Sanibel - Shell capital of the US

Sanibel Causeway - giant hard clams

So this Christmas vacation, we decided to drive down from Savannah GA to Sanibel FL - the island famous for its shells. Commonly known as the Shell capital of the US.

Why Sanibel? So a while ago I researched where to find shells, because normally when we visit the local beaches I hardly find any good shells. And as I surfed the internet, Sanibel came up in my results. So I started reading up and checking videos and indeed it's famous for the large variety of shells that wash up the beaches.

Shark Eye (Moon Shell)

I had shared this information with my husband then. So when we thought where do we vacation this year, he knew exactly where to go. Sanibel it is! Almost 8hr drive from Savannah.

I planned the food for the day through the long drive so we have minimum stops. Though we wanted to start at 5am, we could only start by 5.45am. But we made through the drive really well and we were on the Sanibel island at 2pm.

Shelling at sunrise

Info: The island has a toll entry - $6 each time you enter. Luckily, my husband had booked a hotel on the island so we paid the one time. We stopped right at the beginning of the island and we found these large palm-sized clam shells. I knew I was in for big shelling of my lifetime.

We went straight to Bowman's head beach. It's a lovely stretch of beach with heaps of shells piled up at the beach. Out of habit I did pick a few but they weren't the one's I had looked online, or that I had hoped to find there. From there on, we went to Captiva island; again with not much luck at the shells I wanted.

Lighthouse beach - incredible sunrise

So on our way back we stopped at Blind Pass and saw the most beautiful sunset in the longest time I can remember. The sky had cloud formation by the horizon and the sun rays through and after the sunset threw such a lovely blend of colors, no picture can justify what our eyes saw! The beauty of our nature!

Live Lightning whelks - let them back to the ocean

First morning we made it at the Light house beach at 6.45am to see the sunrise at 7.14am. Again...the beautiful colors of the first rays of the sun, scattering through the grey skies was just unbelieveable! 

SANIBEL - shell capital

Sunset at Blind Pass

It was a pleasant morning with the low tide on, I started shelling by the still waters at the beach. Tons of Apple murex shells with crab like creatures in them. I have never been so friendly with critters, but this time I was indeed having fun exploring the sea beds. I found my first Lightning whelk shell - a big one, buried in the sand. Little did I know that it would be a live whelk..my excitement died in seconds as I knew I had to let it go back in the ocean. So I showed it to my husband and my son and did the next right thing - put it back into the ocean..and this happened about 5 times to me. Finding live whelks and putting them back into the ocean. I was so dejected!

Shells at Gulf City park beach

I was hoping it would pay off at some point. And it did on the next morning.
We ended the first day strolling about the beach and picking other shells like the kittens paw, scallops, clam shells etc.

Day2 morning we went to another beach close to our hotel - Gulfside City Park Beach. My husband had found on his instagram that people had found shells on this beach. As I headed to the beach, the shore was full of fighting conch...sooo many of them. Reminder: there was a low tide at midnight, which probably has showed these shells the way out. By the time my husband paid and parked and came to the beach, the shell bag was half way full of fighting conches! It was payback time indeed. I found all the best shells on this morning the fighting conches in all possible sizes, the empty whelks, olive shells, tulip shells and murex. It got all of us busy shelling on the beach!

Final loot of the day

Truy satisfied, I was done with my shelling desire. Although I didn't find a few of the common items like worm shells, urchins, sand dollars and larger whelks - but, there is no scope to complain when you look at my final loot! 

The beaches had amazing sand castles created by the tourists. Managed to capture pics of few castles.

Beautiful castle with a moat to let the water go around

Tips:
1. Low tide is the best time to do shelling, so do consider checking the times online (I did)
2. Full moons also help in the tides and thus in good shelling.
3. Ideally after storms, the beach is full of the best shells. So may be consider the hurricane/storm season of Sanibel (Aug-Nov).
4. Time of year also would be important. As december was a holiday season I believe there is a larger audience to the amount of shells on the beach.
5. Early morning visit can give you higher chance of finding more shells.
6. Shelling tools like a digging net, sifter would probably help you to pick up chunks of shells on the bed and look through to find tons of shells. ( I didnt have any)

Hopefully this post will introduce you to the joys of shelling and make you visit Sanibel. But I'd definitely mention that whenever you find a live shell, please just put it back into the ocean! It's against the law and its just the right thing to do! There are TONS of dead shells washing up to the shore! I can't wait to go back again, but not anytime soon!

Now, that I have my shells all washed up in clean water and sorted, I am deciding the right way to clean them up. I have studied that using muriatic acid brings out the true colors of the shells, by removing the calcium buildup. For now I have just cleaned them up. I have to shop for the acid and go through the whole process. Really hoping I do it sooner than later like so many of my pending tasks in past year!

Here's to a wonderful new year 2018. I wish all my readers a happy new year!