Brazoria Beach Dispersed Camping

This place is beautiful. The pristine beach is wide and the sand is dense enough to easily drive on (for a 33 ft class A). It's incredibly clean and it's obvious the locals take a lot of pride in keeping it well maintained. We don't know how the swimming is because it's a little chilly. But based on wading in up to ankles, it's warm enough.

We used beach entry 1. The space in front of the houses requires a beach permit and there is no overnight parking. Beyond the wood posts is "Free Beach" (a term the locals use, I didn't make it up). Parking is anywhere on the beach, feet from the water, you don't need a permit and you can stay overnight.

There are trash bins along the beach road which is incredibly convenient. There are no restrooms or other amenities.

The closest convenience store/gas station is about 5 miles away.

We use Verizon for phones/internet. My iphone is showing 3 out of 5 bars (LTE) and our hot spot puck is getting 10 Mbsp download on 4G (on 2 out of 5 bars).

It's Feb 2017 on a Thursday night and there are 3 or 4 other RVs out here... spread out over a couple of miles. Cars and trucks have driven past both on the beach road and down on the water line. They've all slowed when they saw kids and a dog. It's a very friendly place.

I camped one night here in a tent. Some of the advice I'm giving is my own while some comes from other campers and locals I talked to. I would have stayed longer but had to go to an appointment. I still need to verify this on a map, but was told this beach sits on the Gulf of Mexico. (Some Texas beaches sit on the edge of a bay, verses the Gulf itself.) This means you can expect larger waves at times, as well as stronger currents and tide changes.

It's hard to find a spot for tent camping, but this is a good place for tents. You can also camp in an RV or car. Or under the stars, if you want to deal with mosquitoes. There are no designated camp sites (just pick a place) and it's no charge to camp on most of the beach. I think a small portion of this beach, which is marked off with wooden posts, may force you to pay to camp. But I don't know who collects the money (I saw nobody doing that). Don't confuse this "county beach" with nearby Surfside Beach, which I was told forbids camping.

There are plenty of trash barrels and a few scattered porta potties, but no "hookups." This is just a big, open, sandy Gulf of Mexico beach. There are no life guards, no food vendors, no picnic tables, no built-in barbecue pits, and no shade structures. Bring your own grill, ice chest, chairs, umbrella, and/or pop up shade canopy. Campfires are allowed, but there might be restrictions on huge bonfires. You can bring wood or try to collect driftwood, for a fire. Don't forget your sunscreen and mosquito repellent. If the wind dies down, especially at night, the mosquitoes will come.

Dogs are supposed to be leashed, I'm sure, and glass containers are not allowed on the beach. But I did notice one spot with broken glass from somebody who ignored the rules. Otherwise the beach was very clean, other than having some of the usual flotsam and jetsam that washes ashore. Sargasso seaweed is sometimes a problem on Texas beaches, but this beach had very little seaweed when I was there (end of July, 2017).

This is a "drive-on" beach. But keep your vehicle on the hard-packed areas -- be careful not to drive through deep sand and get stuck. Some of the deep sand is found where you enter and leave the beach via the access roads. So be especially careful to stay on the hard packed parts of those entrance/exit areas. Signs warn that it's one way driving on the beach, but some cars ignore that and drive both ways. To go the other way, you're supposed to take exit roads off the beach and loop back on the paved road, then access the beach again, rather than drive the wrong way on the beach.

Driving the wrong way, failing to wear seat belts, littering, and ignoring the 15 mph speed limit puts you at risk of getting a ticket, if the cops show up. I'm just warning people that don't know you can get tickets, on Texas beaches.

You can park by the water, but be aware of tide changes. When camping, don't set up your camp too close to the water in case the tide comes in and swamps your campsite. Half the width of the beach often gets covered during a high tide. So it's best to pick a camping spot close to the dunes, not the water. If you want to park near the water, I suggest you do it only in daytime or when you're awake so you can notice the tide coming in and can move your vehicle and gear.

You can fish in the surf, but there's no pier along this stretch of beach. The bait shops are a few miles from the beach, on the road going there.

There's a convenience store about 5 miles away with gas, ice, food, etc., and frozen bait shrimp. Across the street from the store is an ice dispensing kiosk that charges less than the store.

I had good AT&T cell coverage and adequate internet service on my phone, where I camped near Access Road 1.

Beautiful location, right on the beach for FREE. Just north of Surfside, Texas is Brazoria County Beach. At first we were a little confused of where we could park/camp. If you enter the north Surfside beach access road and go north on the beach. You will go past several posts in the middle of the beach with reflectors, that's the end of Surfside and beginning of Brazoria County. NOTE - In Surfside, you must register and buy a permit.

We pulled into the beach access just east of Seaside. There is another access about 5 miles east of Seaside. The beach was hard packed sand with lots of room. There are trash cans all along the beach and it is fairly clean.

We had thunderstorms this morning with hard rain and the sand the remained firm. I asked locals and they said the beach was fine as long as there wasn’t really high tides which were not expected. There are lots of area to camp. The nearest camper wasabout 1/4 mile away from us.

Please clean up around your campsite. It is the least we can do as free campers to earn our keep. Take 30 minutes and police the area. I noticed signs along the beach where companies adopted a mile of beach.

Enjoy your stay!

Stayed one night on the beach and stared at the stars. How can it get any better.

Free on the beach. Very awesome. Free area is in Rockport section 5 miles north of Surfside Beach (which doesn't have overnight camping). Just go past areas that are posted for $12 annual Surfside Beach annual pass.

To get to the free beach go north on the islands main road (towards Galveston), go past all the houses and beach access signs in town. After the houses end on both sides (less then a mile north) there is a dark blue sign with white writing "Public Beach access 1". Turn right there and the beach is about a quarter mile straight in front. The beach is for vehicles one way only on packed sand. There is an exit further north (labeled as Public Beach Access 2". I am not sure, if there are any more. Almost any rig will fit on this beach. There are trash cans and Port-a-potties on the beach (not sure how clean they are and how often the trash is picked up). The next "normal" grocery store is on the mainland. The stores on the island close or have very much reduced hours in the off-season plus they have tourist prices. I recommend this beach from September through May. Reason being is that is was raining all weekend on Laborday and there were still lots of people thoughing it out. Since it is only 60 miles from the Houston area I can just imagine what it is like when school is out and the weather is good, lol.... At the right time this beach is probably pretty close to heaven....

It was rainy and cloudy and cold when we got here. But there were few others on the beach, and far between. The beach is fairly flat. Better if you park parallel to the coast than perpendicular. We started out with the windshield view / perpendicularly and changed that after a could of days as the is a slight incline to the shore. There’s plenty of trash cans posted around. No potable water or restrooms. Just beach. The sand is hard packed and easy to drive on. We have a 23’ short skoolie conversion.

Very pleasant for a free beach. Constant security watching everyone, nearby stores, portable RR for those without RR's. Family friendly, miles of beach for plenty of campers to stay. Filled up with water, dump and cleaned nearby at Oyster Creek Rv for $10 (2815 FM 523 Road, Oyster Creek, TX 77541). Low internet signal but helped us to enjoy camping a lot better without it. Will be back soon for sure!

This was a great place to spend the night. The crash of the waves lulled us to sleep. The beach was clean. We saw the local police drive by twice during our stay. There are a couple stores within walking distance. The best part of being here in the winter there were only two other campers on the beach. The sand is packed. We saw a large class cruise past us.