Isla Magdalena & Hull Canal
The soft powdery sands of Isla Magdalena made quite the impression on us today. To start with, it was the impressions left in the sands that started our voyage of discovery. As we navigated across the waves of dunes we crisscrossed the tracks of coyote, jackrabbit, lizard and mice. While climbing the dunes, our shoes and pant cuffs filled with the sparkling sediments that have ridden current and wind to now land at our feet. For some, walking on the dunes was not enough, they wanted a full immersion experience. As they rolled down the dunes, their fate was cast to gravity and the angle of repose, which deposited them and a bit more sand on the lee side of the dune.
Along the shore, gentle waves lapped the hard packed sands. Stitched along this edge was a series of holes, the probing marks left by the diminutive beaks of sandpipers in their search for a meal of tiny invertebrates. Further down the beach, freshly deposited by the now falling tide were about a dozen Humboldt squid. One animal still had a few ounces of life left in it, as it sporadically flapped its fins in the shallow water while its chromatophores continued to sputter in flashes of white and orange.
Our afternoon and day ended with a navigation North in Hull Canal, our staging area for gray whale watching for the next two days. A few of our younger travelers have contributed their thoughts on the day’s adventures, and we share them with you now.
We run and slide over the sand dunes, little beads of tan falling all around us. Then, landing in more piles of everlasting soft, tan sand. We can hear the waves of the beach beyond the sand dunes, crashing onto shore. Their deep blue hue foaming into while as they hit the sand. Everything is so amazingly gorgeous here that it is almost impossible to put my first morning in Mexico into words.
– Emma Zimmerman, age 13
Rolling down sand dunes on my tummy
Fun zipping in Zodiacs
Lots of sand on me
- Taylor Eskridge, age 6
The soft powdery sands of Isla Magdalena made quite the impression on us today. To start with, it was the impressions left in the sands that started our voyage of discovery. As we navigated across the waves of dunes we crisscrossed the tracks of coyote, jackrabbit, lizard and mice. While climbing the dunes, our shoes and pant cuffs filled with the sparkling sediments that have ridden current and wind to now land at our feet. For some, walking on the dunes was not enough, they wanted a full immersion experience. As they rolled down the dunes, their fate was cast to gravity and the angle of repose, which deposited them and a bit more sand on the lee side of the dune.
Along the shore, gentle waves lapped the hard packed sands. Stitched along this edge was a series of holes, the probing marks left by the diminutive beaks of sandpipers in their search for a meal of tiny invertebrates. Further down the beach, freshly deposited by the now falling tide were about a dozen Humboldt squid. One animal still had a few ounces of life left in it, as it sporadically flapped its fins in the shallow water while its chromatophores continued to sputter in flashes of white and orange.
Our afternoon and day ended with a navigation North in Hull Canal, our staging area for gray whale watching for the next two days. A few of our younger travelers have contributed their thoughts on the day’s adventures, and we share them with you now.
We run and slide over the sand dunes, little beads of tan falling all around us. Then, landing in more piles of everlasting soft, tan sand. We can hear the waves of the beach beyond the sand dunes, crashing onto shore. Their deep blue hue foaming into while as they hit the sand. Everything is so amazingly gorgeous here that it is almost impossible to put my first morning in Mexico into words.
– Emma Zimmerman, age 13
Rolling down sand dunes on my tummy
Fun zipping in Zodiacs
Lots of sand on me
- Taylor Eskridge, age 6
