On Thin Islands

When the Road Less Traveled Isn’t Actually a Road ... but a Beach

by

Serious ink has been spilled extolling the virtues of the road less traveled. It’s a romantic notion: why not quit the superhighway in favor of the back road, the country lane—secure in the knowledge that even if we arrive at our destination a little later, we stand to be enriched by the diversion? In reality though, when departing for that long-anticipated getaway, how many of us overscheduled, time-poor individuals actually end up opting for the slow road? Not many. Instead, brainwashed by a lifetime’s propaganda singing the praises of speed and efficiency, we feel compelled to zero in on our destination, forgetting that by definition, the process of “getting away” really begins the moment we turn out of the driveway. “Life is a journey, not a destination,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson—words memorable enough to be reproduced on everything from tattoos to tea towels, to that souvenir travel mug you’re in danger of buying at one of the hundreds of Buc-ee’s or Pilot Travel Centers that line America’s interstate network … if you don’t heed Ralph’s advice by getting off the main drag and going in search of more interesting souvenirs. 

With this in mind, one February morning I set out from St. Francisville in pre-dawn darkness—determined to trade the juggernaut efficiency of I-10 for a slower, more scenic route to my destination: Mustang Island on the Texas Gulf Coast. 

You don’t hear much about Mustang Island, but that’s okay with the few thousand people who call it home. Eighteen miles long and not much more than a mile wide, Mustang tends to be overshadowed by its larger, flashier neighbor to the south, Padre Island—which at 113 miles in length, stretches almost to the Mexico border and boasts the status of one of the most popular (and wild) spring break destinations in the country. Mustang Island offers a quieter, less commercialized Texas Gulf Coast beach experience—one renowned for the birdwatching, fishing, swimming, surfing, and wide-open beaches that attract folks from across Texas and surrounding states. 

Getting There

From St. Francisville to Mustang Island takes about eight-and-a-half hours by the fastest route, but since I was determined to see as little of I-10 as possible, I crossed the Mississippi River at the Audubon Bridge, winding my way through Maringouin and Rosedale, along sinuous roads like LA 414 and 413 that shadow the bayous, through cypress trees and cane fields and past crumbling Catholic cemeteries wreathed in early morning mist, towards Grosse Tete and the unavoidable stretch of I-10 beyond. As the sun rose, I was somewhere in Cameron Parish, sailing between rice paddies where snowy egrets stalked crawfish. By 7 am I was through Lake Charles, the high I-10 bridge delivering some unexpected elevation from which to consider a rose-colored sunrise.

If you measure a road trip by the number of sights that depart from day-to-day experience, it’s when I turned off of I-10 at Winnie onto TX-124 that things started to get interesting. Right away the national brands were replaced by places with names like Tony’s BBQ & Steakhouse, and the Sea Pony Bait & Tackle Shack. Then those faded away too, and all around was coastal plain—dotted with pumpjacks and longhorn cattle, the sun low in the sky, on a two-lane road following a line of utility poles towards the still-invisible Gulf. At 257 miles from home I passed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. At mile 263 a tall bridge rewarded with a birds-eye view of pushboats chugging west to east along the Intracoastal Waterway, and took me over the wetlands southward for a first glimpse of the shining Gulf beyond. Then came a little coastal chenier town named High Island, and it was a hard right onto TX Hwy-87 and the Bolivar Peninsula towards Galveston. 

If you haven’t done it, driving along the Bolivar Peninsula offers a little slice of the old Texas coast worth an hour of your valuable time. For twenty miles you skim along a two-lane strip of blacktop separated from glittering Gulf waves by a slender strip of shell-strewn beach. Everything is built on stilts, painted in pastels, with a cheerful, independent, make-do vibe that doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. Driving past bait shacks, stilt houses leaning out over the water, scrubby coastal live oaks festooned with egrets, and a rusty Highway 87 sign with a brown pelican perched on top makes you appreciate the strange beauty of this network of peninsulas and barrier islands strung like a necklace along the Louisiana/Mississippi/Texas coasts. Sure, they’re scruffy and beat up and kind of out-of-the-way. But as a unique, land-that-time-forgot environment and a first line of defense against the increasingly-powerful storms that roll in from the Gulf, they’re a treasure that we would do well to respect and understand. And preserve, because we’ll miss them when they’re gone. 

[Heading to the barrier islands? Check out our travel guides to Galveston, here: Thank Goodness for Galveston, On Our Island, The Argument for Galveston, Get Thee to Galveston.]

At the end of Bolivar, Tx-87 dead-ends into the boarding lanes for the Port Bolivar-Galveston Ferry. Operated by the Texas Department of Transportation, the free crossing takes about fifteen minutes. If your timing is lucky you might drive right on. But if not, don’t worry; multiple boats run all day, departing each time one gets full. We’re in no hurry, after all. 

Once you cross into Galveston and roll along Broadway Avenue, past all the stupefyingly-grand mansions dating from the city’s heyday, it’s about four more hours to Mustang Island. Or five, if you meander around as much as I did. Use Google or Apple maps to chart your course, and the algorithm will go to great lengths to send you back to the fastest route. Instead, I broke my route into segments strung between the most interesting-sounding coastal towns, which made for a scenic and entertaining way to cover ground. Driving from, say, Galveston Island to Freeport. Then Freeport to Palacios. Then Palacios to Seadrift—with stops at each to sample excellent Mexican food from roadside stalls—added about an hour to my total travel time. But what I gained instead, in terms of views, perspective, and flavor, more than compensated. Finally, after passing Holiday Beach and crossing over Copano Bay, it was time to line up for one more ferry, crossing Aransas Pass to land in Port Aransas, and onto Mustang Island itself. 

[Read this roadtripping story from early in the pandemic, here: When There's No Where to Go]

Birding

The first thing you notice on Mustang Island is the birds. Consisting largely of dunes interlaced with meandering inlets and freshwater ponds and lakes, the Island is mecca for migrating birds (over four hundred species have been identified here), and a popular stop on the Texas Birding Trail, particularly in winter and early spring. Between Mustang Island State Park, which occupies the southern third of the island, the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, the Port Aransas Nature Preserve, and the Padre Island National Seashore, which encompasses the northernmost 130,000 acres of Padre Island to the south, migrating birdwatchers will find a host of areas from which to watch them, too.

tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/mustang-island

cityofportaransas.org/departments/parks-and-recreation/nature-preserve/birding-center

 The Beaches

But it’s the beach that brings most visitors to Mustang Island. And what a beach it is! Broad, flat, and clean, during the warmer months (which is to say, most of them), the Gulf-side teems with fisherman, birdwatchers, paddlers, campers, surfers, and sandcastle-builders. On the western shoreline, the shallow waters of Laguna Madre and Corpus Christi Bay offer a paradise for canoeists and kayakers, presenting a series of designated paddling trails that pass through some of the best shallow water fishing areas in Texas. An added “only-in-Texas” kind of benefit is the fact that on Mustang and North Padre islands, it’s perfectly legal to take your car onto the beach and drive along the coast until you find a spot that suits you. All you need is a valid beach parking permit, which costs $12 per year. Visit ccparkandrec.com for a list of places to buy one.

Eating in Port A

Away from the beach, most of the action on Mustang Island is in Port Aransas, the jaunty beach town that occupies the northernmost tip of the island and looks out over Aransas Pass. Home to about 3,400 year-round residents, “Port A,” as it is affectionately known by the locals, is painted in bright pastels, and amply supplied with fresh seafood shacks, souvenir shops, golf cart rental places, and casual, lively bars with names like Blue Water Cowboy and The Salty Dog Saloon. There are plenty of restaurants—the pizzerias, fish shacks, and a Polynesian hot plate place looked to be doing a healthy trade on the mid-week afternoon I was in town. Lots of seafood places of course, enough of which offer a “you-catch-we’ll-cook” service to lend credibility to Mustang Island’s reputation as an outstanding saltwater fishing destination. Since we’re in South Texas and at the gateway to “El Valle,” I settled on a colorful Mexican restaurant named La Playa Mexican Grille, and was plied with guacamole made fresh tableside, three kinds of ceviche, and a superb fresh fish special of broiled snapper topped with salsa and lime. laplayamexicangrille.com. 

Fishing

If fishing’s your thing, Mustang Island provides a ton of ways to go after the “Texas big three,” (a.k.a. redfish, trout, and flounder). On the Gulf side you can just drive up the beach, settle on a spot, and cast into the surf for red and black drum, pompano, and more.

If you’d rather keep your feet dry, try the Horace Caldwell Pier in Port Aransas; or set up on one of the stone jetties like Fish Pass Jetty in Mustang Island State Park, or the one at the mouth of the Packery Channel—which delivers fresh water into the north end of Laguna Madre and serves as the dividing line between Mustang and North Padre islands. On a good day, you might catch trout, redfish, whiting, pompano, black drum, or sheepshead from these. 

Then there’s Laguna Madre itself—the huge system of shallow bays and flats that lies between Mustang and Padre islands and the mainland. At any time of year, wade- or kayak-fishing these shallow seagrass flats can produce limit catches of redfish and flounder, croaker, drum, and pompano. 

Speaking of flounder, the shallow flats make the back side of Mustang Island a fantastic location to try the uniquely Texas experience of flounder gigging—which is to say, wading the shallows at night with a spotlight and a gig spear. In summer, be sure to shuffle your feet on the bottom; there’s nothing like stepping on a stingray to spoil your vacation. 

If you prefer to leave it to the experts, or go offshore after species like red snapper, tuna, and billfish, a wide variety of fishing charters base out of Port A. Visit portaransas.org/things-to-do/fishing to get started.

Texas Sandfest 

For families, non-fishermen, and frustrated architect-types, in spring Port Aransas is also ground zero for the Texas Sandfest, the largest native sand sculpture competition in the country, which draws renowned sand sculptors to make the most of Port A’s wide Gulf-side beach each spring. Tens of thousands of visitors come to watch hundreds of elaborate, ephemeral sculptures take shape. Rain or shine, this year’s Sandfest will take place April 8–10. texassandfest.org. 

Where to Stay

When it comes to places to lay one’s head, Mustang Island offers a little bit of everything—from beach camping and RV parks, motels, and chain hotels to short-term vacation rentals and luxury resorts. Drive up Highway 361 from south to north and long before you arrive at the outskirts of Port Aransas, a parade of fancifully-named vacation rental complexes rises like a mirage. The names are a vacation unto themselves: La Concha Estates, The Mayan Princess, Lost Colony Villas, SeaGull Condos, Sandpiper Resort, Porto Villageo, and Port Royale Ocean Resort. Mustang Towers (optimistically named since there was only one tower), Mariner’s Watch, and Cinnamon Shore are all here, their colors as bright as the names. There has been heavy investment in palm trees. Judging by the amount of construction along this strip, there might be more by the time you go. 

My destination, though, is Lively Beach—a newly-built eco resort nestled in the dunes at the southern tip of Mustang Island, buffered from other developments by Mustang Island State Park to the north and the Packery Channel to the south. If a secluded, luxuriously-appointed short-term vacation rental with a gorgeous pool, easy beach access, and a host of amenities sounds like your cup of tea, Lively Beach might be the place for you. 

Designed and built in a contemporary style that maximizes the sense of seclusion, the resort offers accommodations across several three-story structures, each with five or six self-contained units comfortably equipped with sleek, beachy furnishings, kitchen facilities, and rooftop deck access primed for enjoying the fabulous sunsets in this part of the world. 

Out of doors, guests have access to barbecue grills, a fire pit, and various gathering spots around the property. Beach access is via a magic kingdom-style wooden walkway that vaults over the dunes to J.P. Luby Beach, an active beach popular with swimmers, kiteboarders, fishermen and—when the wind is from the north and the swell comes out of the south or east—the site of one of the better surf breaks on the Texas coast. 

An added attraction is the birdlife: since the resort stands amid a large area of natural dune and grassland bordering Mustang Island State Park, this place is close to nature. One evening as I stood on the rooftop deck at dusk, snowy egrets poked around in the marsh ponds, and a pair of red-tailed hawks swooped and dipped over the surrounding grassland looking for dinner. A great blue heron cranked across the darkening sky and settled with a flourish on a railing not fifteen feet from where I stood. It fixed me with a big, yellow eye that seemed to say, “What are you doing here?” 

Especially in spring, Mustang Island makes a rewarding escape for all sorts of reasons—from its easygoing vibe and wide variety of on- and off-water activities, to the abundant birdlife, easy access to vast state and national parks, varied accommodation options, and excellent seafood and Mexican cuisine. But, again, not to be overlooked when considering a destination like Mustang Island is the opportunity it presents to get away from the interstate and rediscover a picturesque slice of the old Gulf coast that, increasingly, we need to go out of our way to appreciate. So, if you go, take the slow roads.

 You’ll be glad you did. 

livelybeach.com

portaransas.org

 Disclaimer: This trip was hosted and partially funded by Lively Beach, though the opinions of the writer are entirely his own and formed independently of this fact.