The lowest tide you can stand in at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve during posted hours in 2026 is −1.86 ft MLLW on Wednesday, December 23, at 4:22 PM, computed from NOAA's Pillar Point Harbor station 9414131. The year's deepest daylight low (−1.90 ft, December 24) bottoms out ten minutes after the reserve's 5 PM winter close, and July's deepest (−1.79 ft, July 14) hits at 5:33 AM, nearly two and a half hours before the 8 AM gate.
When is the lowest tide at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in 2026?
Tidewindow computes windows for the Moss Beach reef from the nearest NOAA prediction station, Pillar Point Harbor (9414131) in Half Moon Bay. Here are the eight deepest daylight lows of 2026, ranked by depth, with one column the tide chart never shows you: whether the moment of low water falls inside the reserve's posted hours.
| Rank | Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Low inside posted hours? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thu, Dec 24 | −1.90 | 5:10 PM | No — 10 min after the 5 PM close |
| 2 | Wed, Dec 23 | −1.86 | 4:22 PM | Yes — 38 min before close |
| 3 | Tue, Jul 14 | −1.79 | 5:33 AM | No — 2 h 27 min before the 8 AM open |
| 4 | Wed, Nov 25 | −1.77 | 5:20 PM | No — 20 min after close |
| 5 | Mon, Jul 13 | −1.72 | 4:45 AM | No — 3 h 15 min before open |
| 6 | Fri, Dec 25 | −1.72 | 5:58 PM | No — 58 min after close |
| 7 | Thu, Nov 26 | −1.68 | 6:12 PM | No — 1 h 12 min after close |
| 8 | Tue, Nov 24 | −1.64 | 4:31 PM | Yes — 29 min before close |
Computed 2026-07-03 from NOAA station 9414131 predictions; hours per San Mateo County Parks.
Two of eight. That is the whole story of this reserve in one column. San Mateo County Parks opens Fitzgerald at 8:00 AM every day of the year, holidays included, and closes it on a seasonal schedule: 8:00 PM from April through August, stepping down to 5:00 PM from November 2 through February.
Why do the gate hours beat the tide table here?
Look at where the deep lows land. The July cluster bottoms out between 4:45 and 5:33 AM — dawn events, hours before the gate. The November and December cluster bottoms out between 4:22 and 6:12 PM, right as the winter close arrives. The moon does not consult the county.
The days that thread the needle are worth circling. December 23 gives you the window from 1:30 PM until the 5:00 PM close — about 3.5 hours — with the −1.86 ft low itself at 4:22 PM. November 24 is nearly as good: −1.64 ft at 4:31 PM, with roughly 3 h 15 min of usable window after 1:45 PM. These are the same new- and full-moon alignments that produce the season's king high tides, so if you're tracking those, the 2026–2027 king tide calendar covers the other end of the same curve.
What is the July 2026 low-tide schedule?
July is generous by the numbers: 24 lows below +1.0 ft, 17 daylight windows, 14 of them minus tides — tied with December for the best month in the back half of 2026. But the gate trims it. Here are the eight best July days, with the part of the tide window that survives the 8:00 AM opening.
| Date | Low (ft) | Time of low | Tide window | Window after gates open | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Jul 3 | −0.37 | 7:48 AM | 5:25–10:20 AM | 2 h 20 min | 66 |
| Sat, Jul 4 | −0.05 | 8:18 AM | 6:10–10:30 AM | 2 h 30 min | 60 |
| Sun, Jul 12 | −1.41 | 3:56 AM | 1:10–7:05 AM | none | 68 |
| Mon, Jul 13 | −1.72 | 4:45 AM | 1:55–8:00 AM | none | 73 |
| Tue, Jul 14 | −1.79 | 5:33 AM | 2:45–8:45 AM | 45 min | 82 |
| Wed, Jul 15 | −1.63 | 6:19 AM | 3:35–9:20 AM | 1 h 20 min | 82 |
| Thu, Jul 16 | −1.26 | 7:04 AM | 4:30–9:50 AM | 1 h 50 min | 74 |
| Fri, Jul 17 | −0.72 | 7:45 AM | 5:25–10:10 AM | 2 h 10 min | 68 |
Computed 2026-07-03 from NOAA station 9414131 predictions. Scores (0–100) weigh tide depth and daylight only — they don't know about gates, which is why July 13 scores a 73 while offering zero minutes inside the reserve.
The practical July picks are the 15th through the 17th: shallower than the 14th, but with 80 to 130 minutes of workable water after the gate opens. And this holiday weekend has a quiet consolation prize — July 4's low is a barely-there −0.05 ft, but it arrives at 8:18 AM, eighteen minutes after opening, the rare morning when the county and the moon agree. Full day-by-day grids are on the July 2026 calendar for this station.
After July, the supply thins: August has 4 daylight minus tides (its best window isn't even negative — +0.10 ft on Saturday, August 1, at 7:10 AM), and September bottoms out at 3 as the good lows migrate to evening. October begins the recovery with 9, including a Sunday, October 25 low of −0.52 ft at 4:59 PM that fits entirely inside the 6 PM October close. November brings 12 and December 14.
What will you actually see out there?
The recent observation record near this station is a nudibranch parade. In the last 60 days, the five most-logged species within 5 km of station 9414131 were all sea slugs: opalescent nudibranch (126 observations), spotted dorid (80), Hopkins' rose nudibranch (68), Hilton's aeolid (57), and stubby dendronotid (52), with the gumboot chiton (46) the first non-slug on the list. Tallied 2026-07-03 by the Tidewindow pipeline.
Look, don't touch. County regulations are explicit: observe marine life "by looking only," don't handle animals or place them in containers even briefly, don't remove shells, vegetation, rocks, or marine life, and watch your step around barnacles, anemones, and mussels. The reserve sits within the Montara State Marine Reserve, where the take of all living marine resources is prohibited — no fishing anywhere in the reserve.
What are the hours, rules, and parking?
Per San Mateo County Parks and the Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve:
- Hours: opens 8:00 AM daily year-round; closes 8:00 PM April–August, tapering to 5:00 PM from November 2 through February. Hours can change for weather or emergencies.
- Cost: none — no charge for individual admission or parking.
- Parking: the lot is on Lake Street between California and Nevada Streets; the reserve address is 200 Nevada Ave, Moss Beach.
- Groups: fewer than 15 people, no reservation needed; 15 or more require a reservation (no fee).
- Dogs: not allowed at the tidepools; permitted on the Coastal Trail only.
On safety, the Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve put it plainly: "never turn your back on the ocean when you are out on the rocks – a big wave can come along any time!" Their rule of thumb matches our arrive-by math — pools are workable for at least an hour either side of the low, stretching to two or more on negative tides.
How are these windows computed?
Station 9414131's published harmonic constituents are thin by NOAA standards — the agency's constituent notes describe them as the average of three 29-day analyses, with the two seasonal constituents borrowed from San Francisco (station 9414290). Tidewindow takes NOAA's predicted highs and lows for the station and reconstructs the curve between them by cosine interpolation, so window edges (rounded to 5 minutes) are estimates; the low heights and times are NOAA's own. These are astronomical predictions, not observations — the full formula set is on the methodology page.
To turn any of these dates into a plan, the Tide Window Finder gives arrive-by times for every upcoming window, and the Trip Picker filters for weekends — useful at a reserve where only 2 of the year's 8 deepest daylight lows fit inside the gates.