Sanibel Island - Lighthouse Beach and the Seashell Museum

Sanibel Island, Florida

Sanibel Island is located just off the western coast of Fort Meyers. It's a narrow piece of land approximately 10.5 miles long. We had planned to wake at dawn every day to go shelling, but there was a full moon during our visit and low tide was only late at night.

With this in mind, we decided to try Lighthouse Beach on the eastern side of the island since it has ample parking, washrooms, showers, and is the closest beach to the Causeway. Please check http://saltwatertides.com/ to help plan your Sanibel Island holiday. Low tides are the best time to visit.

Map of Sanibel and Captiva Island, from the Shell Museum

The Sanibel Island Causeway

Sanibel Island is accessed through a series of white bridges called the Sanibel Causeway. It costs $6 to cross and traffic is heavy to and from the island. The best time to leave for the island is early AM. It's also a good idea to have a SunPass transponder on your vehicle since its traffic line is much faster. Our Budget rental car had a transponder included with the car. It costs $4/day to use for a maximum of $14 for a trip.

There are places to stop and park your car while driving along the Causeway. From discussions with fellow travelers, Causeway Beaches are great places to pick up shells since not many make the stop.

My highlight of Sanibel Island was the Causeway drive. It's long and picturesque; often large sea pelicans and birds will fly parallel to your car.

Sanibel Island Lighthouse Beach

We left for Sanibel Island at around 3:30 PM with heavy traffic all the way. We turned right instead of left, so we only arrived at Lighthouse Beach at 4:30 PM. However, the sun was still high but not burning anymore.

The beach is relatively clean and free of trash, and the sand is fine and white since it's mostly made up of crushed seashells. Even the unpaved parking lot is full of seashells.

We managed to find lots of common white seashells, and broken pieces of iridescent shells. We came prepared for shelling with our $6 red mop bucket from Target and a set of shelling tools (large net and shovel) from the local Publix since Target did not sell beach items out of season.

We stayed until 7 pm when the sun was starting to set. What a great day.

Lighthouse Beach, Sanibel Island

Sanibel Seashell Museum, Florida

Since we didn't manage to see any great seashell specimens, we made a trip to the Baily-Matthews Seashell Museum. It's located on the west side of Sanibel island.

The museum houses a medium-size collection of seashells from around the world. Most of the collection is made up of seashell donations from patrons.

Eustrombus Goliath from northeastern Brazil, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Tierney

Shells from Panama

Shells From West Africa

Shells from Japan

Shells from Japan, detail

Shells from Japan, abalone

Moon Scallop

West African Seashells, detail

West African Seashells, butterfly cone

South American Seashells Pink mouth murex

South American Seashells, detail

Seashell Fossils

Found on Florida beaches are the much coveted, and rare, Ecphora Whelk, which lived along the Floridian coast 30 million years ago.

Ecphora Whelk Fossil

Local Seashells on Sanibel Island

Sanibel Island has an amazing assortment of unique seashells.

Seashells of Sanibel Island, from the Seashell Museum

Sanibel Island Seashells belong to the Phylum Mollusca.

Floating or strewn along the beaches are Lightning Whelk egg capsules

Junonia Seashells, Sanibel Island

Rare, Left-Handed Junonia

Broken pieces of Stiff Pen and Sawtooth Pen Shells are found along the waterline of the beaches. Although small, the pieces are very beautiful because their interior surfaces are iridescent.

Stiff Pen Shell, Sanibel Island

Sawtooth Pen Shell

Seashell Live Specimens

The Seashell Museum has a small display of live seashells from the Sanibel area. The volunteer curator allows some of the specimens to leave the saltwater pool for a better look. It's remarkable how large the "Pen" clams were, measuring almost a foot long.

I was able to observe a live Florida Fighting Conch at the museum. This snail is a vegetarian and it uses its muscular foot in a "slapping" action to scare away predators. Notice the little eye-like structure on the right. I think he was taking a peek at me.

She Sells Sea Shells

Opened over 30 years ago, She Sells Sea Shells is world famous for it's lovely and well-priced sea shells. It's located on the west side of Sanibel Island, a few minutes drive from the Causeway on the left-hand side of the road.

They sell both local and internationally sourced seashells, ranging from $1 to hundreds of dollars. I was amazed at the variety, size, beauty and price of the seashells.