A
five minute walk down a (rather steep) trail leads to Salt Pond Beach
where excellent snorkeling and hiking await the adventurous. The
beach is usually secluded and has picnic tables, BBQ pits and an outhouse. Facing
the ocean, excellent snorkeling is found along the left side of the
bay and around the first rock outcrops in the middle of the bay. Dramatic
hikes to the Salt Pond, Drunk Bay, and Ram's Head start at the end
of the beach.
At
the end of the beach you can take a short trail to the Salt Pond
or a longer trail to Ram's Head. The Drunk Bay hike goes past Salt
Pond. The salt pond has a foam on top of it that looks like detergent and tastes like salt. This pond, which is a foot below sea level,
gets underground sea water, but the pond water does not flow back into
the sea. As the water evaporates the salt is left behind.
Salt Pond itself. This is a high-water picture. You can keep following this path to get to Drunk Bay.
These are low-water pictures, with lots of salt.
The strong easterly trade winds, which
average twenty miles per hour most of the year, speed up evaporation
yeilding a salt harvest in the summer. The brownish red color of the
pond is due to algae, like those that redden the Red Sea. Sea salt has
traces of every mineral from gold to uranium. It also includes iodine
which disinfects the salt. Many scientists believe that by using
sea salt we can meet all of our bodies mineral needs... and it tastes
good too!
