Galveston Island State Park — Attraction in Galveston

Our family has celebrated our birthdays and family gathering at Galveston State Park for 40 years. When the large covered picnic tables were installed on the beach and we paid one fee per car, we could bring our family for a real Texas beach experience. I was just there today and we needed handicap access for two family members. I walked into the trailer home office to find out the latest. Found out:

the nice beach front table are no longer for day use but strictly for camping & more specifically for rv people. I asked to buy a beach side table for the night, even though we just wanted to use it for a few hours of nostalgia. was told they are booked full. (We drove through before leaving & there were empty spots). When I asked about being able to get a camp site pavilion on the old state park beach they said only half the pavilions remain & are reserved only for rvs. The ranger said hurricane Ivan took out the other pavilions. (We just drove past so much new construction & development & yet the state park is down graded. ...wasn’t hurricane Ivan back in 2018? Didn’t the state of Texas get a lot of FEMA money to rebuild? We were told the new day use is down the way. The tightly packed little undesirable tables with an 8x 4 shade over the table (basically no shade unless the sun is shinning from directly on top of your table), is just screaming “the money was spent on something else.”

They charge $5 per person now. 65 & over seniors get 50% discounted but that is round up to the next dollar. So the senior gets $2.00 discounted, (Ranger said it is rounded up: I say that 'discount' is rounded down). Although, her point is that the state park is about the state these days as apposed to being about the patrons: the people. None of that money stuff is enough to get excited about, either way. However the states perspective toward the people really sunk in when she told me they, “round the discount price up”. Then gave my Mom a $2 discount as apposed to actually rounding the discount up which would be $3 discount. It's a buck... big deal. However, based on the entire package & what this park once was & for less rules & fees, it is the principal of the matter.

The picnic area for non RV people: for families, is on a board walk with 4 nice outdoor showers on posts & 6 changing booths. (I think it is six... see my photos). That & 2 good sized toilets with a fresh water sink & bench for changing a baby. So 2 toilets & 3 porta potties. I won’t even go into the details of how fabulous the previous facilities once were. Palace vs... a FEMA trailer basically.

We drove across to view the bay side of the park. There are 3 more RV parks. There is a great place to clean fish near the water. An RV dump station!!! On our drive through we noticed two very nice beach houses that said private keep out. There are rangers trucks parked under each. Appeared to be lived in. Or are those rentals? I’m surprised there are now beach homes for rangers as a part of the park ... well not really according to the keep out signs.

I am grateful the state still has a space but it has lost it's value. The only real value would be using the open air showers or toilets. if you are planning a beach day for your family there is free beach along many roads that run the outside edge of the housing developments. One of those runs along the state park. It is easy to walk in to the park if you must use the toilet.

Also. Beware of all the sticker grass around the rows of...

First off I hate that you can book 5 months in advance. That being said I got stuck with a spot on the Bayside, water and electric. To say the spots are close is an understatement. They're really close. Thankfully the picnic tables are movable. I really hate that the fire rings are shared and in the middle of the circle. Same with the BBQ pits. Shared. For it being renovated all I really noticed on Bayside is there's concrete for the drives. The closest bathrooms and showers are in the tent circle. It's a good walk. When we got here on Sunday the lady at the front office said "your arriving before 2pm and we haven't been out to clean the spots and to see if the previous person is off yet so you may have to wait." Ok. Fine. We got down to our spot, it was open, but the grass was above my ankles and the mosquito's were AWFUL! Had to hunt down bug spray and other methods to control them. Someone had to have complained because they came out to mow and spray Tuesday. They couldn't mow our spot 🙄 Also in 5 days I haven't seen a park host or anyone come to clean the spots except to mow Tuesday. So for her to say that was a lie. They haven't cleaned anything in our circle. She also told us they're understaffed so I'm sure that contributed. The showers on this side are infested with mosquitos. No fans, stagnant. Also dirty. Had to go to ocean side for our showers. I've never been to a state park without restrooms by the RV sites. Instead of the shared pavilion it should be restrooms or make these spots full hook up. Now, ocean side is pristine. Grass mowed, covered picnic tables, personal fire ring and grill. Even the bathrooms were better and maintained. Bayside is neglected and honestly they don't care. Overall our trip was decent and the park was nice all things considered. We stayed inside most of the time or at the beach on ocean side. Trails were underwhelming and grown up. Also the dump station on Bayside only has one spigot and NO water hose. I have NEVER been to a state park with no hose and have to share if someone else is dumping! If you get stuck behind someone checking in you have to wait. They only have one line even if your already checked in you have to wait! We got stuck in a line of 5 vehicles just to re-enter 🤦‍♀️ so don't leave and come...

We are mainly hikers, so if you are more into water activities, don't let our review dissuade you! This park is definitely tailored to those activities with unique kayaking trails and other features, but we believe that the hiking portion could be made better as well.

First of all, I'll mention that we visited shortly after the area received a good deal of rainfall, so our hike was much more marshy and muddy than usual. That isn't the fault of the park at all, but it is something to be aware of as you plan your trip.

We like to visit every point of interest (POI) located on the Trails Maps at all state parks, but we were disappointed to see that 3/7 of the POIs at this park are water access points (aka boat ramps). I feel that boat ramps should probably be indicated with a symbol more akin to a restroom or parking lot, and not a POI with a detailed description.

Additionally, one of the boardwalks along a primary trail had been washed out given the recent hurricane activity (again, something that isn't the park's fault). But, because this is also one of the main access points for this trail, we had to walk for about half of a mile along the road to reach a different trailhead. This is for the Clapper Rail Trail, and the main trailhead seems to be located along Nature Trail Road. However, there isn't any parking at this trailhead, and signs explicitly prohibit parking along the road as well. Usually, you could just loop this trail in with the Eskimo Curlew Loop, but when this boardwalk is washed out (or even if you just didn't want to do both trails together), you are forced to add an additional mile to your hike.

With that being said, the small observation towers provide a nice view of the marshland, and you're bound to see plenty of waterfowl and other animals here. The Heritage Trail was also a welcome surprise because, while we did it during the day, there appeared to be solar lighting set up for nighttime walking, and the trail was very well kept and covered in so much grass that mud is probably never an issue with this one. The other POIs live up to being being pretty interesting, and would probably be great as a side activity from the main draw that the water at this...