Tide pooling is totally underrated—it combines the magic of the witching hour, a scavenger hunt, a petting zoo, scuba diving, and a trip to the beach (all of which could stand alone).
Also, some of the creatures are insanely cool. 🐙 Octopuses, for one, are crazy enough to have made it onto my weird/neat things page: Weird/Neat Things - Octopuses are astonishingly far away from us evolutionarily, but not cognitively. 🌊 ⭐️ Sea stars (renamed to prevent people from mistaking them for fish 🙃) seem kinda leathery and boring, but have tube feet on their undersides that are propelled by a hydrolic system that sucks water in from a spot on their top side, so if you put the back of your arm on a sea star, you’ll feel it pinch your hairs to try to ensure its tube stays clear. They can also extract their stomach, like a wet plastic shopping bag, and insert it into shellfish to make the whole digestion process smoother (since they don’t really have a mouth or teeth). And the thin wavy things on the tips of their arms that look like skinny tube feet? optical sensors that help them navigate (like how you can sense the direction of the sun even with your eyes closed). And each creature is full of crazy fun facts like this—sea urchin spines are mounted on little nubbins so that they can swivel around and “pinch” seaweed floating by before using their tube feet to suction onto their prize and guide it around to their mouth. Limpets graze on algae on rocks in the intertidal zone, but always find their way home to the exact same spot, such that they create a scar on the rock in the precise shape of their shell. The way that the tentacles on sea anemones feel sticky? They have nematocysts with pre-set barbs, coiled up and ready to trigger at your (or preferably a fish’s) touch, so they’ve basically got a ton of microscopic harpoons now connecting you to the anemone.
And how insane is it that for a short period of time, the ocean draws back and the underwater homes of these creatures are revealed to us dry-landers?! Epic.
Best Northern California Tide Pooling
The Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is one of the best options near SF — it's exceedingly accessible.
But you’ll want to time your visit when the pools are exposed, that is, when the tide is below 1 foot. Tides vary based on the season, the moon’s cycle, and the exact time of day, so plan in advance! 🗓
Here's a PDF guide to the Fizgerald Marine Reserve with photos and descriptions of many of the creatures you'll find.
It's always better when you know what to look for!
If you have more time, Salt Point State Park is a great site (alongside the Gerstle Cove Marine Reserve), with the addition of crashing waves and really cool rock formations + nearby camping.
In Southern California, Laguna Beach actually has some great rocky pools at low tide and a greater likelihood of finding sea hares and sea cucumbers. 🌊 🐰+ 🌊 🥒
More Learning
I learned most of what I know about the ocean from my training for becoming a volunteer docent at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach (so I’m skewed pretty hard toward the the creatures of the Pacific Ocean). The aquarium has so many educational resources available online now!