Goose Island State Park Campground

We go camping here as often as we can. Not only is there a concrete shoreline, but also a quiet wooded area to camp. Love the off season. State park workers are nice and keep the place clean and beautiful.

This park is part of Padre Island National Sea Shore. It is a lot quieter than Mustang Island, which is closer to the city of Corpus Christi. I chose to come in on 77 and it seemed to take forever, including a very secluded road that connects it to 35, not easy to find that connection at night in the small town of Refugio. I will return via 35. Onto the important stuff, the park. There are two camping areas, wooded and on the water. The wooded sites are really cool, very private, shady and appropriate for rv and tent camping. I chose a bay view camp site instead. These are also split into two sections, both with the same amenities in terms of covered shelter, elec, water. I wouldn't want to camp in a tent on the bay view because it is just too too unprotected and out in the open. It is perfect for rv though! They don't seem like much because they are really spare, just gravel and a covered shelter. No dunes, trees, grass, nothin'. What makes up for that is that you are practically ON the water. There is actually a little seawall so the water is lapping about 30 feet from your shelter. It is magical! I really liked my site because it was near the showerhouse as well as a little walkway overlooking a restored marsh that is basically behind us. In the distance behind us are houses. The second bayside camper area is better for fishermen because there is a really pretty, lighted pier at the end of that side, with fish washing stations. That side doesn't have houses (in the distance) behind them. Note, "my side" is also great for fishing right in your "backyard" but doesn't have the cleaning stations. The reason I chose this side over the other bayview side was that the camps are in single file, compared to a front and back row on the other side. This just feels less crowded even though it is the same number of sites.

I went to gaze upon "big tree" a 1,000+ year old oak, in a grove of oaks. I also learned to geocache with a ranger led program. Even though it is off season, there are plenty of activities. Lastly, I saw multiple whooping cranes as well as sand hill cranes. The whoopers were nearly extinct 50 years ago and it is very exciting to have them back!

We camped here in March, 2015 in a 35 foot fifth wheel. The nightly rate does not include the daily per person entry fee.

We camped in site 34 of the Bay campground near the nature viewing area. There are more bay front sites near the fishing pier and another campground in a wooded area. The bay sites are on hard packed sand right on the water. Each site has water and electric hookups and a shelter with a picnic table. Many people fish right from their campsite.

The state park also has a dock with a fish cleaning station and a boat launch. Brown pelicans and white pelicans were hanging out around the dock every day waiting for a handout.

In another area of the park is a thousand year old Texas live oak tree called The Big Tree. Birders will love the wading birds. Whooping Cranes winter in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and might be seen in the area during the winter. Deer are sometimes seen in the park.

In the nearby towns of Rockport and Fulton you'll find shopping, beaches, fishing, restaurants, wildlife tours, and museums. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is within driving distance.

Camped here in February 2014. My birder friends wanted to camp here for the birding. I know they were happy with all of the birds in the area. The park itself is nice and site #154 was quiet and private. There are also some bird blinds and knowledgeable bird guiders at the state park. Unfortunately for me it rained quite a bit and was muggy. We took a boat tour with Rockport Tours to see Aransas WR and the whopping cranes which was well worth the trip. The park is close enough to Rockport to get groceries and dining options.

We arrived on Thursday before Memorial Day weekend about 4:00 PM in a light rain shower. The park employee came out to our rig using an umbrella to check us in. His first words were "the mosquitoes are thick" and so they were. We had a beautiful campsite (114) under an oak tree with green grass all around. But, the mosquitoes were so bad we got bites while were spraying up. There were in my nose and my ears! Once completely sprayed you could move about without being carried away. On Saturday night a huge line of thunderstorms came through and we were advised to seek shelter immediately. We hid out in the cinder block restroom. We discovered the next morning our campsite had turned into a small pond about 3" deep. Not to give up, we noticed a lot of folks bailing out and we were able to move to the bay front, which had previously been full. This was better. We were right on the bay and could fish right from our campsite. That is, if you can cast directly into a 20-25 mph wind. I fished all day and evening without success.

Anyway, it's a beautiful place and I might come back in winter, but never in spring or summer.

We paid the extra $4/night for a site in the Bayfront section, however, when we arrived there weren't any water-views available. We spent our first night in one of the 9 Bayfront sites that doesn't have a view and moved to one that does the next morning.

We really enjoyed walking to the end of the pier almost every morning and night.

Sites 1-24 are along the drive to the boat ramp, I heard fishermen driving by during the night, but it really didn't bother us. If you're sensitive to noise, 25-44 might be a better choice.

There were many over-the-air HDTV channels including CBS for our favorite morning show.

Verizon - DOWNLOADL: 6.11Mb/s, UPLOAD: 2.53Mb/s
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Goose Island State Park is a nice quiet park with wildlife (mostly birds), nature trails, fishing pier, and access to the Aransas Bay for kayaking/fishing. For more information visit the Texas State Parks website http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goose-island Check availability and make reservations for Texas State Parks here: http://texas.reserveworld.com/

There is a daily use fee ($5) in addition to the camping fee, unless you have a Texas State Parks Pass ($70/yr).

There are shaded, wooded sites or if you camp on the bay (open sites with a pavilion, no trees) you can fish from your campsite. If you don't have any fishing gear, you can borrow some from the Ranger station. Beware there are low hanging trees so if you have a tall/big rig or a 5th wheel, you might not fit in some areas of the park. We stayed in early November, so it was quiet, cool, and comfortable.

We had no T-Mobile cell coverage at our campsite, but other areas of the park had some coverage.

We did not use the facilities, but each camping loop has a bathhouse.

There are lots of reviews out there, but I wanted to add that the wooded area has many sites with low Live Oak and shrubs that might prevent bigger rigs from fitting comfortably. Some are too narrow for slide-outs in the position ours are in. The bay side is easy for bigger rigs. The bay side was also less mosquito-y during our stay. (Probably due to winds.)

We were in the wooded section, then left to our next destination on a Thursday. Lost a headlight on the bridge somehow, and needed a place to stay to get it fixed. Staff was extremely helpful. If there is an emergency and no sites are available, they do have overflow parking available.

Loved it here, especially the bird walks. Learned a lot.

"This wind is perfect," my lovely wife says as the Gulf goes blasting her hair and dress into a permanent wave of baseball stadium red and blue. I assume she's picked up some modeling job and didn't tell me about it because, well dang, she looks good and the scenery matches. I pull out my camera and ask her to work it but she immediately goes bashful and heads back into our VW Bus.

"I hate the wind!" our 6 year old says as his latest tape, scissors and old beer box project goes blowing around the campsite.

It's April and the middle of Texas is HOT. So the fact that I can't keep my hat on in this breeze is worth every extra penny these bay front sites cost.

Too bad enough people seem to feel the same way to prevent us from scoring a few more (weekend) nights, so we'll have to move on down the trail...

I had really looked forward to our visit to Goose Island, sadly I was disappointed.
We camped in the trees to be out of the wind and have some privacy as we have yapping dogs.
There are a lot of airboats being launched at the boat ramp from very early in the morning until late at night and those suckers a LOUD!
Our campsite was not as private as we had wanted with another RV about 20 feet from our front door.
The roads were very rough so riding the scooter was not as fun as it usually is.
The facilities were clean and well maintained and that was a plus.
I enjoyed fishing from the big long pier even though I did not catch anything.
I have posted videos of our visit on my YouTube - it can be seen under the video tab.