The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service owns most of the island and manages the Matagorda Unit of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The tidelands are owned by the Texas General Land Office. This island has no telephone service, food, or drinking water, and private vehicles are not permitted. Guided tours are available to holders of Texas Conservation Passports. All visitor access is by chartered or private boat, or a ferry that transports visitors the eight miles from Port O'Connor to the island every weekend and during holidays.
Visitors can take a shuttle from the dock to the beach.
Check out more GORP resources on Matagorda Island. Only about 140 remain in the wild today, and over half of these occur on the refuge. This site also boasts over 800 species of plants and almost 500 land vertebrate species, including about 390 species of birds. White-tailed deer, waterfowl, wading birds, shorebirds, songbirds, and frogs are abundant. Alligator, western cottonmouth and other snakes, bobcat, and javelina are relatively common.