To the end of Baja

 I'm in La Paz now, and will be taking the ferry over to Mazatlan and then continue on to Altair, as I have heard she is ok, a little further south.  So my time in Baja is at a close.  Since last I visited the Internet...
After Gurerro Negro we headed to the beach again out to Bahia Ascension, and we drove along a lonely and lovely flat plain coastline, an area that used to be an old seabed, so is covered in shells and sand.  In that area we found some dolphins and from the small cliffs above the beach we watched them eating fish and resting in the gentle waves.

 Further on we found lots of Pelicans feasting on the same gigantic school of fishes, so we went out for a swim with them all.  The pelicans wouldn't let us get close but the dolphins were curious and came up and looked at us.  One came up about 10 ft away and just sat pointing at us for a few seconds, motionless.  I didn't bring a camera out with me, sadly, to record the event. 

 Onwards, and to an old lighthouse that I remembered from my trip down the coast in 2014, where I anchored just around this lighthouse.  I climbed up to see if I could get in and to the top...

 Then in the evening we found a spot to camp on the clamshell cliffs above the beach.  It is really just a huge pile of shells everywhere, with a little bit of sand in between to stick it all together. 

 Here is another shot of the cliffs, they are on their way to becoming limestone.

 The next morning we began again and soon found some more dolphins, and again went for a swim, but this time I stayed behind to get some shots of Lindsey out with them before getting wet myself. 

 They came quite close to her and some swam under her, especially when they were surfing some waves.  I went out and caught a wave with some of them, but they were much faster than I and preferred to catch the waves that were not yet breaking, so I had a challenge, with my short board.  Also it was a beach break so the waves were short.

 Then we made it to Punta Abreojos and looked out at the surf and there were some cool things flying around a tree, a weird moth that looks like a hummingbird!  Its called a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.  It moves a bit faster and more erratic than a bird, so it was really tricky to get a good shot.  I like the bendy proboscis.

 And there was a disgruntled Osprey on a sign that looks like its missing a foot, but it is just tucked away.

 From there we went around into Laguna San Ignacio, where Lindsey will be leading tours in February, with Grey Whales.  We wanted to check out the place and see the camp.
Then we drove a tricky back road south and tried every little sandy hell road that we could try to get to the coast to find some waves, but were thwarted, and I think I'll skip that section of coast next time and just go on the main road.  Finally we made it to the "South" part of Baja, and went to Todos Santos to surf.  The water is warm and I had a lovely time playing in the waves.  A south swell was coming so we headed out to a spot in the East Cape, which is a dirt road east of Cabo, and found a nice little point I had to myself for three days. Lindsey took some photos of me, so you can judge my turns a little if you like.

 Here I've got a fin out of the water and I'm turning pretty hard, but every time I have photos taken I learn a lot of how my feet are in the wrong place and my knees are not bent enough and  I don't use my arms enough and so on.  Useful things. 

 We rounded the end of the cape and came back to La Paz and ate at a restaurant where they had goat meat and also live goats, and kids too!  They were cute, and I love the weird eyes. 

South Migration

 I'm in Gurrero Negro Now, just south of the 28th parralel, and just into Baja California Sur (The southern half).  I started out driving over to Montana, to Bozeman, to collect Lindsey, and we together made our way through Yellowstone and Utah and then into California and Baja.  In Yellowstone we found some Trumpeter Swans, and I am reminded of E.B. White's "The Trumpet of the Swan" that I read when I was a boy, about a young boy who meets a swan (named Lewis) who can't talk and they need to communicate through writing and eventually through playing the trumpet.  He woos a lady swan with the song "Beautiful Dreamer" played in the morning sunrise.  Anyways, I've always liked the trumpeters and this one is stretching a leg out and a wing looking at me like I am a crazy tourist.  But the Bison steal the show in Yellowstone, and so the swans don't get too much attention.  From Yellowstone we worked our way to Flaming Gorge and found some cool little critters.

 A few Praire Dogs popped up and looked at us, and some Pronghorns batted their eyelashes. 

Here's a shot of the Flaming Gorge cliffs.

 As we went into Dinosaur National Monument, we found some Sandhill Cranes, and a great firework display of trees.

  We worked our way down the Green River

 and into Utah and got to Arches

 and Canyonlands

and the Needles area

, and also found a spot overlooking the Goosenecks area of the San Juan River.

 The Valley of the Gods.

  Then we headed over to Natural Bridges and then to a slot canyon that we visited last time I was here. 

As we headed west, we found some new spots but I can't remember the names of them all.  We went up to Bryce Canyon, but it was very cold up there and then down to a very tricky place called Red Canyon, and it was super sand duney to get in, we had to use all our 4x4-ness and another guy who showed up said, "Well that was some Butt-Puckering Sand!"

We spent the night at that slot canyon, and then as dusk was falling a family group on atvs came and went and then the little girl of the group came back and said she lost her family.  So we stayed with her and eventually walked up the hill to find some cell service and called her parents and they came back, very eventually.  I was puzzled that they didn't come back to the last place they had all been together sooner, but it took about 3 hours to get everyone together.  We went back in the dark and played with some fire

 in the slot canyon until it was late and then went to bed, only to be woken by thunderstorms during the night.  We were not in the bottom of the canyon, but 10 feet up, and there was a choke point uphill of us, so we weren't scared of getting washed away, but what if getting out was impossible and we were stuck for a few days?  So the next morning it was still dry in the wash and we zipped on out and made it through the sand again, and watched a huge thunderstorm come and pour down rain and hail and probably fill that canyon with some water, but we were gone. 

Then we went through Zion and found some Bighorn Sheep and then down to the Salton Sea and found some Owls and a bunch of Snowgeese. 

Since crossing the border into Mexico, we went to a Hot spring near Ensenada and then down to the coast to surf.  We've found a few spots to play in the water and I haven't been taking many pictures because its salty and so I keep the camera put away.  There is one spot where we just were that I really like, called Santa Rosalitillia, and it has a paved road to it and is a nice sandy point break with a very slow rolling long wave that is fun to play on but always super tiny.  On the longboard it is kind of fun, but Lindsey has been making great strides in improving her surfing technique there, so we stayed two days and then I went over to a beach I call Narco's beach (we saw what might have been drugs being delivered there) and surfed this very fast and fun point that has a bunch of rocks to dodge, and I got a little bit of a barrel on one wave.  It combed my hair on one side of my head, so I didn't get low enough, but it was really fun.  Now we are going to head out and south, along the west side of the big penninsula that angles over towards Cedros Island.  I don't think we'll make it to the end, but then along the SW side until we find Bahia San Ignacio, and then we'll explore that.  Lindsey will be leading gray whale watching trips there in February, so we will go check it out early to get familiar.