Port AransasMustang Island, TX

Visibility is an estimate — wind, rain, tide & water alerts.

Getting in

Shore access, walk in off the sand

Getting through the gate

The beach itself has no gate or fee beyond the parking sticker. Horace Caldwell Pier, a 1,240-foot elevated fishing pier in Nueces County's I.B. Magee Beach Park, rents and sells bait and tackle and has concessions on site.

Parking

A $12 annual sticker is required to park on the beach from Horace Caldwell Pier (Marker D) south through Port Aransas Beach to the Kleberg County line, valid in both Port Aransas and Corpus Christi; it is sold at City Hall, the Family Center IGA grocery, convenience stores and beach vendors. North of the pier, parking between the South Jetty and the pier is free, as is a separate stretch further south between Mile Markers 52 and 58. Stickers run the calendar year, January 1 through December 31.

Protection

Port Aransas's code of ordinances carries the state's dune protection framework (Texas Natural Resources Code ch. 63): it defines a Dune Protection Line and requires a city permit to build in or otherwise disturb a critical dune area.

On site

lifeguard on duty, restrooms

Watch for

Rip currents form most readily near hard structures like the South Jetty and Horace Caldwell Pier, per the NOAA guidance the city's own beach page links to, and the National Weather Service's Corpus Christi office rates the daily risk for Mustang Island in its surf zone forecast, Portuguese man-of-war, jellyfish, stingrays and other marine life are common enough that the city's beach safety guidance is to check the wrack line before touching anything washed ashore and to shuffle your feet when wading, Between the dunes and the wooden post markers the city runs the beach as a two-lane Texas roadway; the strip from the posts to the waterline is the leisure zone, so reaching the water means crossing an active traffic lane, Red tide reaches the Texas coast in some years, tracked by Texas Parks and Wildlife and the state health department

Checked 2026-08-27. Sources: City of Port Aransas: Port Aransas Beach, City of Port Aransas: beach parking permit information, City of Port Aransas: beach safety, Port Aransas Code of Ordinances, ch. 27 (beach and dune definitions), Nueces County Coastal Parks, archived Horace Caldwell Pier page, Visit Port Aransas: beach parking permits, National Weather Service Corpus Christi: surf zone forecast, NOAA Ocean Today: rip currents, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: red tide.