Holly Beach is a remote bayside wildlife oasis across the Laguna Madre from South Padre Island, at least for now. 

On Thursday afternoon, hawks flew overhead, seabirds sat in the water, and an armadillo ran across an unpaved roadway that requires travelers to use four-wheel drive to navigate through nearly 3 miles of deep trenches.

Stephen Murphy, owner of Captain Murphy’s Fishing Charters on South Padre Island, would know – he recently purchased 10 acres of land near Holly Beach to escape the ‘city life’ of the popular South Texas tourism destination. 

“It’s real quiet out there. There’s a lot of animals,” Murphy said. “It is really beautiful over there once you go into the interior. Just driving by on the roads, you don’t see a lot, but if you go into the refuges, it’s really amazing. Stuff people have never seen. There’s bobcats, there’s ocelots, there’s like a lot of big nilgai and deer, even coyotes, javelinas, and there’s tons of birds.”