Exploring San Quintin Area in Mexico

October 24, 2022 

The morning after anchoring in the bay at San Quintin, we were eager to go exploring.  So, after doing some chores on board, including making water and inflating our kayaks, we grabbed our lunch and water, and headed out. 

We paddled towards shore, and then followed the shoreline, just outside of the point break, and headed towards the entrance to where the estuary met the shore, about three nautical miles away.  As we entered a shallower depth area, and also with the ever-changing tide, we had to keep a constant eye on where the waves up ahead of us were beginning to crest, and we made sure to stay outside of this line.  Making our way in through the breakers we managed to find and navigate a safe line towards the far shore where we landed on a beautiful stretch of sand.  Actually, the entire bay was simply one beautiful beach. 

We carried our kayaks up the sand to a safe distance from the tide, and then with our backpack-waterproof bags with our lunch and water in them, we explored our way across the land to the outer coast.  

It was very neat to see the two distinct terrains that we had to cross. 

The first area was a hard-packed area that was scattered with low, dry shrubs and cactus plants. 

The cacti were really neat, as they were up to about 4 feet tall with many branching arms, and when they had died, or when parts of them had died, they became very cool skeletal structures that were hollow on the inside, with many holes through the outer shell. 

The shrub and cactus area also had a few shallow, stagnant areas of water that seemed trapped within an otherwise desert environment.  

Part way across this spit of land we transitioned from shrubs and cactus into massive sand dunes. 

These sand dunes were unlike any I had ever seen before. 

They were huge, with steep gullies and narrow ridgelines. 

Only a few low plants held roots in these dry, sandy hills, and as we walked the ridgeline of a particularly large dune it felt like some of the mountain hikes that we had done back in BC, only in miniature.  

Amongst the dunes we saw a full skeleton of some poor mammal, the mummified form of what looked like a baby seal, and two bird wings. 

Soon we came out to the outer coast, which was another massive, sandy beach with the ever-crashing waves of the open Pacific. 

We ate our lunch, and then walked the beach for a while before making our way back along a different route through the dunes, and then back across the shrub and cactus area, to our kayaks.  What an amazing area to get to explore.   

The tide had been going out the whole time that we had been gone, so the location of the breaking waves was totally different for our return trip to the Red Witch.  We spent some time watching the water and picking our route before we headed out, as there were now sand bars in areas where only tidal rip had been visible on our way in to shore.  We carefully made our way through the maze of large breaking waves until we were safely out into deeper water.  As much as we tried to avoid the breakers, it was also very comforting that the water and air were so warm that it would not have really mattered had we been tumbled into the water.  We had also packed in such a way that everything was in dry bags and securely attached to our kayaks so that a roll would not have been a big issue.  It had been another great day of exploring!