Padre Island
— the long beach the Gulf forgot to break.
Not only on a wall.
“A barrier island running 113 miles down the Texas Gulf coast, generally cited as the longest in the world. The Mansfield Channel, cut in 1962, divides it into North Padre and South Padre. The national seashore covers about seventy miles of the middle, the longest undeveloped barrier island stretch anywhere, and the release site for Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatchlings each June and July.
Padre Island, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Padre Island runs roughly 113 miles down the southern Texas coast, between Corpus Christi Bay and the mouth of the Rio Grande, separated from the mainland by the shallow Laguna Madre. It is generally cited as the longest barrier island in the world. The Mansfield Channel, cut in 1962, divides it into North Padre and South Padre. Padre Island National Seashore, established by Congress in 1962, covers about seventy miles of the middle, the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island anywhere. The island was named for Padre José Nicolás Ballí, who ranched cattle on it from around 1800 under a Spanish crown grant.
The Laguna Madre, on the lagoon side, is one of only six hypersaline lagoons in the world: shallow, slow to flush, and saltier than the Gulf itself. The Gulf side reads as open ocean, with a long gradual shelf and seasonal sargassum mats. Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatchlings are released from the National Seashore beach each June and July; the species nearly died out in the 1980s and the recovery has been worked partly here. The cut at Mansfield in 1962 is the only break in the island between Aransas Pass and the Rio Grande.
The northern end (North Padre, the National Seashore, Bob Hall Pier) is reached from Corpus Christi over the JFK Memorial Causeway. The southern end (South Padre Island resort town) is reached from Port Isabel over the Queen Isabella Causeway. Driving the National Seashore beach is permitted as far as the Mansfield Channel, about sixty miles, with high-clearance four-wheel-drive recommended past Mile 5. Spring break runs late February through March on the south end; summer runs through Labor Day on both. Hurricane season peaks in August and September.