Trip to High Island Day 3 -- Bolivar Flats

Friday, April 12, we did several things.  The biggest adventure was a trip to the west end of the Bolivar Peninsula to yet another Houston Audubon Society Bird Sanctuary, Bolivar Flats.  Bolivar Flats is a combination of salt marsh, mud flats, and beach on the Gulf side of the peninsula outlined in red below.   It is an important site for resting water birds and is also a nesting site for some birds such as plovers.  For all of these reasons it is one of the few places on Bolivar Peninsula where vehicle traffic is not permitted.

Another interesting characteristic of Bolivar Flats is a result of the five mile long jetty shown in the satellite view.  The jetty was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the entrance to Galveston Bay.  However, it has the interesting side effect of causing the beach at Bolivar Flats to grow with time, perhaps as much as 30 feet a year.

Access to Bolivar Flats is by driving along the beach from Rettilon Road to the vehicle barrier.

Frog and RAV at the vehicle barrier on the beach at Bolivar Flats.  The tall building in the distance is on Galveston Island and is probably the Palisades Palms in Galveston, two 27 story buildings which according to my maps are about 4.3 miles away.  Between here and there are several ships that were not moving, so presumably are anchored.

Driving on the beach requires a Bolivar Beach Parking Pass.  They are available in many locations, but we stopped in Crystal Beach on the way down the peninsula at the Gulf Coast Market, better known locally as The Big Store.  Their claim to fame is they have everything. "They don’t call us The Big Store for nothin’ – there’s no other place on the Bolivar Peninsula where you can find both 1-1/2 inch screws and 1-1/2 inch T-Bone Steaks all in the same place!"  I am glad we stopped there because it seems to be part of the Bolivar experience.  

I was a little worried about driving on the beach, but the sand was wet and mostly well packed.  It turned out not to be a problem.

What was a problem was the wind.  I don't know how strong the sustained winds were, but based on my crude use of completely extended flapping flags, the sustained winds had to be at least 35 mph if not more.  

Once we started looking carefully we realized there were many types of birds on the beach.

But most impressive is what originally looked like red sand just off shore in the distance.

Frog looking at the rusty red "sand" just offshore..what turned out to be.thousands of avocets!

As we got closer and zoomed in it was clear it was not sand but thousands of American Avocets. They are beautiful birds and were especially impressive as they took off in mass.

We felt lucky to see all of these birds before they migrated north to their breeding grounds, some as far north as Canada.

These and the many other birds were great fun to watch, but we had come to the end of dry beach and the wind was brutal so we made our way back to the car to look for a place to eat.

Fort Travis.  We drove briefly through Port Bolivar but did not see any place to eat, so went to Fort Travis Seashore Park for a picnic lunch.  Fort Travis is slightly further down the peninsula from Bolivar Flats on the Gulf coast.  It is the site of numerous fortifications and batteries from multiple wars starting in 1814 and going through World War II.  Many are still in place and can be explored.  Unfortunately the brutal wind seemed like it was getting worse. It was all we could do to get the picnic supplies out of the back and into the front seat so we could eat, let alone explore the park.

A shot out of the windshield while we were eating lunch at Fort Travis.  Note the palm trees and flags blowing in the wind, including the center flag that has been partially ripped off.

At least from Fort Travis we could see the famous Port Bolivar lighthouse.

Port Bolivar lighthouse.

A bit further to the left we could see the ferry to Galveston.

Ferries to Galveston.

The trip down the peninsula was very interesting, although it left me wanting to explore again someday when the weather was a bit more cooperative. It was especially interesting to see what was now in place since much of the peninsula, especially near Rollover Pass, was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008 by the storm surge that was at least 17 feet and possibly more.  The elevation of the land here is only 5-6 feet. 

Bolivar Peninsula September 16, 2008 showing what little was left after Hurricane Ike. The channel perpendicular to the road in the foreground is the cut in the peninsula at Rollover Pass.  Except for the one structure in the center of the picture, everything appears scrubbed clean. (Public domain image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Ike_in_Texas)

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the region as it exists now, but below is a shot cropped from a picture of birds we were trying to see in a park.  This is part of development just west of Rollover Pass .  Like everything on this end of the peninsula, there are lots of homes crowded together on multiple streets off the main road.  A quick look at online real estate sites suggests these are probably at least in the $300,000-400,000 range, with some considerably more.  As with all homes there, they are on stilts.