We had an opportunity while on our Oregon Coast camping trip to take advantage of an extremely low tide to view spectacular marine creatures easily. We have done quite a bit of tide pool exploring in the last couple of years but this was by far the most awesome experience ever.
The colors of the marine life are shockingly beautiful with their pinks, bright greens, oranges, and purples. I will share a few of my favorite photos from the experience.
Sea stars and anemones were everywhere you looked, the most I have ever seen in one place.
We all loved getting a close up view of the sea stars and feeling their textures. We each had a favorite color.
This was the first time we saw this particular kind of sea star, a leather star and it was really interesting to look at. He sort of looks like he is waving to us in this photo.
How about this sun star?
There were also loads and loads of barnacles, mussels, and snails. I think the orange one is THIS. I think the striped one is THIS.
Talk about mussels…..some rocks were just covered in them.
This was the most fascinating creature that we observed during the low tide. The leather chitons were exposed on the rocks and we could really get up close. Yes, it is a living creature.
One morning we were out in the tide pools there was a volunteer naturalist helping answer questions. It was a treasure to have her there and we spent quite a bit of time exploring side by side. She was a wealth of information and I learned so much more by watching her movements and looking in places she suggested. She pointed out this worm. I think it might be this red ribbon worm.
It was an interesting perspective to see the sea grasses laying down flat because of the lack of water. The sea birds were having a delicious breakfast as they sat on the rocks. Even though it looks like the water is really close, we never got wet. Someone was always watching to see when the water was moving back in but we had plenty of time to rock hop and examine this habitat very closely.
The memories of this tidepool adventure will be with us for a very long time.
It was such a moving experience and we all felt blessed to have been able to take advantage of the opportunity.
I will try to post some of the photos from our hikes in the redwoods soon….awesome in a different way. If you are wondering what beach this is, we were at Harris Beach in Brookings, Oregon. I highly recommend this state park for camping and exploring the southern Oregon coast.
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Beautiful Shots! Great color Capture. I love the orange sea star macro photo! It is sooooo hard to get a good shot through the water.
Looks like a lot of fun!
What an amazing experience! I have never been to any part of the coast where there are tide pools, so thanks so much for sharing. How incredibly beautiful.
These photos are beyond beautiful. We live in Missouri, so tide pooling is not something we get to do. We visited La Jolla in January and tried to go tide pooling but when the tide was perfect, I ended up in the hospital, LOL. Wasn’t meant to be, i guess. Maybe, next time.
Those pictures were so beautiful. Really makes you happy that we have such a loving God to make such beautiful colors on the animals in our world.
What an incredible experience. My kids would love this! Love the last picture, so beautiful and serene 🙂
My 5 1/2 year old and I just had our first tide pool adventure this week. Nothing anywhere near as beautiful as what you saw, but a grand adventure nonetheless. We will definitely be doing more of it in the future.
Barb, thanks for sharing the great photos. I really enjoyed this post.
Southern Oregon Coast is awesome to explore! So glad you were able to experience it!
Beautiful pictures and finds. We are headed to the beach in late August. Hope we get to see as many interesting creatures on our visit.
Blessings
Diane
How beautiful!!!!!! I would love to visit somewhere like that someday, but somehow, I’m just not seeing it in my future 🙂
Is it just me or are Pacific tide pools better than Atlantic?
Wow…what beautiful photos. We have never explored tide pools, so this was a great treat to see.
Thanks!
gorgeous! thanks for sharing!
I just love seeing your photos of things like this that are SO different from things around here!
Awesome pictures! My children would beg to do nature study every day if we saw creatures like those! Thanks for sharing.
Samantha
Great pictures, Barb! Looks like many of the same critters we have in our tide pools here. Aren’t they just fabulous??!! Tide-pooling is one of our all-time favorite activities. We never tire of it!
Barb, you are so blessed to be able to see these amazing creatures. Isn’t God’s creation amazing? My heart aches to get back to the coast and see more tide pools. I’ve now seen them 3 times and I am just amazed. And, you saw a lot more in one trip than I’ve seen in my 3. Amazing! Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos!
Dana,
We timed this trip to hit the lowest of tides in the month of June. It was worth the extra effort. You can look ahead and see when the low tides will be for best viewing.
Thanks for all the comments.