Mike in the Wild

You can drive to a lot of places in around four hours from Phoenix: the Grand Canyon, Palm Springs, Monument Valley, the White Mountains.  Oh, and the beach.  Yes, the beach, a real one, with surf, sand and salt water, and not located amid the Colorado River's reedy shores or fabricated in a kid-friendly water park in Mesa.   But you're probably wondering how fast you'd have to drive to get so speedily to the desert's nearest coastal destination of San Diego.   Well, when you're an Arizonan you don't always have to go to California to visit the ocean in the convenience of a car, stuffed to the gills with coolers and beach chairs.  An hour over the international border, in the Mexican state of Sonora, stretch hundreds of miles of coastline along the Sea of Cortez, or the Gulf of California as it is referred to there.   Its closest resort town is  Puerto Peñasco,  or Rocky Point as Americans call it.   The port has boo...

I recently wrote about Hawaiian honeycreepers, endemic birds to these Pacific islands that have struggled for survival due to the destruction of their habitats and, more recently, climate change.   Several cling to survival, but most species in this diverse family of birds have gone extinct.  But there is another family of endemic birds, the monarch flycatchers, that have fortunately fared better over the millennium that Hawaii has shared its landscape with mankind.  Monarch flycatchers are Old World passerine birds that populate sub-Sahara Africa, Southeast Asia, Australasia and some Pacific Islands.  The Hawaiian birds in the family make up their own genus, chasiempis.   And the three islands they inhabit are also the unique homes of the three separate endemic species in the genus: the Oahu 'elepaio, the Hawaii 'elepaio, and the Kauai 'elepaio. The three species of 'elepaios seem to have a greater immunity to the mosquito-born diseases that have ...

Swimming for hours with your face sealed in a snorkel mask and your feet paddling rubber fins may seem like one third of an arduous triathlon for most people.  But for me, with my inexpensive underwater digital camera attached at the wrist and snapping non-stop shots of a cornucopia of underwater life, it's a dream vacation.  And Tunnels Beach in Kauai might be the closest it comes to heaven for that kind of snorkeling on the Garden Island, if not in the whole state. Tunnels Beach is close to the end of the road on Kauai, where Route 560 or the Kuhio Highway, ends near the Na Pali Coast on the mountainous and scenic north shore of the island.   The beach is actually reached from Ha'ena State Park, where there is very limited parking but adequate facilities like a shower and restrooms, and more important, a lifeguard station.   However, they're all situated at an end of the beach where some lateral currents might be dangerous in certain conditions, ...

Many seabirds spend long weeks or months at sea, feeding on fish and other marine animals that swim close to the water's surface.  But nesting and raising young require the relative safety of dry land.  Fortunately for a number of birds plying the vast Pacific Ocean for food, the Hawaiian Islands offer islets and cliffs that fit the bill for a safe nursery. At least three decades ago, conservationists and the United States government recognized the indispensable value of Kauai's coastal habitat for a large number of sea-going birds' during breeding season.  And specifically at Kilauea Point on the island's north shore, at the sight of a disused but maintained Coast Guard lighthouse, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now protects a National Wildlife Refuge.   The preserve is home to at least nine native species of birds , most of them seasonally-visiting seabirds.  But one special full-time resident, the nene or Hawaiian goose, lives there too. ...

Kauai's Poipu Beach Park certainly has something for everyone and is probably the beach most people think of when planning their Hawaiian beach vacation.   Sunshine, soft sand, reefs, snorkeling, wildlife, surfing, rest rooms, picnic areas, restaurants, lifeguards, resorts, access to open sea and a protected kiddie lagoon are all within an easy stroll of a large parking area.    The only thing it lacks is any sense you're specifically on the Garden Island.    It's the sunniest and driest side of the island, far away from the jagged and verdant volcanic cliffs that define Kauai's landscape and lie a ways to the north.  So when you poke your snorkel mask out of the water and take a look towards shore you might think you're anywhere in the tropical Pacific and not on beautiful Kauai.  But on this little stretch of sand near the island's southern most point, some of the hottest and driest temperatures on the island guarantee that your day on the bea...