Restoring Gulf Coast Barrier Reefs One Oyster Shell at a Time
September 19, 2023 | By Cynthia J. Drake
texas coast
Texas Beaches Are Awash In Baby Dolls, Messages in a Bottle, and Other Oddities
July 13, 2022 | By Ariel Castillo
An excessive amount of trash—or treasure, for some people—has been known to wash up on Texas beaches.
Pick Up Good Vibrations From These Summer Snapshots of the Texas Gulf Coast
May 28, 2020 | By Kenny Braun
Small-Town Dispatches: After Finally Bouncing Back From Hurricane Harvey, Port Aransas Faces a More Unknown Foe in COVID-19
April 25, 2020 | By John Lumpkin
Hurricane Harvey invaded Port Aransas less than three years ago with the subtlety of a neutron bomb, wasting neighborhoods, destroying beloved venues and wrecking its close-knit citizens’ lives.
I Survived the Texas Water Safari
June 18, 2019 | By Pam LeBlanc
Today, three days after my finish, I feel feral. I also feel like Wonder Woman filled my lungs with magic air that makes me capable of doing almost anything I set my mind to.
Visitors from a Distant Sea Bring Tiny Treasures to Texas Beaches
June 13, 2019 | By E. Dan Klepper
Small quantities of a seaweed called sargassum wash ashore all year long. But every few years, beginning in April, the sargassum arrives en masse—a deluge of amber-colored stems, leaves, and tiny gas bladders that help the plants stay afloat (and pop when squeezed). This relatively unpredictable event seems to occur after huge blooms of sargassum in the Atlantic Ocean, some 2,000 or more miles away. While piles of sargassum might hinder swimming and sunbathing, they also provide opportunities for families and other beachcombers to find seahorses, strange shrimp, and other tiny creatures that hopped a ride to Texas.
My Hometown: Luther Hotel Innkeeper Jack Findley Talks History and Having Fun on Tres Palacios Bay
June 10, 2019 | By Heather Brand
At the historic Luther Hotel in Palacios, proprietor Jack Findley often mingles with guests on the front porch overlooking Matagorda Bay. Findley’s path to Palacios was circuitous.
Texas Highways Editors Share Their Favorite Coastal Destinations
June 6, 2019 | By Emily Roberts Stone, Executive Editor
Share your favorite coastal memories and photos using the hashtag #myTXcoast for a chance to be featured on our social media accounts.
10 Can’t-Miss Beach Eats of the Gulf Coast
June 6, 2019 | By
Whether you’re a beach bum or you’ve never felt the sand between your toes, you’ll be craving a trip to the Gulf Coast after learning the stories behind these 10 iconic beach eats
Aransas Pass Makes a Perfect Summer Weekend Getaway
June 4, 2019 | By John Lumpkin
Could there be a better way to experience a town comprised of at least 70 percent saltwater than to get to the water as fast as you can? With 41 square miles of Redfish Bay inside its city limits, Aransas Pass offers just that—
a self-described “Saltwater Heaven” building on its revival after Hurricane Harvey’s destruction in 2017.
June 2019
June 1, 2019 | By
In this issue: An Epic 367-Mile Road Trip Reveals the Best of the Texas Coast, 10 Can’t-Miss Beach Eats of the Gulf Coast, Escape to the Mother Lagoon for a Quiet Coastal Getaway
An Epic 367-Mile Road Trip Reveals the Best of the Texas Coast
May 31, 2019 | By Clayton Maxwell
From Port Arthur to Port Isabel, navigating the best of Texas’ bays, beaches, and bards
Photo: Clouds Loom Over Follett’s Island
May 31, 2019 | By
Even when clouds loom, any day is a good day on Follett’s Island, which features about 11 miles of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. Free access to the beach is available at multiple points between Surfside Beach and San Luis Pass along Bluewater Highway. During the summer, the water temperatures are usually a balmy low- to mid-80 degrees—perfect for fishing, swimming, horseback riding, birding, and camping on the beach.
Escape to the Mother Lagoon for a Quiet Coastal Getaway
May 30, 2019 | By Joe Nick Patoski
There are few places in and around Texas where the visible fish—plus dolphins, peregrine falcons, and brilliant-pink roseate spoonbills—outnumber the people viewing them. The Laguna Madre is one of those places, the only body of water in the state that truly qualifies as extreme.
The Daytripper’s Top 5 in Port Aransas
May 30, 2019 | By Chet Garner
When the Texas summer starts cooking, my favorite form of relief is to dive into the largest body of water I can find, which is often the Gulf of Mexico. This is where Port A comes in—with its near-endless beaches, historic appeal, and laid-back attitude. Port Aransas is one of my favorite places to hit the Texas coast, and with its ongoing recovery from Hurricane Harvey, it’s got more Texas grit and personality than ever.
Tookie’s Campechana Cocktail Recipe
May 29, 2019 | By
Serves 6. Toss shrimp, campechana sauce, and pico de gallo in a bowl. Spoon into a martini glass, and top with diced avocado and
cilantro. Add jumbo lump crab on top of mixture. Place lime on the rim. Serve with tortilla chips and jalapeños on the side.
5 Craft Breweries to Visit in Corpus Christi
May 23, 2019 | By Phil West
Craft beer fans might be pleasantly surprised by what awaits them in Corpus Christi: A trio of breweries opened within the past five years, and a couple of restaurants have recently started their own brewing operations. The result is adventuresome brews in a city more accustomed to mass-produced, beach-ready 12-packs. These days, when it comes to sipping in style, Corpus has you covered.
How Chef Mary Bass Gives Back to Galveston
May 23, 2019 | By Hannah J. Phillips
A Galveston native, Bass started her career by launching a bakery business, Viva la Cake Balls. She later became executive chef at Haak Vineyards & Winery in nearby Santa Fe in 2013, before becoming executive sous chef at BLVD Seafood when it opened in 2015. In 2018, Galveston.com named her “Best Chef on the Island” for the fourth consecutive year.
Sailors Test Their Endurance on the Annual Texas 200
May 23, 2019 | By Pam LeBlanc
This year marks the 12th edition of the Texas 200, a self-described “rolling messabout” up 200 miles of Lone Star coast June 10-14. Boats of all types and sizes, many built in garages, cruise in company through bays, cuts, and bayous and into the Intracoastal Waterway.
Photo: Vintage Postcard Depicts Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard in the 1940s
May 22, 2019 | By
The balmy excitement of a summer evening on Seawall Boulevard suffuses this vintage Galveston postcard. While the image is undated, the buildings point to the era of the 1940s and ’50s. Existing landmarks include the seawall, which the city constructed after the hurricane of 1900; the 1911 Hotel Galvez, still in operation; and Murdoch’s Bathhouse, a souvenir shop that has been rebuilt multiple times since the late 1800s. The postcard also depicts landmarks lost to time: the wooden Mountain Speedway roller coaster, built in 1921 and knocked down after Hurricane Carla in 1961; the 1929 Buccaneer Hotel, an 11-story building demolished in 1999; and, stretching over the water, the 1923 Balinese Room, a pier that succumbed to Hurricane Ike in 2008 and was famous for its history as an illegal casino.
Know of any fascinating vintage Texas photographs? Send copies or ideas to [email protected].
Photographers Capture Texas’ Spectacular Variety of Wildflowers in Every Region of the State
March 1, 2019 | By
Awed by the spectacular variety of wildflowers throughout Texas, we sent four photographers on a springtime mission across the state. They combed seven distinct regions of Texas, from the shaded forests of the Piney Woods to the mountains and deserts of the Big Bend, from sandy coastal dunes to rolling hills and the vast plains of the Panhandle. The results are as magnificent and diverse as the lands that nurture our abundant blossoms.
Serious Surfers Brave the Winter Chill to Ride Texas’ Waves
November 24, 2018 | By Heather Brand
People who visit the coast during the summer may think there’s no surf in Texas, but that’s because they haven’t seen the waves of winter.
In late January through mid-February, storm-driven northerlies blow across the Gulf of Mexico, roiling the placid surf into choppy waves that can build to heights of 5 feet and taller. Offshore winds then polish these waves to produce smooth, jade-colored swells that build then break, curling in a clean line, row after row. For those willing to brave the chill, there are plenty of destinations along the 367 miles of the Texas coast to give off-season surfing a try.
“Most people are fair-weather surfers,” says James Fulbright, proprietor of Strictly Hardcore Surf Specialties in Galveston. “There are 70 percent fewer surfers in the water in winter.”
There’s Nothing but a Beach on St. Jo Island, but What More Do You Need?
May 30, 2018 | By Wes Ferguson
With miles of undeveloped shoreline, San José Island offers room to roam.
When Hurricane Harvey struck last summer, it made landfall on San José Island, a coastal retreat where U.S. presidents have come to fish and fundraise, and everything but a broad and empty beach is owned by a family of billionaires.
5 Texas Cities Where You Can Discover Your Inner Science Geek
May 24, 2018 | By Melissa Gaskill
The Texas Gulf Coast, where the North American continent descends into the Gulf of Mexico’s salty waters, harbors a steamy mix of marshes, bays, beaches, and ocean. Over the years, scientific institutions and conservation groups gravitated to this rich environment to establish laboratories, preserves, rescues, and aquariums dedicated to studying and protecting its diversity of life. We know most travelers escape to the coast to while away time on the beach, but we also know that such experiences take on greater meaning with a little educational insight. Here we’ve put together a science-by-the-sea road trip—a syllabus for discovering the most scintillating of salty facts.
Sentinels of the Sea
January 12, 2017 | By Laurence Parent and Patricia Parent
The first lighthouses came to Texas shores in 1852, built to guide ships past sandbars and shoals at river mouths and through tricky passes between barrier islands.
Come Sail Away
May 11, 2016 | By Erich Schlegel
A pod of eight dolphins broke the surface of the water as we turned our sailboat back toward the Corpus Christi skyline.
Shore Things
May 11, 2016 | By Helen Anders
Texans storm the beaches for a wealth of reasons. So, when we envision the perfect beach hotel, each of us conjures a different image.
Texas to-do’s
December 29, 2012 | By Helen Bryant
Sometimes you can spy a whooper or two in the marsh through a free telescope on the refuge’s observation tower.
