Winter at the beach in Texas

Humid, windy and little cold is what you might experience if you head to the beach in December. The sea oats look orange in the morning sunlight and remind me of the bottom of the ocean. Its almost as if the transition from sea to land is less of a line and more of a gradient. There is something incredibly relaxing about looking out across a sea of grass moving in the wind that melts all of your human-ly troubles away.

The sun is low in the winter making the shadows long and moody. There is nothing like a moody sand dune to express all of your current feelings about life and the world around us. I can almost feel the sand groaning in dissatisfaction with current state of affairs. As I carefully walked along the dunes I started to see all of the sand crabs and begin to try to snap a photo.

The first one I took a photo of, I caught out of his hideout and he gave me the stink eye for several minutes. This would also be the moment I got sand all inside my camera dial and probably will never get it out.

If you sneak up on a sand crab and they run and hide, you get to inspect their hideout while they wait for you to leave. They are incredibly fast and very good at sensing vibrations in the sand. They are usually gone before you even get close. Some of the hideouts were so big I was dying to see what sized crab lived in there.

Just look at that camo, what an interesting color.

The most distinct feature of the winter beach is the lack of people. If you venture to the coastline to cool off in the summer you will find it crowded, with the wildlife hiding from both the sun and the people. The winter is where the wildlife explodes, basking in the cool sunlight.

A blue Heron spies me out of the corner of its eye, with a oil rig in the distance.

3 frogs take shelter from the nighttime cold in an electrical box outside the campgrounds.

Where will your next winter adventure be?