Olive Ridley sea turtles nest on our beaches here in southern Baja. I took this photo years ago and since then we’ve seen many nests and experienced joy watching the babies come out of the nest and make their way to the ocean.

Here are babies struggling to get out of the nest.

And these are about to enter their ocean home.

We’ve also seen many dead females who have been mauled to death by loose dogs. A couple in our neighborhood don’t seem to understand that you can’t allow your large pack of dogs to run loose on our beaches. They’ve been fined and threatened by authorities to keep their dogs (at one point they had 12) within their property. It’s very difficult to get the authorities to respond, and this couple has never complied to the law for very long. Their dogs are once again attacking and killing the females who have come to lay their eggs.

It is the saddest and most horrific thing to see these defenseless creatures dead on our beaches.

Warning: At the end of this post I will add some photos. Don’t scroll to the end if you do not wish to view them.

Olive Ridley Turtles nest on our beaches here in Todos Santos, El Pescadero, and Los Cerritos. 

These creatures are vulnerable when they come to lay their eggs. For many years we’ve discovered them lying dead with their flippers mauled. 

This past week I’ve come across three of them in that situation on the Gavilan beach. Allowing dogs to run loose without owners with them means this will continue to happen.

The Olive Ridley sea turtle is sometimes called a beautiful dancer, because after the female lays her eggs, she bounces on the sand, pounding it flat to seal the site where she has deposited her eggs. She props herself up on her front flippers and hind legs, alternately bouncing her plastron side to side in a little dance.

Most Olive Ridley lay 2 or 3 clutches of eggs each year–each clutch can be up to 110 eggs. Another interesting fact is that the eggs that reach the highest temperatures (86-88 degrees) become females, hence they are mostly found in the center of the nest. (Yes, girls are hot!)

Adult Ridley eat crabs, snails, clams, barnacles, algae, fish, fish eggs, and jellyfish. Sounds like they might like the sushi bar.

Here in southern Baja on our beaches the turtles come up to nest between July and December. It can take from 6 weeks to 2 months before turtles hatch. It depends on a lot of things, but mostly temperature.

We can all do our part to keep trash, not just straws, out of the ocean, accompany your dogs and keep them in control, and do what you can to keep our beaches natural.

Throw your trash in the ocean or on the beach? Drive on the beach? Let your dog run loose without being with you? A resounding, “NO!” The turtles will thank you by living to come nest on a beach near you.

HELP SAVE THE TURTLES

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Stop scrolling if you don’t want to see the photos.

These guys are the clean up crew.

So sad, isn’t it?

What I learned and saw in Bryce Canyon fills me with awe. Its formation was done in three geological stages.

Paraphrased from the internet:

Sediments were deposited into lakes 50 million years ago. This sediment was like an artist’s palette of alternating layers of compressed minerals and iron oxides from the mud, silt, and sand that was washed into the basin. This made layers of mudstone, siltstone, and limestone together with the iron oxides that stained the layers orange and pink. (The Claron Formation)

Next the tectonic forces pushed the region upward to 8,000 to 9,100 feet above sea level. This uplift happened 20 million years ago. The upward thrust caused cracking in the limestone beds and breaks in a vertical line.

Weathering and erosion come on the scene next. Periods of freezing and thawing, snow, rain, wind. The freezing and pressure expands the rock further, and rain mixes with carbon dioxide to form a weak carbonic acid, which slowly dissolves the limestone.

Softer rock layers dissolve and wash away faster than hard layers, leaving behind the weirdly shaped pillars, windows, and spires known as hoodoos.

Exploring, hiking, and meditating in Bryce Canyon gave us both the experiences we will always remember. We are grateful and filled with happiness that we got to have such a great vacation of a lifetime.

Mornings were a bit nippy, as you can see by our hats and jackets. The crisp air felt good though and only added to the adventure.

Look at this masterpiece.

The colors changed during the day. These shots were taken as the sun was doing its magic dance.

We got up early every day so we could enjoy the spectacular morning hours. It helped us get prime time parking spots too. Then we would take off hiking and come back to the van to fix something to eat, before taking off again.

So much to see.

The Navajo Loop trail afforded us spectacular views, and I wish we could have brought the wonderful fragrance of the pine trees back home with us.

Thank you Bryce Canyon for allowing us to spend time with you.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my photos, but truly to appreciate it, you must visit this magical place.

Greg and I traveled to many National Parks in May and June 2026. One of the fascinating places we visited was Death Valley. I’d never been there, and he’d only been as a child and didn’t remember much about his time there.

Quite frankly, I didn’t know what to expect, and the whole experience was surprising and wonderful.

The sand dunes are so beautiful. I always hesitate to put my little footprints on the sand. It looks so pristine without me messing it up.

From the National Park Service website:

Less than one percent of the Death Valley desert is covered with dunes. For dunes to exist there must be a source of sand, prevailing winds to move the sand, and a place for the sand to collect. The eroded canyons and washes provide plenty of sand, the wind seems to always blow (especially in the springtime), but there are only a few areas in the park where the sand is “trapped” by geographic features such as mountains.

It’s intriguing to see the sculpted sand with the mountains and the gorgeous blue sky in the background.

I’m a sucker for cloud formations. This gave me a thrill.

We spent a lot of time on the dunes, but we were also excited to see more of what the park had to offer. It was all new to me and I was in heaven taking photos and immersing myself in this part of the world.

I like skeletons of all kinds. Even trees.

It was in the high 70s and low 80s when we visited. Made it a great time to be there.

There’s a section called Artists Palette and we spent a lot of time exploring in this area of the park.

These colors are from volcanic deposits rich in compounds. The green color does not come from copper. Chemical analyses have identified the elements titanium, iron, aluminum, magnesium, and some of the minerals are red hematite and green chlorite.

TStar Wars Fan? Check out the area around Artists Palette for some familiar views! Parts of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, were filmed here.

After I got tons of photos, we left the artists palette and headed to the Badwater Basin. You can see it in the background of this photo.The white you see is salt. So off to the Salt Flats.

From the National Park Service website:

Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America. The salt flats at Badwater are composed mostly of sodium chloride, along with calcite, gypsum, and borax.

This massive 200-square-mile expanse features unique hexagonal salt polygons formed by extreme cycles of flooding and evaporation.

We pulled right up to the salt and got out to explore a little.

Intense Concentration

The source of Badwater’s salts is Death Valley’s drainage system of 9,000 square miles—an area larger than New Hampshire. Rain falling on distant peaks creates floods that rush ever lower. Along the way, minerals dissolve from rocks and join the flood. Here, at the lowest elevation, floods come to rest, forming temporary lakes. As the water evaporates, minerals concentrate until only the salts remain. After thousands of years, enough salts have washed in to produce layer upon layer of salt crust.

Crystal Power
The vast, surreal salt flats of Badwater Basin change constantly. Salt crystals expand, pushing the crust of salt into rough, chaotic forms. Newly formed crystals ooze between mudcracks, sketching strange patterns on the surface of the salt flat. Passing rainstorms wash off windblown dust and generate a fresh layer of blinding white salt.
Floods create temporary lakes that dissolve salts back into solution, starting the process all over again.

After checking out the salt flats we went on a couple hikes.

This is the kind of thing that makes us so happy. Being together in nature and exploring places like this.

You can get some perspective of the size by looking at me way back there in my pink shirt.

I’m going to leave you with this one. Thanks for coming along to Death Valley National Park.

If you’ve never been, you owe it to yourself to visit.

All photos by Susan Farrar

Yesterday in the late afternoon, I took a walk through an arroyo near the town of El Pescadero where I live. There were five of us on this field trip. One of the young Mexicans on the trip is doing a project regarding the issue of basura (trash) and how it affects the town and its wildlife.

Many of the locals are using this arroyo as a dump. Without making judgments right now (there are so many reasons for this behavior and that’s not the point for this post), this walk opened my eyes to something I didn’t even expect or know about.

You can actually follow the arroyo under the highway and go all the way to the beach a few kilometers beyond.

Looking at it from the start just beyond the town, you’d never know how incredibly beautiful it is. With a lot of work this could be turned into something extraordinary for the people of the town. 

Here we enter and find our way down into the arroyo.

Both sides of the arroyo have trash cascading down to the bottom.

We just kept going, making our way through the brush and trees toward the highway underpass.

I didn’t take a photo as we went under the highway, but that’s about where the ground water was trickling down the pathway. It was a bit soggy.

And the longer we walked the more we were in awe of the growth.

I was surprised at how lush it became. It was truly beautiful.

This looked like a yellow kiwi fruit.

A tomato plant has found a home here tucked into the native plants that were covered with spittle bugs.

Beautiful torote trees (sometimes called elephant trees) interspersed with other vegetation.

I am told that as you move farther toward the ocean, there are places with more trash and it’s not as lush as this part, but we turned around to head back here. I’ll go back some other time and check it out.

We left just before sunset to go up in the hills to watch the sun go down and to see the lights come on in Pescadero.

That’s when it was my turn to take photos, as my project is about light pollution.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll share about that soon. You can come back for a visit.

Here’s a preview

Thanks to our friends, Paula and Carlos, who own Explora Baja, we spent 3 days and 2 nights on Magdalena Island, staying in a 4 bedroom home overlooking the bay where we board the boat for a wildlife adventure. Gray whales migrate over 10,000 miles from the Arctic to Magdalena Bay, Mexico, from late December to mid-April to mate, give birth, and nurse their calves in the warm, sheltered lagoons.

Greg and I had a great time with our son, Matthew and his fiancee Michelle, my former student Heather (from 26 years ago) and her husband David, on Magdalena Island for our whale watching trip. Paula gave us lots of information about the whales and the area before we started.

It was a marvelous adventure, even though this time we didn’t get whales come to the boat close enough to touch, they were very close to our boat and we felt the thrill of being with them.

Looking at them in the water on the surface was surreal.

Magdalena Island has very few residents (under a 100) and most of them are fishermen and their families. Some of the fishermen have opted to use their pangas for whale watching. Others still fish. They live simply and seem very happy, which is easy to understand, as they are living so close to a large number of creatures in the wild. There is one church and a couple stores with snacks, plus a restaurant where we had lobster dinner the first night.

The photos above and below were taken at sunrise a few steps from the 4 bedroom house we stayed in.

Michelle, Matt, Heather, David, me, and Greg in front of the house we stayed in.

We took the boat through the mangroves to the sand dunes and the Pacific side of the island. The dunes are so fascinating and the beach is alive with shells and sand dollars.

We stayed on the dunes till the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean. What fun!

I’ll close with this. Hope you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for stopping by.

Wake up early, make some coffee, put on your hiking shoes and get out there. Watch the sun light up the sky. It’s the best way to get that joyful spirit going.

I remind myself that blessings abound and another day is full of promises.

Today our middle son and his sweet girlfriend arrive at the San Jose del Cabo Airport. Also today one of my former students and her husband arrive at the same airport. We are all going to Magdalena Bay to go whale watching and spend time on the island with Paula and Carlos, our dear friends who own Explora Baja. https://explorabaja.com

My next post will feature all our fun. This is from their website:

Duration:

60 hours (3 Days, 2 Nights)

About:

Whales encounters, sunrises in the bay, view from the deck of the house into the majestic Magdalena Bay. Get to see the huge diversity of animals of the bay and island. 

Experience the real Baja. Stay in a mystical fisherman village at a fisherman´s house (4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms). Eat fresh fish and lobster from the area and support local communities. You will have the chance to have 3 whale watching trips, observing whales close at their breeding grounds in the sheltered waters of the bay. 
Spending the night on the island is an amazing experience as not many visitors get to be there at night. 
We work hand with hand with the locals making sure that the energy of the trips flow both ways, ensuring a good healthy economy in town and in the islands.

Enjoy three of the best whale encounters you can experience with these incredible gentle giants, visit mangroves, walk on endless sand dunes, observe sea birds and many times coyotes and bald eagles that lives close to the house.

In order to make reservations at the house, it’s important to book this tour as soon as possible, at least three months prior to the trip. Magdalena Bay is approximately 5 hours north of Todos Santos so expect a drive but a great reward as well.

Meeting location:

At your accommodation in Todos Santos, Pescadero, or Cerritos

What to bring:

• A reusable water bottle (Hydro Flask, Nalgene, etc.) – disposable water bottles are prohibited 
• A hoodie, jacket and beanie is also recommended to keep you warm.
• Bring sandals and comfortable walking shoes in case we go for a stroll. 

What’s included:

• Round trip transportation to Puerto San Carlos from Todos Santos
• Driver, guide & captain
• 2 nights in a house in Magdalena island
• 3 whale watching trips
• Walk on pristine dunes and the pacific beaches
• Mangroves and sea birds
• 2 breakfasts
• 3 lunch
• 2 dinners
• Snacks throughout the whole trip
• Drinks (beer and wine with dinner)

Do More of What Makes you Happy

Especially now. Especially because the whole world is on fire. Now is the time to make the most of it. Do more of what makes you happy. Make sure to laugh everyday. Make someone else laugh. Give your friend a hug. The nice thing about that is how you get a hug too. Be kind to yourself and others. We need more happiness in the world.

Sweet Emotion

Forget the angst. Give it the toss. And while you’re at it, throw out the plans you made, because maybe they’re not going to happen. Just feel some sweet emotion about what’s going on with you right now. In this moment. Your legs are strong. Let them guide your feet and take you out for a walk or a run. Smile at the passersby. Let your sweet emotions rub off on others. Look closely. Be sunshine.

Take a Hike

Take a hike, but not like “Get the hell out of here.” No, no. Really, go take a hike. Make it to a place you’ve never been before and let the trail guide your steps. Rocks in the way. Sure. Step aside or around them. Dips? Of course. Skip over them, or plow right through. Keep a good pace. This is a hike, not a walk in the park. Explore. Bring your heart rate up. Smell the great outdoors. Savor the feeling of being in nature and enjoy the view at the top of the hill.

Bring your Heart to Whatever you Do

Make every small thing into something mixed with your joyful heart, your loving heart. Are you patching something? Put your heart into it. Maybe that means making a patch in a heart shape. Who knows? Are you a teacher, grading papers? Do it with your head and your heart. Working in your garden? Tend to it with that inner glow of yours. Bring your heart and pour it in like water to let it nourish your plants.

Take Time for Yourself

A nice hot shower (or cold) can invigorate you and at the same time it can relax you. Why not take a nap? Or just lie down and read for a spell. If It suits you, get a manicure. Or a pedicure. Or both. Can’t afford it? Do a nice foot soak in epsom salts and put some of your favorite oil in the water with it. Breathe in the sweet smell.  And speaking of breath, take some deep ones. Start with breathing into your belly and move up to your collar bones. Hold it. Then breathe out slowly through your mouth. Listen to music. Let it take you away from the doldrums. Sing with the music. Who cares if you can’t sing.?Dance to the music. Who cares if you can’t dance.? Don’t listen to the news. Don’t watch the news. Stop scrolling. Live in your beautiful life moments. Smile at yourself in the mirror. Tell yourself what a badass you are. Just be.

I am fascinated with the moon in all its stages. For example, how it manifests high and low tides as if on cue, its incredible craters, the fact that men have been on the moon, and how many songs have been written about it. Looking at the moon makes me feel small, but not necessarily insignificant.

I read somewhere that the cow jumped over the moon.

The moon on its way down in the morning at Bahia de los Muertos

Taken one early morning while I was on a walk.

Some interesting things I learned from the internet:

How Craters Form

Craters on the Moon form from impacts by asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. The lack of atmosphere on the Moon means that when objects strike the surface, they don’t burn up or slow down, as they would on Earth. Instead, these impacts create depressions that can range from small, subtle indentations to huge, massive basins.

• Small craters form when smaller objects (like meteoroids) hit the surface at high speed.
• Larger craters form from much bigger impacts, which can lead to the formation of massive rings around the impact site.

https://science.nasa.gov/moon/lunar-craters/why-study-craters/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Craters and Lunar History

Each crater on the Moon serves as a time capsule. The size, depth, and structure of a crater can give scientists clues about the age of the Moon’s surface, the objects that impacted it, and the overall history of the solar system. For example, by studying crater density in different regions, scientists can estimate the relative ages of the lunar surface features.

The first moonwalk, also known as the Apollo 11 Moon landing, occurred on July 20, 1969. Astronauts Neil Armstrongand Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in orbit around the Moon in the Command Module.

Armstrong’s First Words Were Not “One Small Step” Initially

Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” almost didn’t happen as planned. The transmission was slightly garbled, and Armstrong himself later said he intended to say, “That’s one small step for a man.” The “a” was barely audible in the broadcast.

Occasionally the moon is orange as it goes down in the morning over the ocean where I live. Does it turn orange where you live?

I bought a Nikon Coolpix P950 for my 79th birthday last October. It has a moon setting on it. That’s how I got these photos. Pretty cool, huh?

I zoned in on it and took up close photos of parts of the full moon.

I like how you can see more of the surface and the craters.

A song that was popular when I was in high school was “Blue Moon.” The song was written by Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics) in 1934, but it was recorded by The Marcels in the 60s. Their rendition was uptempo doo-wop and was fun to dance to. Didn’t Elvis Presley also make a recording of the song?

I never really thought of the moon really being blue, but this is another shot I took early morning at Bahia de los Muertos, (see the one in the beginning) and sure enough it’s blue .

Moon River was also popular when I was a kid.

From the internet: “Moon River” was composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Jonny Mercer  in 1961. It was famously introduced by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While Hepburn’s version is iconic, Andy Williams recorded a hit version in 1961, made it his signature song, and performed it at the 1962 Academy Awards. 

Whether it’s silver or white or yellow, blue, or orange, the moon shines on all of us, no matter where we live. Just think, the moon here in Baja is the same moon that shines on you where you live.

There are many books about the moon. Go to the library and find out more if you like. I don’t think moon books are being banned.

Good Night Moon.

Moon with Palm Trees

Woo hoo! We did it. It was such a calm day on the water there yesterday. We were blessed.

It was a happy moment! Only my second time on a stand up paddle board.

There was a storm lurking, but it never got to us while we were enjoying our morning.

Swimming was the best yesterday too, and Kailani loved chasing butterflies and digging holes. Why do dogs dig holes anyway?

There’s a lot of coral on the beach there, and sadly we’ve not seen a lot of fish on the reefs there lately. But Greg did go snorkeling for about 20 minutes and saw a parrot fish and some white trigger fish. That’s different from what we’ve seen, so that was thrilling.

We could see the storm clouds brewing, but we were hot and dry the whole time. No wind. Which is very unusual. All in all, a great time.

We left the bay about 12:30, and didn’t get very far when the skies darkened and sure enough we caught up with the rain. Quite lovely actually, but it didn’t make it to our neck of the woods. We need rain. It’s been dry for the last couple years.

By the time we got to El Truinfo, the rain had stopped. We love going to the bakery there. We bought two almond croissants, and one apple tart. Just because we could. So yummy. We took the croissants home, but ate the apple tart. We always stop at this cafe when we go to Bahia de los Muertos. Why would we not?

This is a very happy place, and their food and pastries are top notch.

Hope your summer adventures are as fun as ours. Life is good.

Our friend Sean gave me this Garmin Forerunner 945 watch. He just took it off his wrist and said, “Here, this is for you.” What a great gift. Among many other excellent qualities, this guy is generous beyond expectations.

As I reported in my last post, we are training for our Grand Canyon trip next year. This was what we did today! It makes me happy to see this all on one screen. Of course I can save all the info from our hikes and I do that too. We can set new goals, and today marks the second hike that I’ve used my Gregory day pack to load up on weight. I’m mostly carrying water right now and am putting 15 pounds on my back. The first time I did that, it was brutal. But today was only the second time, and it’s already easier, so we did a full loop and all went very well.

We had rain yesterday, and from the looks of the clouds up there, we knew we’d get more today. We didn’t get any on our hike, but shortly after we got home, it started. Here in southern Baja California we need a lot more rain. It’s been so dry for a couple of years.

On these hikes we’re pumping constantly. Very few stops and mostly those are for giving our dog, Kailani, water. We can drink from our hydration packs in our backpacks, so we don’t have to stop. But Kailani is at our mercy. She is such a good hiker, staying close to whomever is up front and checking on the one in last place (me) all the time.

I’m keeping up though, and my stride matches my short legs, so I’m about 20 yards behind Greg all the time. He keeps checking on me, and I appreciate that.

We get into a rhythm and just motor along on our hikes, finding places on the trail with fewer rocks, and pushing without stopping. I would be taking more photos, if it were not for the training aspect of these hikes.

My Garmin watch is great, but not as accurate with noting sea level as it should be. There are lots of natural reasons for that, and it’s certainly not a big issue.

We sure do sweat a lot on these hikes. You can tell in the photos how wet my husband is.

He’s pretty darn cute, though.

I’ve gained a lot of strength and lost a little weight since we started these hikes. I highly recommend this type of activity for the endorphins and how good our moods are because of them.

I am getting used to hiking poles too. I only use them on the uphill. In some ways they slow me down. But the assist they give is crucial. When we do the GC we will only be going up anyway.

Because it was our second time using the weighted packs, we added mileage today to descend to the “Old Port” (it’s called the sugar port on google maps). So we did the full 5.3 miles. It’s such a gorgeous hike, but mostly I’m just looking at the trail so I don’t slip on rocks.

It’s called the Sugar Port because it’s where they loaded the sugar on the ships for export. There are lots of old buildings where they did the processing down at the bottom where we start the hike. I’m surmising they used horses to carry the sugar up and down. This was a long time ago. I think I need to read up on the history.

Greg is always reminding me that we have to step carefully so as not to stumble and fall. No ankle twisting, no falls. No broken bones. Being mindful like this is good for me too. Practicing being in the moment is healthy and productive. One step in front of the other.

I’ve been active my whole life, but this hiking we’re doing 3 days a week is my new high, and the togetherness is pretty sweet too.

Happy Trails.

Oh, and Kailani was tired when we got back to the car. She drank water while lying down.

It’s best to start out early. The mornings are so beautiful and most people are still in bed; we enjoy the peace and quiet as we watch the sun come up.

Everywhere you look the view is expansive. We are hiking a lot these days for fun and for training. “Training?” you ask.

Yes, we have booked a hiker’s special Grand Canyon oar rafting trip for next year. We will enjoy the upper river and we have to hike out 8 miles on the last day, gaining 4400 feet of elevation. The hike takes between 8-10 hours and it’s ALL uphill.

I will be 79 when we go next April, and Greg will be 72. At our advanced ages, we need to power up for this. Actually, from what we understand, even young ones say that hike is not for the feint of heart. We’ve watched a lot of videos of hiking up the Bright Angel Trail. It’s intimidating to say the least.

Even though we’re training, we are so excited to get out 3-4 times a week to climb to these gorgeous high places. It’s good for our souls. Life is so sweet these days.

Thursday this week we took our much younger friend with us. She loved it.

What’s not to like, right?

This is a panorama.

We need to build up to much more strenuous workouts, but you have to start somewhere, and that’s what we’re doing.

I was in my art studio with my dear friend, Sonia, when my new hat arrived. She snapped this shot of me in my apron (as we were painting) a month ago. Greg calls it my doofus hat.

Close to home, looking down at Los Cerritos beach. I very much dislike all the condos and BS down there now, but I have to accept things over which I have no control. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though, does it? There’s just nothing I can do about it.

Back behind the little town of El Pescadero going east, there are remnants of gold mining operations to investigate and lots of hills to climb. Again, we like to be there to watch the sun come up. The next ones are from a recent hike there.

We took a different young friend with us on this hike. She is my pal with whom I do my beach workouts. She’s a great coach.

We took our buddy Ruthie with us on this hike. She and Greg are investigating one of old mine shafts. It is a long way down.

Ruthie is my beach workout coach. I just love her.

See you again soon! Here’s a little buddy we came across last week. Isn’t he beautiful? We left him alone and he left us alone. No rattling going on.