It was rainy this past Saturday, the sun was shining brightly on Sunday, and today (Monday), its gray and rainy again!
It works out perfectly that the day that we planned on going to Malibu to visit the tidepools landed on a sunny and warm day.
Visiting tidepools is one of those things I've been wanting to do for quite some time now, but I never really knew where to go and when to go. Both are kind of key in successfully observing the sea creatures that are only visible at low tide.
We discovered that there is an area in Malibu called Point Dume State Beach that has tidepools! We also discovered this site that tells you when the low tide is for each day.
It worked out so perfectly that the lowest tide of the month (-1.4 ft) occurred this weekend during the afternoon!
I have to admit, whenever I go looking for something nature-y, I always get so nervous. The reason why is because when searching for something like, a tidepool, or a hiking trail, or a rare green sand beach, there is no address!! You can't just simply punch in the address into your GPS or into Google Maps and have lovely step-by-step directions pop-up with the estimated time.
Instead, you usually have to follow non-descriptive directions that you find on some random website, such as "Walk on the path to the left of the tree. Walk until you see some rocks, then scale down the side of the cliff to your destination". Great... because, you know... in nature, there aren't a million trees, rocks and cliffs!
My nervousness is from a combination of both: the fear of disappointment in not finding my destination and getting terribly lost somewhere in nature and never getting rescued.
((I hope to document the instructions on how to get to the tidepools in a somewhat understandable manner in this blog entry so I don't lead future tidepool searchers astray!))
Nervously, we headed out to Malibu on Sunday for brunch and to find these tidepools.
We had brunch at a small cafe called "Godmother's Cafe" tucked away inside the Malibu Racket Club.
We were seated outdoors under the warm sun.
It felt great to defrost under the sun since I've been sick with a cold and cooped up inside my frigid house.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
To get to Point Dume State Beach, we took Pacific Coast Highway northbound.
It's actually hard to miss Point Dume when driving up PCH because it's that giant peninsula jutting into the water. hehe. =)
From PCH, we turned left at the street "Westward Beach Rd" and continued following that street all the way to when the road dead ends into the paid parking lot.
Normally, we would find street parking to avoid paying but since I am 7 months pregnant, we decided to save my energy for the tidepools. =)
When we tried to pay for our parking spot (it's a machine-operated Park & Pay lot), the machine was broken! Rather than walking to the other end of the parking lot to use that pay machine, Jeff decided to "risk it" and not pay!
A 3rd worry to add to my nervousness!
I changed into my sneakers (be sure to wear sneakers, since both the hiking trail and the tidepool is full of sharp rocks!), and headed south towards Point Dume.
I actually did not know that a hike was required to get to the tidepools!! I thought you just parked your car and walk to the shore.
Only sandy beaches and the Point Dume bluff was in sight:
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
So we took the hike trailing on the left in hopes of getting to the other side of the bluff.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
The view of the beach from the hiking trail on this sunny January day was so lovely.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
After a few minutes of following the ascending trail, I found myself in a sea of (not water!) but yellow daisies.
Nervousness set in again.
I'm not going to find the tidepools, am I?
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
After huffing and puffing (pregnancy really put me out of shape!), we reached the apex of the hiking trail and realized that the only way to get to the top of the Point Dune bluff, was to jump over the rope fence, go off trail, and stomp on the plants.
I am not that evil. But those folks you see goofing off at the top of Point Dune are.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Following the hiking trail, we got a good view of the south side of Point Dune State Beach. Notice that the rocky hiking trail turned into a boardwalk?
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
The boardwalk leads to a "Viewing Platform", which has benches for people to take a break and take in the view.
Realizing how high off the ground we were, we weren't sure if we were going the correct way to the tidepools (especially since we have been hiking for at least 20 minutes already!).
Jeff asked a woman there, if she knew anything about the tidepools. After a really long round-about answer, her answer was essentially "no".
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
We decided to continue heading south on the boardwalk, which eventually turned into a damn rocky hiking trail again. (The rocks seem really unsafe!).
After several minutes, just when I thought that we will never find the tidepools...
THERE IT IS! IN THE DISTANCE!!
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
I was feeling a lot less nervous.
We finally stumbled upon this sign, which confirmed that we were on the right track!
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
The trail ends at the top of a steep flight of disintegrating stairs. Must be due to the salt water during high tide.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
The guy at the top of the stairs told me to "be careful", since I'm super pregnant and all. How sweet.
(I also got other remarks during the hike, such as "omg, look at her!" What? Never seen a non-sedentary pregnant woman before?)
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
We finally made it!
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Hello cutie starfish.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Gross! Barnacles!! and maybe some limpets too?
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Jeff with some sea anemone and starfish
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Red sea grass? It's quite pretty.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
I believe that majestic looking bird is a white heron
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Red starfish
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
View of the tidepools with Point Dune in the back
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Long green sea grass!
Looks like a green version of Marbles' butt.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
What are these mushroom-looking creatures called?
This one is encrusted in sea shells! Poor thing.
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Finish off the adventure with a picture of us two <3
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| From Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
Overall, I had a really great time.
(Of course, our impromptu hike caused us to be late for our Chinese New Years dinner with the family).
The hike was great exercise, the tidepools was a success, AND we parked for free! (Remember we were too lazy to find a working parking machine? hehe).
View my entire photo album here:
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| Point Dume - Malibu, CA |
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