June 2013

This Month's Features

Get Coastal!

What to see and do all along the Texas coast.

By Melissa Gaskill

From windswept beaches to tangled oak mottes, remote islands to bustling cities, alligators to whooping cranes, the Texas coast runs the gamut. It also runs some 350 miles, edged by one of the most diverse and vibrant bodies of water in the world. That adds up to so many chances for a good time, you may wonder where to start. Here’s our guide to the best of what to do and where to go on the Texas coast.

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Ike's Hidden Damage

TPWD leads efforts to restore oyster reefs and salt marshes after the 2008 hurricane.

By Lance Robinson

Hurricane Ike, the costliest hurricane in Texas history, made landfall across the east end of Galveston Island on Sept. 13, 2008. A storm surge of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels was reported along the Bolivar Peninsula and part of the Galveston Bay area. In Chambers County, to the north of Galveston, the tidal surge reached more than 11 miles inland.

The aftermath of Hurricane Ike was very visible to those living in the area and, through extensive media coverage, to the rest of the country as well. As devastating as the damage was to homes and businesses in the coastal communities of the upper Texas coast, less visible but significant damage also occurred to coastal habitats in the region and below the waters of Galveston Bay.

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Reeling It In

Communities like Port O’Connor win big when fishing tournaments come to town.

By Larry Bozka

Anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with the Texas coast knows that Port O’Connor is the epitome of a “sleepy little fishing village.” Anyone who isn’t need only enter the outskirts of town to figure it out.

The signs are everywhere.

After carving an arrow-straight path through miles of mostly featureless prairie and just before dead-ending at Matagorda Bay, Texas Highway 185 makes a final dramatic statement. A curiously divergent gallery of road signs suddenly appears to the left.

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