shell collecting sanibel gulf side city park october

The weekend started with a lovely walk on the wide shell strewn beach at Gulfside City Park where I was pleasantly surprised to bump in to our good friends Dick and Mary. We were all waiting to see how Tropical Storm Karen (churning in the middle of the Gulf Of Mexico) would effect the shelling on our southwest gulf coast. It was still beautiful and calm with lots of bivalves, some OLIVES, MUREXES, SEA BEANS, CONCHS and a few other goodies.

dick mary shell beach gulf side city park

 My next stop was Blind Pass Captiva where I saw Donnie, Alyssa, Holly, Valerie and Michael in the water snorkeling for their treasures. They were having a ball!

donnie shellinator snorkeling family

Ooooo… pretties! I wish I had gotten a better picture of that ALPHABET CONE next to the SAND DOLLAR. Its a MeglaCone it’s so huge. LOL

shells from captiva turner beach october

Gerry found tons of shells at Blind Pass on Saturday too. He posted this photo on the iLoveShelling Facebook page. Wowee!!

shell collection gerry captiva florida october

That big shell mound I showed you last week was dwindling down but there were still a few shells on the beach but most were finding them in the water…

shell collecting captiva florida gulf of mexico

Even at YOLO beach, there were shells lining the calm shoreline. It was a perfect day to rent a wave runner to explore the whole coast of Captiva.

shells jet ski captiva floridashells jet ski captiva florida

So that brings us to the shells we found this evening around sunset at Blind Pass Sanibel. Clark found a piece of JUNONIA along with some CONCHS and WHELKS…

shells at sunset sanibel

But the only place we found lots of shells was right in front of the old wooden bulkhead which is now more exposed than I’ve ever seen.

sanibel shells in the surf by wood jetty

The rest of the beach was wiped clean… all in one afternoon! William and Sarah from Kentucky were not too upset about the shells being taken back out in the water. They said they have been shelling a long time and realize that the beach changes every day. They just started their week long vacation so they are looking forward to the hunt for shells. That’s part of the fun!

william sarah sunset sanibel

This is what Blind Pass Captiva looked like around 6pm tonight. It’s so different from yesterday… and waaaay different than last week with that shell mound. Tropical Storm Karen didn’t bring huge shell piles to our beaches over the weekend but we could still get some effects tomorrow. The beaches will change again tomorrow and the shells have shifted so I look forward to the treasure hunt this week.

blind pass captiva erosion

The last I saw, Gulfside City Park still has a nice string of shell lining the beach so I might start there tomorrow.

gulf side city park sanibel shell beach

But on Tuesday…. I’m so excited for our treasure hunt on the iLoveShelling Captiva Cruise to Cayo Costa! Wahooo! I hope you can join us to explore the secluded island … for information CLICK HERE

shelling adventures trips by pam

PS- UPDATE: 10-7-13 11:59 am – The winds have changed yet again but this time they are coming from the west and stirring the Gulf up. This is what Blind Pass Captiva is doing now. Mother Nature is fascinating. We should see more shells soon!

blind pass captiva storm