Galveston, TX, The Third Coast

A friend recently asked us why we hadn't visited the Third Coast. I was momentarily thrown off by the moniker, but then realized that he was referring to the Gulf Coast. We'd visited the West and East coasts on our trip so far, but had yet paid a visit to the Gulf, so last Sunday we took a trip down to Galveston, just 40 minutes outside of Houston. We'd called up the visitor's office in Houston before going and asked for some tips on what to see and do there. The lady offered up some recommendations, but ended the conversation with "Well, don't expect a nice beach. Galveston has a beach, but its surrounded by commercial ports and it's not very clean." Oh boy, we were super excited to visit the Gulf then, especially after seeing the pristine beaches in California and Cape Cod. Thankfully, Galveston and its beach turned out to be much nicer than promised and we ended up with a pretty interesting day.

Galveston city limits at the Galveston Island Port

We started our tour of Galveston by taking the free ferry from the Galveston port to Port Bolivar. This ferry is mostly meant to transport cars from Galveston Island to Port Bolivar, but it also accommodates pedestrian passengers and we'd heard that the twenty minute ride offered up some good views of the Intracoastal Waterway and possible wildlife sightings. The 2.7 mile trip crossed the Bolivar Roads Channel, one of the busiest waterways in the world through which all of the commercial traffic of the Port of Houston flows through. We brought our lunches onto the ferry and ate while we sailed to the port and back. There was an outside deck that passengers could observe from, but it was quiet windy outside, so we mostly watched the views through the large windows. The views of the port weren't horribly exciting, but we did see several schools of dolphins. They were quite playful and dived in and out of the water along the side of our ferry.

Views of the Bolivar Roads Channel from the Bolivar ferry

Cars on the first floor of the ferry and passenger deck
on the second floor of the Bolivar ferry

It was extremely windy on board the Bolivar ferry!
Sky put on a few wind pounds.

Dolphins playing just by the ferry

Afterwards we drove along Broadway Avenue, the main street on Galveston Island. We strolled around the Strand Historic District on Strand street, and then decided to visit the beach. Seawall Boulevard runs along the ocean, all along Galveston Island. The beach was not very wide, the water was mostly shades of brown and the sand wasn't white, but it was a beach nonetheless and I imagine if the weather was warmer we would have had no qualms getting out there with our swim suits. There were several brave surfers out in the water with full body wet suits, but the waves were relatively small, I don't think they saw much action.

Driving on Broadway Avenue in Galveston, TX

Walking in the Strand Historic District

On Strand St. in the Strand Historic District

We drove west along the seawall, eventually getting outside the Galveston city limits and into the beach cottage communities. For the next 20 miles we drove by colorful houses on stilts and wet marshes. Lots of fishermen were fishing by their trucks on the beach right by the lapping waves. We took Fiona for a quick spin on the beach and then headed deeper into the bayou to visit the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. I was really hoping to spot some alligators!

The beach on Galveston Island

View of the Pleasure Pier off of the Galveston seawall

Fishermen fishing on the Galveston beaches

Fiona, out on the beach!

Galveston seaside homes

The entrance to the refuge was free. We decided to drive the 7 mile driving tour through the Big Slough, and borrowed the free audio CD from the visitor's center. The CD accompanied us on the tour with commentary for each marked stop. We arrived at the refuge just before sunset, which I understand is a great time to see wildlife. We saw lots of interesting birds of all sizes, drove through very interesting wildlife terrains and even found a snake skeleton in the grass! BUT...we did not see any alligators and I was pretty disappointed.

Driving through the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

All kinds of birds at the refuge

A crane in flight

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

The snake skeleton we found!

That's not to say that we had a boring time though, because at the end of the day we decided to do a short wilderness hike from the visitor's center and only a quarter mile in we heard wild hog rooting and snorting in the bushes nearby! We decided not to test our luck, and quickly retreated back to the center. It's probably good that we did because on our way out of the park that night we saw one of the wild hogs on the side of the road. He was as big as a Saint Bernard and I'm sure he would have looked twice as large if we'd run into him and his buddies face to face in the brushlands!

Where are they??

So overall we had quite a great time in Galveston. It probably would have been twice as nice if the timing had been around May or June, when the weather is much nicer (and when the alligators are a lot more active!).

You can find more pictures of Galveston and the refuge here.

Happy Bayou Gator Searching,

M.