Advertisement
Published: March 17th 2012
Edit Blog Post
South Padre Island, Texas
Number of times we have biked this route: 2 Location: South Padre Island Texas
Distance: about 8 km on road + beach
Distance markers: no
Surface: asphalt and beach
Width: both sides of road + beach
Grade: Flat
Conditions of route: Very good
Parking: lots
Water: yes
Washrooms: yes
Garbage containers: yes
This is
NOT a rails to trails but it is an easy area to bike. We visited South Padre Island during Feb and March in 2011 and 2012. January temperature is in the high teens ‘C to low 20s.
South Padre Island (also the name of the town) is located on the southern most tip of Texas, facing the gulf. The island is named for
Padre Nicholas Balli. It is 55 km long (34 miles) and less than a kilometre at its widest.
Only the southern 8 km (5 miles) are developed while the northern part is one big long sand dune. On the developed part of the island,
the beach is on the gulf side.
There is one main road running up the centre from the causeway to where it dead ends at the dunes. This is called
Padre Blvd. There are also two side roads running parallel to Padre Blvd for most of the distance.
Laguna Blvd on the west runs from Sunny Isles to Morningside. There are homes, light industry, boat launching etc along this route.
Gulf Blvd on the east side starts at Isla Blanca Park in the south. Gulf Blvd also provides (some) parking and access to the beach.
From Isla Blanca county Park to Andy Bowie Park, there are 30 beach access points, usually with some parking. Gulf Circle and Treasure Island access points have
washrooms and water available.
The dunes north of Andy Bowie park are mostly privately owned, although beach access is not restricted and we have not seen any “No Trespassing” signs.
Once you get to Andy Bowie Park, vehicles, dune buggies, horses etc are allowed on the beach area and most days you will encounter
MANY vehicles either parked or roaming back and forth. The beach is wide enough that this does not present a problem.
Now to get back to
BIKING. The entire length of
Padre Blvd has wide bike lanes in both directions.
If you want to avoid the traffic you have 3 choices. The two parallel streets. Or even more interesting ...
the beach. The wet sand is hard packed and is as smooth as asphalt! I am not sure how far north you can bike since I have not been to the end!
A bit of a warning. It is almost always
windy on the island. That is great for
kite flying (lots) and for biking north! Be warned though, that when you turn around to bike south, you might be fighting what appear to be gale force winds! It is worse along the beach and not as bad on Padre Blvd.
The good news is that there are
NO HILLs or SLOPES
Single speed, wide tired bicycles are available for rent (near the north end.)
For More information on South
Padre Island:
http://www.spionline.com/
For a map:
http://you.travel/South_Padre_Island
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 36; dbt: 0.0492s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb