Best Tide Pools in California

Go on a minus tide in daylight. Tide pools are underwater at high tide, and the lower the low, the more of the reef is open: −1.0 ft and below is very good, and the best days of the year reach about −1.5 to −2 ft. From late spring through summer those lows come in the early morning, and from late fall through winter in the late afternoon. Arrive an hour before the low and leave as it turns.

What a minus tide is explains the numbers on a tide table. The tidepool planner ranks the next two weeks of daylight lows at Port San Luis, and the Coast Map shows the tide at every station at once.

Top Tide Pool Destinations

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve (Moss Beach)

San Mateo County set this reserve aside to protect the reef shelf at Moss Beach, where the county lists algae, crabs, sponges, sea stars, mollusks and fish. The pools are underwater at high tide. The nearest NOAA station is Half Moon Bay, which gives predictions only (it has no live gauge). Our Half Moon Bay travel guide covers the rest of the area.

Natural Bridges State Beach (Santa Cruz)

Named for its rock arch, with tide pools that are best at low tide. Use the Santa Cruz predictions. Santa Cruz is a subordinate station, so NOAA publishes its highs and lows only and this site draws the curve between them. More is in our Santa Cruz travel guide.

Tide Pooling Etiquette

To keep tide pool life from being damaged:

1. Never remove anything from tide pools
2. Step carefully on bare rock, not on organisms
3. Leave rocks in place: some reserves, like Fitzgerald, ban turning them over

Safety Tips

• Check the swell as well as the tide. A minus tide in a 10 ft swell is not a safe tidepool day.
• Wear shoes with good grip
• Never turn your back on the ocean. The biggest set of the hour can wash over a reef that has been dry for twenty minutes.