Negative tide day
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 9:30AM Friends notified us that yesterday was "negative tide day" and a rare occurrence that coincided with sunset time!
The weather was perfect and there were more than 2000 people in Half moon bay to walk the tide pools and show kids the little critters that are found in the few hours where the water recedes far back (things which were 6 feet underwater come to within a foot of water levels during a 2 hour period)..
We walked 2+ miles with the kids on slippery sea weed, kelp, gravel and barnacle covered rocks to see some amazing little ecosystems!
Here are some photographs..
The pelicans and gulls were enjoying the critters as well, albeit differently! They celebrated tide pool day as early dinner day!
When the water receded there was a 500 feet stretch of sand that was almost a marsh glistening in the sunlight..
Snails and mollusks everywhere in all kinds of colors, trying to hide under the rocks, but not fast enough.
This fish was well camouflaged in a very small tide pool. An older experienced tide pooler?! pointed it out to us as we were asking him "there is nothing there! what are you photographing?"
What looks like an ugly bag is a living creature which shrinks to the touch and supports a zillion other organisms that are piggy back riding on it..
We saw four different starfish, a chocolate brown starfish..
A red and gray softer starfish (softer to touch)..
An orange starfish
and a pink starfish
We also saw some sea anemones that were simply gorgeous!
We made our way back out of the tidepools towards the rocks to enjoy what was definitely one of our best sunsets to date!
When you have a whole bunch of kids on a beach all excited and hyper the energy level of the place is up a few notches and that adds to the experience.
Just wished that the tripod which was in the van had also been lugged around to capture the colors post sunset. Another day, another time!
This is the best I could get with a high ISO sin tripod.. It was too wet and slushy with kids and dogs running around to place camera on anything and try a timer shot.
The time spent at the beach and the tide pools was worth it. It took us an extra hour to get to the beach because of traffic and we also spent one hour getting out of the parking lot to the freeway! So if you do plan on doing this next year (or the next negative tide day), get there at least two hours before the low tide starts and make dinner plans in one of those beach side restaurants and drive home with less traffic later.
If you have kids in the under ten age group, the tide walk is strongly recommended!
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Bay area, day trip, half moon bay, local, negative tide day, photoblog, photography, reef, starfish, sunset, tide pools, travel
Reader Comments (9)
You are welcome Sundar :)))
we were there too! but we were carrying our toddlers along who got tired..so didn't go near the cliffs. Next time!
utbt,
thanks a bunch.. this was truly awesome. you guys were missed..
JAM, we had to take turns carrying our 6 year old back on the way back.. so understand your pain..
btw, we just saw in the news that a 63 year old woman got stuck in waist deep sand same time we were there and had to be rescued by fire service! glad we didn't slip into such a thing..
next year, have to be on time and more careful!
wow looks amazing
uma
wow! great snaps! Never see a negative tide before...thanks Sundar
All the pictures are awesome. But the best has to be all the kids walking uphill up in order of age(?). Will be such a memorable picture for them when they look back at it in 15 years or so.
I am like Rajni when it comes to childhood photos.:-( The girls are very lucky to have their early life tracked by pictures/videos.
-kajan
Uma, Ashok, thanks. this is the first time we saw a negative tide..
Kajan, thanks. we spend 15-20 minutes a couple of times a week just before bed time. we call it "baby photos time" and we go over old blog posts and photos from storage in random.
the kids love it as do the adults!
:)
yes, heard about the woman too. Here we thought the firetruck and ambulance were there to provide us light in the evening!
Certainly have to be more careful.
Awesome pictures ! And looks like a wonderful day to have ! :)