Park above the high tide line.

Warning:



Don

[genebland]

I have not yet, but the Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi has a bit more than 60 miles of seashore that you can drive and camp on. I have seen several campers on it.

One thing that they seem to have in comon is that they place boards under the stabalizers.

Be prepared for the wind as well as the sand. Also, it always is cooler than you think at night.

[Randya]

I want to try it once, we don't have to many beaches in Wyoming , so I thought it would be fun. I didn't know what to expect.

[Bill MacDermod]

There are a few state parks in Florida that you are on the beach, mostly in the keys, Curry Hammock SP and Bhai Honda are 2 favorites. There is a very small campground in Sarasota that has about 20 sites that is on Turtle Beach, getting into it could be a real problem, it stays full most of the time. St Pete Fl (Fort Desoto county park ) that all its outside sites are on the gulf water but not really beach.

randya, a few years ago an ebayer was taking buckets of sand from Siesta Key beach in Sarasota and bagging it up and selling it on ebay. Now if you could buy some of that you could have the first beach in Wyoming. Siesta Key is always in the top 5 beaches in the world. It has such fine sand that no matter how hot it gets you can walk on it without you feet getting real hot.

[Randya]

randya, a few years ago an ebayer was taking buckets of sand from Siesta Key beach in Sarasota and bagging it up and selling it on ebay. Now if you could buy some of that you could have the first beach in Wyoming

[ddayton]

You could get an 'almost at the beach' feeling by camping at the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. At least you could get sand in the egg.




There is a commerical RV park there ...
http://tinyurl.com/c32v4w
Don

[CD Smith]

We camped in Dockweiler State Park in LA. You have to reserve a spot a few months in advance. We really enjoyed out three day stay there.

[SherryNPaul]

We camped with some other Oliver owners at Ft. Desoto (near St. Petersburg, FL) last month, and I'd call it beach camping. We could see Egmont Key from our rear window, and had a nice little sand beach at the rear of our campsite. Lots of wading birds. Here's our campsite:



And the view from our picnic table:



Sherry
PS The weather's a lot better this week... Looks like the "cold front" has moved out. Highs were in the 70's today again.

[Dan Meyer]

On whatever beach you decide to camp, make sure you are above high tide.

(I'm going to my room now...)

-- Dan Meyer

[theresa p]

On whatever beach you decide to camp, make sure you are above high tide.

(I'm going to my room now...)

-- Dan Meyer

dan--funny that you should mention the high tide line.....years ago, down in the keys, outside of key west, dennis and i were driving a volkswagon vanagon back then...and we couldn't get into the state park...all full. there were a number of campers out on some sand strip and according to them, it was free to camp there overnight...so we, along with about a dozen other campers, formed up into a semicircle and camped out. there were a couple of bonfires,...lots of camaraderie, it was a great evening!! but imagine our surprise, 2 green-as-grass kids from ontario, when the next morning, we awoke to find the water up halfway on our tires!!! hahahaha the others were in no better condition. thank goodness it didn't come into the camper van.....
a lesson learned....but still, one helluva good memory!!

[brian m.]

I haven't been here since I was in college and proceeded to get my Chevy Malibu stuck in the soft sand but, it's great, it's inexpensive, and you are on the Gulf: http://www.nps.gov/pais/planyourvisit/camping.htm

This is a great place to stay. It has full hookups, clean level concrete pads, and is right where the Colorado River meets the Gulf.
http://matagordabayrv.com/
You can see some of my photos from here on my travel blog: http://www.casitamcsita.blogspot.com/

Just avoid the beaches during Spring Break.

[Randya]

Thank you Brian, great info. I would hate to show up during spring break! Yikes!

[Randya]

Your travel blog is great, makes me want to hitch up and go!

[Adrian W]

My first times camping out was on the beach, South Padre Island. Mainly we would just camp out under the stars with a tarp shade at times. But on one trip a friend of mine had a small travel trailer (not fiberglass), too keep the sand out of it we had a bucket of water by the door to wash the sand off our feet. We pulled a lot of people out the the sand with my old '46 Jeep as well. When I took my kids down to see the beach on a Spring Break (later than most of the Texas Breaks), I would not take my C-class RV onto the beach itself (keep from getting it stuck) but we did park near the entrance to the beach as a day camp and then later at a pull off of the major road and also at a nice county park campgound at the south end of the island. We had also gone to Mustang Island and stayed at the State Park there. Camping is behind the dunes from the beach, a short walk to the beach. Be sure to wash the egg off as soon as possible once you get away from the beach area to get the salt spray off of any metal areas as well as the tow vechle. Beach camping is fun but the sand can get all over if not careful, and the salt is in the air and in the sand as well. I grew up in the Gulf Coast some mile from the Gulf but we had a lot of rust on our cars and trucks, etc. One can normally get way from the Spring Break Crowds by keeping away from the Condo and Hotels and South Padre the town. One can drive miles down the beach to get away from the crowds. Drive on the wet sand to keep from getting stuck.

Goose Island State Park, surrounded by the St. Charles and Aransas Bays, is located north of Rockport & near Freeport in Aransas County. Nice area by the Gulf of Mexico. I want to do this one someday.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findade...s/goose_island/

Mustang Island State Park with about 5 miles of beach on the Gulf of Mexico in Nueces County, south of Port Aransas. We liked this one for the beach.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findade...mustang_island/

ISLA BLANCA PARK a Cameron County Park on South Padre Island has a nice campground. http://www.co.cameron.tx.us/park/blanca.htm

We have not taken our Scamp to the Gulf Coast yet. But would stay at one of the above sites. We have been to some beach camping on the California coast with the egg. But not right on the beach, such as the photo of Carpenteria State Park, CA.

[Bill F.]

Anyone ever camped on the beach with their egg? In particular near the Gulf of Mexico?

We no longer have an egg(bought a 16.5 stick built with a slide), but just returned from a 7 week, 6000 mile trip from Toronto to Brownsville Tx. There are several places on the barrier islands off the gulf coast of Texas where you can camp on the beach. Matagorda, Mustang, Padre, and South Padre Islands all have some areas for overnight camping. We went to South Padre for a couple nights and ended up staying 12 days because we enjoyed it so much. The further south you go the warmer it gets, so South Padre wins. The weekends bring locals with pickups full of skids for campfires so the noise and activity levels spike upwards but the local police patrolled regularly. We saw everything from horseback riding, fishing, picknicking, kite boarding, metal detecting, tractor trailer loads of round bales delivered down the beach for sand dune retention, and even a few brave souls going in for a swim. Weeknights by comparison were kind of boring. While we were there a construction company was laying water and sewer pipe along the highway which probably means more hotels and possibly an end to the ability to camp there in the future. As others have mentioned watch the tide levels, and be prepared for high winds(don't leave your awnings out overnight).
Bill

[Randya]

Sounds nice Bill, we were going to try a trip yet this winter but plans have changed. Maybe next year.

[JenPB]

I grew up camping at Pismo Beach, now called Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, the only drivable stretch of coast in California. Too true about high tide. When my dad's mom used to visit from Utah, Dad would tow the trailer down to the beach and park her there for the weekend or the week. After work he'd join her there, but Grandma just stayed at the beach. One morning we came back to discover Grandma's trailer had (thankfully) been moved by some charitable soul. It seems a plus-tide had come in, and Dad hadn't planned on that!

We haven't taken our FGT down yet, in large part because we haven't had it all that long, and in LARGER part because of the havoc the salty sand plays on anything metal (ahem - frame). Yes, the salt spray gets on EVERYTHING even if you keep the trailer out of the ocean. And sand? You'll be cleaning out sand for, well, forever.

Still, there's nothing like camping ON the sand! (We do it in the tent these days - easier to pick up and dump out.)

Jen

[BOBSMITH]

We camped with some other Oliver owners at Ft. Desoto (near St. Petersburg, FL) last month, and I'd call it beach camping. We could see Egmont Key from our rear window, and had a nice little sand beach at the rear of our campsite. Lots of wading birds. Here's our campsite:

Attachment 17783

And the view from our picnic table:

Attachment 17784

Sherry
PS The weather's a lot better this week... Looks like the "cold front" has moved out. Highs were in the 70's today again.

Fort DeSoto State Park is one of the prettiest Florida parks I've visited (and I've hit many of them). I'm going to show my wife your photos!

[anita&dennis]

We stayed at Huntington Beach State Park near Destin, Florida in the panhandle three years ago. What a great park! It had a boardwalk down to a great beach and one of the best campsites we have stayed in. Highly recommended.