February 28 – March 1, 2025.
Welcome to Texas
We planned to spend most of March in Texas, so I did some calculations. With the number of nights camping I planned, plus individual admissions to day use parks, it made sense to just buy the annual state parks pass. What a great deal for Texas residents! It covers individual admission to every park, plus your second consecutive night camping in one of the parks is half off with the pass. We would save a bunch of money this month.
We were both excited to visit the coast of Texas, a place neither of us had been before. I booked two nights at Sea Rim State Park, located between Galveston and the Louisiana border. I’d never heard of it before, but I read a few reviews online. It looked beautiful, but all the reviews (and the park’s own website) mentioned the mosquitoes. Hah, I thought, we survived a summer in Alaska. It will be fine.
The Good
After taking a lovely stroll through the adjacent Texas Point National Wildlife Refuge, we checked in for camping. There were two options: open beach camping or standard campground sites. We opted for the beach. It was easy to drive the van across the hard packed sand and choose a spot. The ranger instructed us to park close to the marsh grass because the tide does come up a bit and people have gotten caught unaware by the rising water. We hugged the edge of the marsh.
The beach was so pretty and inviting. I walked up a ways, looking for birds and seashells. And, let’s be honest, dead stuff. It’s fun to see what washes up on the beach.
Aaron relaxed in the van while I walked and around sunset, I dragged him outside. The colors were breathtaking. By then, I started to notice a few mosquitoes. We retreated to the van and made sure the bug nets were down. Then we made dinner and watched a movie. It’s nice to have the van door open at night to let the cool air in, so it was dark by the time we closed the slider. This was a big mistake.
The bad
As you know, insects are attracted to light. So even though the nets were down, thousands of mosquitoes were buzzing around the outside of the net. It was impossible to get them off of it before I slammed the door shut. They rushed into the van.
It seemed that there were other breaches in our insect defense system because suddenly we felt swarmed by voracious mosquitoes IN the van. It’s one thing if you’re swatting mosquitoes away on a hike, it’s another if they have infiltrated your eating, hangout and sleeping space. We were screwed.
I can’t exaggerate how many mosquitoes were in the van. We layered up from head to toe, put on our head nets and began to fight a full on war. We swatted, smashed, battered and swept them into the walls, floor and bed. Blood smears stained the walls and sheets. Aaron turned up the fan to try and suck up mosquitoes to the roof screen. Then he used a towel to kill dozens of them at once. Bodies began piling up on the floor, so many that I had to use a dustpan and broom to sweep them up on a regular basis. Never have I seen so many bloodthirsty insects at once. It was horrific.
We barely slept. We were surrounded. All I could hear were buzzing mosquito wings. It was hot and we were fully covered. Still, I had itchy bites all over me.
The ugly
In the morning, we awoke, bleary eyed and battle fatigued. We also looked around in disbelief. It was as if we had killed zero mosquitoes in the van; there seemed to be just as many now as there were before. And even worse, they were resting. They had holed up under our cabinets, hidden in piles of towels, tucked themselves into every crevasse and dark spot in the van. So then every time we opened or moved something, a cloud of mosquitoes emerged. We had been so traumatized by the experience the night before that all we wanted to do was get the hell out of there. And how to get the mosquitoes out without letting the bugs in? I couldn’t think straight. I made instant coffee, grabbed a banana and ran out to the beach. I had to get out of that hellbox even if it brought me into a different cloud of mosquitoes.
A solution
But somehow I found a respite from the bugs on the sand. I sat down to sip my coffee, eat my banana and clear my head. I breathed in the clean air and felt the comforting rays of the sun and let my nervous system dial back down. I don’t know where the mosquitoes were hanging out, but it was not on the beach.
Sea Rim State Park is unique in that it is sandwiched between a marsh and the ocean. So there’s plenty of habitat for the blood-sucking critters right next to this pristine-looking beach. I finished my food and continued walking towards the developed side of the park. I wore my headnet, but the bugs weren’t biting too badly. By the time I made it to the boardwalk, I felt safe enough to take it off. I wanted to see the birds in the marsh regardless of the skeeters, but luckily they weren’t on the offensive out there. I texted Aaron that it might be a good idea to move the van to the parking area near me, then join me on a walk.
We enjoyed the boardwalk loop, replete with thousands of wading birds, alligator tracks, ocean sounds and no bugs. This is what we came here for! We soaked up as much good time out there as we could before continuing the battle. Back at the van, we opened all the doors and furiously swatted at any mosquito we could find to try and clear them out. We had moderate success.
It would be close to 48 hours before we got all the bugs out of the van. It was the worst infestation we’d ever experienced.
Tips for visiting
If, after reading all this, you think, “Boy, I really want to visit Sea Rim State Park,” here’s what I have to say to you:
- Go for a day trip. Enjoy the beach. Enjoy the board walk. Then, go literally anywhere else for the night.
- Bring bug spray and head nets. I don’t care what time you’re visiting. Usually people on Google reviews exaggerate their experience. Believe every complaint that you see about the bugs in this park, they are for real! Prepare yourself.
- Do not under any circumstance keep your vehicle’s windows or doors open. Get in, get out, keep the skeeters out of your space.
I hope to never experience this level of claustrophobia with mosquitoes in my life. That being said, seeing avocets, stilts, pelicans, sandpipers, terns and more, was pretty cool. It should go without saying that we did not camp there the second night we’d booked and instead got as far away from that place as possible.
