Queens Bath is a place to visit during low tide, when you can access several little tide pools (which reminded us of the Pagosa Hot Springs but without the sulfur and hot springs ambiance). The water and fish are left behind from the high tide and sit in the pools until the tide comes in again. We were able to see the pools and witness some of them start to disappear as the tide came in right before our eyes. Because of that, we didn't stay long! We dipped our feet in a few of the pools, looked at the waves come crashing in, and watched Sergeant Majors swim around the tide pools.
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| Tiny yellow-striped Sergeant Majors swimming around. |
Of course, it wouldn't be a stop without some learning and observations of what was happening and why. After being here for only a few short minutes, the changing water levels and incoming tide became obvious to the kids as the waves became increasingly violent while hitting the rocks and filling the baths.
The jagged-edged pools were made and are constantly changing as the waves from the Atlantic Ocean crashed into the limestone rocks on this side of the island. We were told to wear good shoes because the rocks are sharp and there are sea urchins. So glad we heard that advice! While we were there someone accidentally put their hand on urchin while climbing in the tide pools. Ouch!
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| Sea urchin in a tide pool. (Blue water shoes shown for size perspective.) |
Our anchorage was on the opposite side of this, so we had just a short hike up a steep incline from the beach on one side, crossed a busy 2-lane highway that runs the length of the island, then continued along the path and rocks to Queens Bath. People mentioned wearing good hiking shoes because of this, but being Colorado-folk, we decided the water shoes would suffice. (No hiking injuries were sustained!)
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| View of the baths approaching from the south. |
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| Headed south back to the beach near our anchorage because the tide was quickly coming in! The baths closer to the water were filling up and obviously starting to disappear under the water. |
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| If you look closely, you can see several trilobites! This was SO cool to see in nature, outside of a museum or fossil collection. |
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| Natural Hidden Mickey! °o° |
We were drawn to this area because of the Glass Window Bridge mentioned in the nearby anchorage reviews. Initially, we were headed a bit further south, but it looked fairly busy with beachgoers and we've been spoiled by secluded beaches, so we made our way closer to the anchorage by the Glass Window Bridge. Once the anchor was dropped, we boarded the tender and set off for some exploration of our neighborhood for the day.
The Glass Window Bridge is part of Queens Highway (that we walked across to get to Queens Bath) and crosses over a thin part (about 30 feet wide) of the Eleuthera Islands. To the east is the dark blue, harsh Atlantic Ocean water. Just under the bridge, on the west is the serene turquoise blue water of the Bight of Eleuthera, where we were anchored. Viewing this contrast from the top of the bridge is ideal, but knowing how busy and narrow the road was, we didn't want to walk up there with the kids. The view is even better seen by plane or with a drone, which we don't have, so we looked at photos to see a different perspective. In the end, we got to see both bodies of water anyway since we went to Queens Bath.
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| The open space between the land above Bear's head is a manmade bridge that replaced a natural bridge, destroyed by a hurricane in the past. |
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| Our tender is in the foreground with the Cartermaran in the background on the right. Lenny's house is in the background to the left. Such a private and dreamy place to live, especially during a global pandemic with various quarantines and lockdowns in place. |
"You know whose house that is?" we were asked by fellow beachgoers. "Whose?" Lenny Kravitz.
We introduced the kids to his tunes and sang, "I want to get away... I wanna flyyyyy awayyyy yeah, yeah, yeah..." for the rest of the time we were at this anchorage. Moose decided he has a new favorite type of music. 🎸
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