Explore the Magic of La Jolla Cove Tidepools

While the surfers and boogie boarders relish in high tide, our favorite beach time is when it’s low tide, and the sea creatures that are normally hiding underwater are accessible. There’s something magical about standing on the ocean floor when the ocean…isn’t there!

What are tidepools? Imagine as the ocean retracts, leaving behind the rocky floor with pockets of small “pools” that sea creatures (sea anenomies, sea slugs, hermit crabs, mussels, fish, and so much more) hang out and wait for the ocean to return.

When to go: For the best tidepool experience, you’ll want to check out the local tide chart and go when it’s low tide, particularly a “negative” low tide because sometimes a normal low tide just isn’t low enough! You can look at the tide charts far in advance, so it’s easy to plan when to work this into your itinerary ahead of time.

What to wear: Weather appropriate clothing, but either capri’s, shorts, or pants you can roll up (so they don’t get wet) as well as either water shoes or flip flops. You can wear sneakers for better gripping, but even with the best intentions, be prepared for them to get a little wet. We do not advise going barefoot.

What else you should know: If you combine it with a picnic lunch in the La Jolla Cove it makes for a lovely day. If the low tide is around sunset time, this area is insanely beautiful!

How to get there: On your Maps app, search for “Hospital Point” (kind of weird, I have no idea why they call it that!). We started there and worked our way south. Parking can be a little challenging during high season (spring break, summer, etc) so allocate time to look for parking. Once your Maps app indicates you are there you’ll see an easy staircase down to the beach, and the rest is there to run around and explore!

The first thing that I always admire is the bright green sea grass. Ok, so this isn’t Ireland but it’s pretty amazing how this bright colored goodness sits underwater the majority of the time!

One of our first big (literally and figuratively) finds was this giant black sea slug, just moving his way around probably wondering where the heck his water blanket went.

Seriously, look at this thing.

You come across larger bodies of water with opportunities to see bigger sea creatures. And the fun is figuring out the path to get around to the other side! Sometimes Grant just takes the shortest path and jumps his body in there!

Sydney loves the sea anenomies. Don’t know what they are? Well watching Finding Nemo and you’ll get an idea! They are fun to gently touch on the side and watch them curl up.

We spotted a crab, although not the variety that I was tempted to cook for dinner.

What a find! This beautiful shell with a sea snail right in there. When at the tidepools it’s perfectly OK to pick things up, but we always need to respect nature and put them back so they can thrive. This includes all the empty shells you see! Once these creatures grow out of their current shell, they shed it and look for a bigger shell to make their home. If everyone took the shells home, they would be homeless. And that’s just, not cool.

We’ve visited a lot of tidepools, and the landscape on this one is quite magnificent. It almost looks like you are on another planet, and then you are reminded THIS IS THE OCEAN FLOOR! Trippy!

This was my absolute favorite find of the day, because never have I seen anything like this before! At first I thought it was a piece of plastic with the vibrant colors, until it moved! Turns out this a special kind of sea slug called a Nudibranch. They eat sea anemones and then take the stinging cells and use them for their own protection.

We even discovered ancient fossils.

Hermit crabs are her favorite!

Lucky Chad, he gets to carry all of our belongings! Grant ended up barefoot like him, which I really don’t recommend. Towards the end of our tidepools visit he cut his foot. An open wound on the bottom of your foot and the tidepools really don’t mix.