Galveston Island Beaches

Miles of open Gulf beach along the length of Galveston Island, with a long seawall promenade above the sand and rock groins (jetties) stepping out into the surf. It's an easy place to spend a morning: walk the wet sand at the waterline, scan the groins, and watch the sky over the water.

Brown pelicans glide in lines just above the swells, laughing gulls and terns work the surf and the anglers' lines, and willets and other shorebirds chase the edge of each wave. Cormorants like to rest on posts and pilings near the water. In the colder months the beaches fill with wintering shorebirds, and spring and fall bring migrants along the coast.

Please give resting and feeding flocks plenty of room. Walk around them rather than through them, and keep dogs leashed.