My Town Monday: San Diego Tide Pools

A very, very fun and inexpensive and educational San Diego activity is a trip to the tide pools. Our favorite tide pools are located on the rocky shoreline by Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma. The address is: 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive, San Diego, CA 92106-3601

The tide pools are protected, so you can't take anything home with you. Don't even try to slip a shell or stone in your pocket. We take our ecosystems very seriously here in SoCal which is why there are rangers around. They'll help you identify what you're looking at and poking. But they're also kind of policing the area. In a friendly way.

The tide pool area is divided into four different zones, depending on how much of the land is covered by water. For example, the low intertidal zone is where the beach is covered by water 90% of the time. Then there's the middle intertidal zone which is only underwater 50% of the time. Next comes the high intertidal zone which is underwater 10% of the time. Finally, there's the splash zone.

Some creatures you might see are hermit crabs, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, star fish, owl limpets, eels, sea urchins, bat stars, sea hares, maybe even an octopus. And more.


sea anemone


Tide pools are best explored at low tide. There are two low tides a day. Even better, aim for a minus tide when the most beach is exposed. Minus tides occur in the winter. You can call this number for tide time: 619-5450 Ext. 0. Or this tide chart site is supposed to be accurate all year long for tide times.

Plan to get wet at the tide pools. Wear shoes with decent traction. The rocks get very slippery. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.


sea cucumber


sea bat

(From: http://www.hribar.com/san-diego-tides.html,http://www.aroundandaboutsandiego.com/pltidepools.html,http://gorp.away.com/gorp/publishers/foghorn/hik_sca2.htm)

My Town Monday comes to us via Travis Erwin. Thanks, Travis! Click on his site to read his post about Charles Goodnight and find links to the other participants.