After the proposal we relaxed around the campground and went for a little walk down one of the trails in Goose Island State park when we came to a Y in the trail and took one route that promptly petered out into nothing. We figured this trail had to eventually come out on a paved road somewhere and kept going and after miles of following an overgrown pipeline trail we finally decided we were LOST! By the time we found our way back the short 30 minute hike had turned into half a day and we decided to go have fun on the beach for a few hours.
Mustang Island State park is a great location to walk up and down the beach, they even allow camping there. Its nice to have some portion of the island semi protected so you can see how it used to look before getting overgrown with fancy pastel beach houses and big hotels. We also found out later after seeing one its areas like this that are some of the last refuges for some threatened or endangered sea turtles to lay their eggs.
The beach was completely loaded with sea weed. I’m talking two or three feet deep at the high tide line. It was somewhat hard to find a way through to the water. There were a few places where the prickly stuff was trampled down a bit and we just had to climb through it. It was almost a hands and knees affair, that stuff is hard to walk on. Imagine a walking across a giant pile of chicken wire and mattress springs.
Bad timing on our part, we got here at close to high tide so there was no clear beach to walk on between the crashing waves and mount sea weed. Maybe because we got here late in the day but we had the entire place nearly to ourselves. The bathrooms out on the beach were broken down and fenced off too, that could have been part of it.
With so few people here the sea birds were everywhere and pretty much ignored us. It was great fun to watch these guys. As the surf pulls back it dredges up all the thousands of clams just under the sandy surface and the birds run out to nab them before the clams can wriggle back down into the sand. Then the waves come back in and the birds run back to shore, sometimes flying away from certain doom if they lingered too far out too long. Back and forth back and forth the birds ran, we are easily entertained.
Out on the beach bobbing in the surf I found this! Wow! A coconut here!? In Texas!?
This thing floated a long long ways from home. I don’t think coconut trees grow in the gulf. Anyone know?
The beach was not totally abandoned, there was some beach combers and a few other young couples soaking up the sun and playing in the sand.
Some guys flying some pretty amazing kites too.
Can you see all the sea weed floating in? There was no clear path down the beach except for walking in the water. That stuff kept washing in and brushing past us and getting tangled in our legs and ankles. I do not like things bumping into me in the water! I’m not scared of Jaws or anything silly like that but I have seen man-o-wars out here before on past trips.
One of the times the surf rolled in rather quickly and I found myself standing in water up to my waist all the sudden and a large black shape quickly glided straight at me faster than the little clumps of seaweed and scared the crap out of me!!! Within seconds it was about 18 inches away and got close to the surface and I could clearly see its flippers and head, ”SEA TURTLE!!!!” I yelled to Cece and quickly pointed.
I was fumbling for my camera when when it saw me and it spun around in a 180 and flew back out to sea just as fast as it arrived. I didn’t get a picture but it was a pretty amazing feeling to see a wild sea turtle. From now on the theme of our anniversaries will have to be sea turtles and tree frogs.
While walking up the beach we talked to some beach combers and the woman said she had lived in Port Aransas her whole life and is out on this beach pretty regularly and had never seen a turtle out here. We felt even more special that we had seen our turtle and that it had chosen to show itself to us on this special day. They told us that we were supposed to report all turtle sightings and that there was a sign somewhere, on our way back the ranger office was closed though. We found the number the next day while at Sea World and they said sure enough the turtles were due to start mating in a week or two and we had likely seen a male coming to check out the beaches early and they marked our sighting in the log books. How cool is that?
Continue reading Mustang Island State Park – wild sea turtle encounter
