La Jolla Tide Pools: The Best Dates of 2026, Ranked

La Jolla's deepest remaining qualifying low of 2026 is −1.878 ft at 3:47 PM on December 24; December 25 has the highest remaining window score, 90/100. These are NOAA station 9410230 predictions, not confirmed beach conditions. Qualifying windows overlap daylight by at least 30 minutes, but their lows can fall after sunset: November 26 and December 26 do. Use the dates to compare predictions, not as proof that a whole outing will be in daylight.

Which remaining 2026 dates are worth planning around?

Rank the remaining September 28–December 31 windows with at least 30 minutes of daylight overlap by low-tide depth, and the top eight all fall in November or December. "Daylight in window" means overlap between the modeled below-+1.0-ft interval and sunrise-to-sunset daylight; it does not mean the low itself, or the entire window, is in daylight.

Computed from NOAA station 9410230 predictions; re-verified 2026-09-28, unchanged since the 2026-08-18 edition.

The depths cluster tight while the light varies a lot. December 22's surrounding window contains 317 daylight minutes, more than five hours. December 26's window contains 130 daylight minutes before its 5:18 PM low, which follows the 4:49 PM sunset. November 26's 4:46 PM low also follows sunset, at 4:43 PM. December 25 carries the only Exceptional score remaining, 90/100: a −1.715 ft low at 4:33 PM and a modeled 1:45–7:40 PM window containing 184 daylight minutes. The scorer weighs depth, daylight overlap and calendar factors; the higher score is not a judgment of shore access or safety.

For the record book: the historical July 13–17 predictions reached −1.63 ft at 4:12 AM on Tuesday, July 14. These are predictions, not a claim that observed water matched them. The remaining season still includes dark lows: eight of the 34 qualifying minus-tide windows from September 28 through December 31 have their low after sunset. Daylight overlap is not a recommendation for a nighttime outing.

Looking past New Year's, January 21, 2027 has a predicted −1.894 ft low at 2:48 PM, the deepest qualifying low in the October 2026–March 2027 window dataset; the 2026–2027 king tide calendar tracks that whole stretch.

How does the rest of 2026 look?

The short version: a quiet close to September, then a very good winter. August ended with 23 lows below +1.0 ft and just two daylight minus tides, both dawn affairs, and September — the trap month — converts none of its 29 sub-+1.0-ft lows into a daylight minus tide: every negative low lands in the dark.

Computed 2026-09-28 from NOAA station 9410230 predictions; complete calendar months. Modeled windows are resolved below-+1.0-ft intervals, not every predicted low below that threshold. November has 30 such predicted lows but 28 modeled windows; December has 26 but 25. Brief or unresolved dips can be omitted by the model. September's highest-scoring window, Sep 27, is past; later positive-height windows remain.

The pattern flips in October as the good lows migrate to afternoon, and by December there are 16 daylight minus tides in one month.

Near-term, the season is finally turning. September's best window — +0.218 ft at 4:17 PM on Sunday, September 27, score 55 — has come and gone. Saturday–Monday, October 10–12 brings three near-zero afternoon lows (scores 58–59, all Fair); Sunday, October 11's −0.064 ft at 4:27 PM is the first remaining qualifying minus-tide window. The first Good-rated window arrives Sunday, October 25 — −0.366 ft at 3:27 PM, score 65 — opening five consecutive dates with qualifying minus-tide windows through October 29. The final low in that run is after sunset. The October calendar for this station lists all 14 of that month's daylight-overlap windows, and the golden hour tool computes light overlap as the lows drift toward sunset. From there the calendar builds toward the Thanksgiving dates in the table above.

What are observers finding right now?

Every one of the ten most-logged species within 5 km of the station over the past 60 days is still a sea slug — 197 iNaturalist observations, with nothing else cracking the top ten. Logging has slowed with the season (the same list held 538 observations in mid-August), but Hamann's aeolid keeps the lead it took over the summer, now by nearly three to one over the runner-up — which is once again Sorcerer's dorid, early July's original front-runner.

Compiled 2026-09-28 from iNaturalist observations within 5 km of NOAA station 9410230, previous 60 days.

Further down the same list sit the cockscomb and opalescent nudibranchs (13 observations each), Hedgpeth's dorid (12), and the two-spotted dorid and Olive's aeolid (10 each). Sea slugs are among the animals visitors regularly report on the reef at Hospitals, along with anemones, crabs, limpets, and urchins. The practical translation of a list like this: walk slowly and give each pool a full minute before moving on.

Shell Beach, Hospitals Reef, or False Point?

Shell Beach (by La Jolla Cove). Take the concrete stairway marked "Shell Beach" at the south end of Ellen Browning Scripps Park, near 1000 Coast Boulevard; street parking runs along Coast Boulevard. Expect to pick your way over boulders at the base of the stairs before you reach sand. The beach is small, and visitors are blunt that there is little to see unless the tide is well out — which makes this the spot most sensitive to the dates above. Come on a real minus or skip it.

Hospitals Reef. Off Coast Boulevard below the small grass strip of Coast Boulevard Park, where a flat rocky shelf dotted with small, round pools uncovers at low tide (these circular pools are the ones all over Instagram). Street parking on the surrounding blocks. The shelf shows at ordinary lows; the −1.5 ft days expose the most of it.

False Point (Bird Rock). Reached by a short path near Sea Ridge Drive and Linda Way, with residential street parking. The footing is loose, slick rock, and visitor guides consistently flag it as a poor choice for small children. This shoreline sits within the South La Jolla marine protected area, whose rules are below.

What are the rules, and what about footing?

Two of the three spots sit against no-take marine reserves. La Jolla Cove lies within Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve, and the state lists Bird Rock and False Point within the South La Jolla MPA; in both reserves, per the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, "it is unlawful to injure, damage, take, or possess any living, geological, or cultural marine resource." Geological resource means the shells and rocks too, not just the animals. The simple policy that works everywhere on this coast: take photographs, leave the rest.

For footing and waves, see the National Park Service's Cabrillo tidepool guidance. Its site-specific timing guidance is not a La Jolla access schedule. The Tide Window Finder calculates below-+1.0-ft windows and an arrive-by offset one hour before each low; these can extend outside daylight and do not establish opening hours or safe route durations. The methodology page explains the calculation.

For the station's rolling window forecast, including the December run, see the La Jolla station page. December 25 leads the remaining 2026 scores at 90 with a −1.715 ft low; that ranking does not confirm access on a holiday.