The fiance and I have been wanting to take a trip to get away for a mini vacation for a bit, and our school/work schedules finally lined up. We decided to take a road trip around central and south Texas to take a couple days getting down to the Gulf coast, then do some camping at Padre Island National Seashore (PINS). We were going to do some of the Texas Hill Country overland trails to get the Jeep a bit dirty, but the torrential downpours for the 3-4 days and into the start of our trip kept us off the back roads since they consist of a few stream and low water crossings and we didn't want to chance it.
We ended up heading West to Llano for lunch after checking out the Buchanan Dam and Buchanan Lake. Stopped to grab a picture of the bridge over the Llano river from the dam in the city park.
Cruised down to Enchanted Rock and hiked to the top before heading to Fredericksburg for the night.
Second day we left and headed first to Indianola to check out the "Queen of Texas ghost towns" and on to Rockport where we stayed for the night.
Third day we headed down through Port Aransas, grabbed some food by the water, then headed down into PINS to set up camp. Since we went during the week, it was fairly empty with mostly families with kids still out of school and the local beach fishermen being the only passerby. We went down about 12 miles and lookup up and down the beach, we didn't have neighbor within almost a mile in each direction.
The setup is fairly basic right now. Got a good deal on a Napier SUV tent so we are using that right now and sleeping in the Jeep for overnight trips but ultimately I plan to get a RTT. Got a good air mattress that fits perfectly, and some slip on window screens for the back doors. We knew it was going to be windy there, but it was even more so than we thought. We almost didn't put up the sun shade/canopy because it kept trying to blow away. We ultimately got things to stay put and adjust our setup as we went, and overall it was a good couple days of camping before heading home.
The sun rise over the Gulf of Mexico was probably the best part.
Thanks for checking it out!
We ended up heading West to Llano for lunch after checking out the Buchanan Dam and Buchanan Lake. Stopped to grab a picture of the bridge over the Llano river from the dam in the city park.
Cruised down to Enchanted Rock and hiked to the top before heading to Fredericksburg for the night.
Second day we left and headed first to Indianola to check out the "Queen of Texas ghost towns" and on to Rockport where we stayed for the night.
Third day we headed down through Port Aransas, grabbed some food by the water, then headed down into PINS to set up camp. Since we went during the week, it was fairly empty with mostly families with kids still out of school and the local beach fishermen being the only passerby. We went down about 12 miles and lookup up and down the beach, we didn't have neighbor within almost a mile in each direction.
The setup is fairly basic right now. Got a good deal on a Napier SUV tent so we are using that right now and sleeping in the Jeep for overnight trips but ultimately I plan to get a RTT. Got a good air mattress that fits perfectly, and some slip on window screens for the back doors. We knew it was going to be windy there, but it was even more so than we thought. We almost didn't put up the sun shade/canopy because it kept trying to blow away. We ultimately got things to stay put and adjust our setup as we went, and overall it was a good couple days of camping before heading home.
The sun rise over the Gulf of Mexico was probably the best part.
Thanks for checking it out!
