Pacific Grove's deepest daylight low in 2026 is −1.83 ft MLLW on Thursday, December 24, at 5:06 PM, computed from NOAA's Monterey station 9413450. But the year's easiest great run is right now: July 14, 15, and 16 all bottom out below −1.3 ft between 5:29 and 6:56 AM. There are no gates on this coast — the whole shoreline is protected water, so look but take nothing.
When is the lowest tide in Pacific Grove in 2026?
Tidewindow computes windows for the Pacific Grove reefs — Point Pinos, Asilomar, and Lovers Point — from the nearest NOAA prediction station, Monterey (9413450). Here are the eight deepest daylight lows of 2026, ranked by depth, with the column that tells you how to plan a day: whether the low falls at dawn or at dusk.
| Rank | Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Dawn or dusk? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thu, Dec 24 | −1.83 | 5:06 PM | Dusk |
| 2 | Wed, Dec 23 | −1.73 | 4:19 PM | Dusk |
| 3 | Fri, Dec 25 | −1.71 | 5:53 PM | Dusk |
| 4 | Tue, Jul 14 | −1.70 | 5:29 AM | Dawn |
| 5 | Wed, Jul 15 | −1.59 | 6:14 AM | Dawn |
| 6 | Mon, Jul 13 | −1.58 | 4:43 AM | Dawn |
| 7 | Wed, Nov 25 | −1.53 | 5:18 PM | Dusk |
| 8 | Thu, Nov 26 | −1.52 | 6:09 PM | Dusk |
Computed 2026-07-05 from NOAA station 9413450 predictions.
That one column is the whole rhythm of this shoreline. The five deepest daylight lows of the year split cleanly into two clusters: a July dawn run and a December dusk run, with a November pair bridging them. Nothing in between comes close — the good water either arrives before breakfast or right at sunset, and the moon decides which.
Why does the year split into a dawn run and a dusk run?
Along the central California coast the deepest summer lows land at first light and the deepest winter lows land in late afternoon — the same daylight-timing pattern we explain in detail for the whole Pacific coast. July's best water bottoms out between 4:43 and 6:56 AM; December's between 4:19 and 5:53 PM.
Here is where Pacific Grove differs from a managed reserve like Fitzgerald Marine Reserve up the coast: there are no gate hours to thread. Point Pinos, Asilomar, and Lovers Point are open public shoreline, so a −1.70 ft low at 5:29 AM on July 14 is genuinely yours if you are willing to set an alarm. The constraint here is not the clock on a gate — it is that every inch of this coast is a no-take marine reserve. More on that below.
The December cluster is the year's deepest and it arrives at a civilized hour — the −1.83 ft low on Christmas Eve is workable from about 2:10 PM through the 8:15 PM sunset margin. Those are the same new-moon and full-moon alignments that drive the season's king high tides, so if you track 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 the summer's generous month: 22 lows below +1.0 ft, 15 daylight windows, and 12 daylight minus tides. The catch is that the best of them are pre-dawn. Here are the eight best July days at Monterey station 9413450, chronological, with the arrive-by time (about an hour before the low) and the score.
| Date | Low (ft) | Time of low | Tide window | Arrive by | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Jul 12 | −1.25 | 3:55 AM | 1:10–7:00 AM | 2:55 AM | 64 |
| Mon, Jul 13 | −1.58 | 4:43 AM | 1:50–7:50 AM | 3:43 AM | 69 |
| Tue, Jul 14 | −1.70 | 5:29 AM | 2:40–8:35 AM | 4:29 AM | 79 |
| Wed, Jul 15 | −1.59 | 6:14 AM | 3:30–9:15 AM | 5:14 AM | 81 |
| Thu, Jul 16 | −1.28 | 6:56 AM | 4:20–9:45 AM | 5:56 AM | 75 |
| Fri, Jul 17 | −0.78 | 7:37 AM | 5:10–10:10 AM | 6:37 AM | 70 |
| Sat, Jul 18 | −0.14 | 8:17 AM | 6:15–10:20 AM | 7:17 AM | 62 |
| Fri, Jul 31 | −0.29 | 6:36 AM | 4:25–8:55 AM | 5:36 AM | 57 |
Computed 2026-07-05 from NOAA station 9413450 predictions. Scores (0–100) weigh tide depth and daylight together.
The sweet spot is the 15th and 16th. July 14 pulls back the farthest (−1.70 ft), but its low is at 5:29 AM, only minutes after the sky begins to lighten. By the 15th the low has drifted to 6:14 AM — deep enough at −1.59 ft, and now with real light on the rocks (its score of 81 is the month's best). The 16th, at −1.28 ft and 6:56 AM, gives you the most comfortable morning of the run. This same California window is the subject of the current West Coast minus-tide roundup, which compares it against Pillar Point and the Oregon coast.
If dawn is not your hour, note that the 15th and 16th also line up with sunrise for photographers — the golden-hour tool shows the overlap. After July the summer supply thins fast: August drops to 5 daylight minus tides, and September to zero as the lows slide into the middle of the night. The good water does not return until the November–December dusk run.
What will you actually see out there?
Pacific Grove is nudibranch country, and the recent record shows it. In the last 60 days, the six most-logged species within 5 km of station 9413450 were all sea slugs: Hopkins' rose nudibranch (47 observations), Spanish shawl (41), opalescent nudibranch (41), Monterey dorid (30), noble dorid (25), and white-speckled dorid (24). The first non-slug on the list is the black turban snail (20), followed by the gumboot chiton (19). Tallied 2026-07-05 by the Tidewindow pipeline from iNaturalist (CC BY-NC, © the observers).
Look, don't take — and here that is not a courtesy, it is the law along the entire shoreline. Three connected marine protected areas cover these reefs, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife language is the same for the two reserves: it is "unlawful to injure, damage, take, or possess any living, geological, or cultural marine resource." That means no pocketing shells, no prying limpets, no lifting a rock and walking off with what is under it.
Where do you go, and what are the rules?
The three spots this station covers, north to south, each sit in a different piece of the protected network:
- Point Pinos — the wide, wave-cut reef at the tip of the peninsula, inside the Pacific Grove Marine Gardens State Marine Conservation Area. Per CDFW, take of all living marine resources is prohibited here except recreational finfish fishing and hand harvest of giant and bull kelp. For tidepool watching, the rule is the same as everywhere on this coast: leave it where it is.
- Asilomar — the rocky coastline off Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove, inside the Asilomar State Marine Reserve, a full no-take reserve. California State Parks: "No collecting or fishing is allowed." Parking is adjacent to the beach along Sunset Drive; dogs are allowed on leash on the beach and trails, but there are no restrooms on the state beach itself.
- Lovers Point — inside the Lovers Point–Julia Platt State Marine Reserve, also fully no-take. Diving, kayaking, and tidepool watching are welcome; removing any marine resource is not.
Across all three, CDFW's reserve rule governs: injure, damage, take, or possess nothing. And the ocean rule governs too — never turn your back on the water on the outer rocks; a sneaker wave can arrive on a calm day.
How are these windows computed?
Monterey's NOAA station (9413450) publishes predicted highs and lows; Tidewindow reconstructs the curve between them by hourly interpolation, so the low heights and times are NOAA's own and the window edges (rounded to 5 minutes) are estimates. 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 at this station, and the Trip Picker filters for weekends — handy for a shoreline where the deepest summer water lands on a Tuesday dawn and the deepest winter water on Christmas Eve.