Isla Magdalena, Sand Dollar Beach
It was dark outside. Above the light cloud layer, stars still twinkled and somewhere to the west was a 50-plus mile long sandy island; we went out to find it. Our day started with two shore landings, the first predawn, to take advantage of the soft morning light, an ephemeral entity so sought after by photographers. The second landing was a couple of hours later, with Isla Magdalena clearly in sight.
Curvaceous hills of flour-like sand shifted with the northwesterly breeze. The island seemed to be in perpetual motion albeit on a very small scale. Verdant green mounds of purslane, verbena and milkweed clung tenaciously to their hard won hummocks of sand. We picked our way amongst a network of leaves, roots and stems. The botanical inhabitants of the island are constantly challenged by winds attempting to steal away their precious sand grains. Shell middens stood testament to the oceans bounty and as a relic to a lost culture. The people who feasted amongst the dunes are long gone, the fragments and piles of murex, scallops and assorted clams are caught in a cycle of burial by slumping dunes and revelation by incessant winds.
As we bisected the island, the tracks of coyotes, rodents and lizards were found amongst the dunes. A raven had strolled around a hummock decorated with the cheerful yellow flowers of an evening primrose. Stalks festooned with loco weed “pillows” blushed pink as they ripened. Soon they will dry and be released; subjected to the whim of the winds, their seeds will be scattered amongst the dunes.
Once on the Pacific side of the island, many of us dropped to our knees. Not in exhaustion from the journey, but instead because this was the preferred angle to photograph the “gardens” of sand dollars. Through tide and current action, piles upon piles of sand dollars had washed ashore in small patches, each with a tidy orientation suggesting a planted row of flowers. We took turns kneeling, crawling and rolling along the edges of these gardens, seeking the perfect angle to immortalize our morning’s findings.
In the afternoon we headed out of the protection of Magdalena Bay and into the Pacific Ocean. With a gentle swell urging us southward and a memorable day in Magdalena Bay behind us, we made our way towards Cabo San Jose and our adventures for tomorrow.
