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Top Things to Know

Padre Island National Seashore and South Padre Island are two different places located over 100 miles apart. Sometimes Padre Island National Seashore is confused with South Padre Island, but the two are very different destinations.

Padre Island National Seashore is a national park located just outside of Corpus Christi that includes about 70 miles of undeveloped beaches and natural habitat. South Padre Island is a resort community located near Brownsville with numerous hotels, clubs, and souvenir shops. The two destinations are at opposite ends of the long, barrier island named Padre Island and are about 100 miles apart.

It is not possible to drive from the park, located on North Padre Island, directly south to South Padre Island. An artificial waterway, Mansfield Channel, cuts through Padre Island at the southern end of the national park.The only way to drive from North Padre Island to South Padre Island is by driving inland, down Highway 77, and back out to the south end of the island –a driving trip of 3-4 hours.

This website and information is about Padre Island National Seashore, the national park. We are located at the end of Park Road 22, at the northern end of Padre Island in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Planning on putting our park address into a smart phone app or GPS? It most likely will NOT bring you to the park. For unknown reasons, many of those applications place the park's physical address miles away from its actual location. Fortunately, getting to the park is easy once you find out that the road coming out here – Park Road 22 – actually dead ends into the national park. The park entrance station is a booth that is located literally in the middle of the road. So once you get on Park Road 22, just keep going until you reach the end and the park entrance station. If you get confused on the way or have more questions after reading our directions, call the Malaquite Visitor Center at [phone].