Our explorations of Baja California began this morning with a hike on the bleached white sands of Isla Magdalena. Our discoveries were delightful, varied and numerous. From a dolphin skull and jaw with its conical teeth to shiny murex shells deposited in mysterious middens, from the bright fuschia flowers of sand verbena, to the numerous and zigzagged tracks of coyotes, rodents, and jackrabbits and hundreds upon thousands of red pelagic crabs washed ashore as shown in this photo. It seemed as though each new discovery brought forth an entire set of new questions for our naturalists and in our own minds. What kind of dolphin was it? How did the shells get here? How old are these plants? What do the coyotes eat here? Why so many crabs? We all quickly became investigators of the shifting sands, looking and questioning. We carried and shared various bones, feathers, seed pods and washed up sea creatures with our natural history staff and fellow travelers. We speculated amongst ourselves the functions of spines on a clamshell or horned projections on a shark. Answers only brought more questions and mysteries still remain.