Late-morning weekend lows are the whole game for tidepooling with kids, and the best one left in 2026 is Sunday, July 12: a −3.2 ft low at 9:40 AM at Seattle, NOAA station 9447130, with a working window from 7:15 AM to 12:10 PM. Across the ten West Coast stations in our July–December fact sheets, only 8 of 56 best-of-month windows land on a weekend or holiday and score 80 or better.
All tide figures below computed 2026-07-03 from NOAA harmonic predictions at the stations named.
What makes a tide window kid-friendly?
The adult version of tidepooling optimizes for one number: find the lowest low of the year, set an alarm. The kid version optimizes for everything else. Four things need to line up:
- A weekend or holiday. Obvious, and the binding constraint — it eliminates most of the calendar before you look at a single height.
- A mid-to-late-morning low. Everyone is fed, sunblocked, and hours from naptime, and the whole window sits in full daylight.
- A long window. Kids move at anemone speed. The July 12 Seattle window runs 295 minutes; you'll use them.
- A genuinely low low. Below 0.0 ft MLLW at minimum; below −1 ft is where the good exposure starts.
The scoring on this site already weighs all four, which is why the ranking sometimes disagrees with the raw tide table. Seattle's deepest low of the season is −3.8 ft at 11:20 AM on Tuesday, July 14 — a spectacular tide that scores 90. Two days earlier, Sunday, July 12 is about six-tenths of a foot shallower at −3.2 ft, and scores 100. The Sunday wins because it's a Sunday. That is exactly the trade a family should make, and the trip picker makes it automatically; the methodology page shows the arithmetic.
The counterexample is instructive. La Jolla's best July 2026 window is Wednesday the 15th: −1.5 ft at 4:54 AM, arrive by 3:54 AM. An arrive-by of 3:54 AM is a birding trip, not a family outing.
Computed 2026-07-03 from NOAA predictions at stations 9447130 and 9410230.
Where are the best 2026 weekend windows, region by region?
Here are the top weekend and holiday windows from our July–December fact sheets, one or two per region:
| Region | Date | Station (NOAA id) | Low | Window | Arrive by | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Puget Sound | Sun, Jul 12 | Seattle (9447130) | −3.2 ft at 9:40 AM | 7:15 AM–12:10 PM | 8:40 AM | 100 |
| Puget Sound | Sun, Aug 9 | Port Townsend (9444900) | −2.0 ft at 7:38 AM | 5:00 AM–10:50 AM | 6:38 AM | 100 |
| Oregon | Sun, Oct 25 | Newport (9435380) | −0.8 ft at 6:37 PM | 4:50 PM–8:30 PM | 5:37 PM | 56 |
| N. California | Sun, Oct 25 | Pillar Point (9414131) | −0.5 ft at 4:59 PM | 2:50 PM–7:15 PM | 3:59 PM | 68 |
| N. California | Fri, Dec 25 | Monterey (9413450) | −1.7 ft at 5:53 PM | 3:00 PM–9:00 PM | 4:53 PM | 79 |
| S. California | Thu, Nov 26 | La Jolla (9410230) | −1.4 ft at 4:46 PM | 2:00 PM–7:55 PM | 3:46 PM | 82 |
| S. California | Fri, Dec 25 | La Jolla (9410230) | −1.7 ft at 4:33 PM | 1:45 PM–7:40 PM | 3:33 PM | 90 |
Computed 2026-07-03 from NOAA predictions at stations 9447130, 9444900, 9435380, 9414131, 9413450, and 9410230; selected from each month's best window plus each station's deepest-low list.
Puget Sound is the family jackpot. The July 11–12 weekend scores 100 four separate times across the two stations: Saturday brings −2.3 ft at 8:49 AM to Seattle and −2.4 ft at 7:58 AM to Port Townsend, then Sunday goes deeper still. If one kid melts down Saturday, Sunday is a full do-over. Seattle logs 18 daylight minus tides in July 2026 alone — the Seattle station guide lists every one. Sunday, August 9 offers an encore: −1.9 ft at Seattle (score 98) and −2.0 ft at Port Townsend (score 100). Of the 10 weekend-or-holiday windows scoring 80+ in the whole fact set, 7 are in Washington.
Oregon runs midweek in 2026. Newport bottoms out at −2.5 ft on both Tuesday, July 14 (7:04 AM) and Wednesday, July 15 (7:50 AM) — exceptional tides on workdays. School's out in July; if a parent can take one too, that's the play. The lone weekend entry, Sunday, October 25 at 6:37 PM, is a Fair-band window that ends at dusk. Zero Oregon weekend windows in the fact set score 80 or better.
California splits by season. Summer weekend lows up north are shallow and early — Monterey's Saturday, August 1 low is 0.0 ft at 7:04 AM, score 57. Pillar Point's Sunday, October 25 afternoon (−0.5 ft, score 68) is the best northern weekend before the holidays, and Monterey tops it on Christmas Day with a −1.7 ft low at 5:53 PM, score 79. The south gets paid at the holidays: La Jolla has a −1.4 ft low on Thanksgiving afternoon and a −1.7 ft low at 4:33 PM on Christmas Day, the only Exceptional-band weekend-or-holiday window in the California sheet. San Diego's Cabrillo station (9410170) shows −1.7 ft at 4:36 PM that same Christmas afternoon, score 89.
Computed 2026-07-03 from NOAA predictions at stations 9447130, 9444900, 9435380, 9413450, 9414131, 9410230, and 9410170.
What goes in the bag?
Short list, learned the damp way:
- Closed-toe shoes with grippy soles, for everyone. The National Park Service at Cabrillo National Monument strongly discourages sandals and flip-flops; Olympic National Park suggests sturdy shoes you don't mind getting wet.
- A full change of clothes per kid, left in the car. Not because someone might sit in a tidepool.
- The window, written down. Date, low height and time, arrive-by time. Phone service is not a coastal guarantee.
- Water, snacks, sun protection. A 295-minute window outlasts most snack supplies.
- A trash bag. Olympic National Park asks visitors to pack out any litter they find.
- Nothing from Cabrillo's prohibited list: no buckets or cups, no nets, no prying or probing tools. If it can scrape an animal off a rock, it stays home.
What are the rules once you're on the rocks?
All of the following comes from the National Park Service — Cabrillo National Monument's tidepool guidance and Olympic National Park's tidepooling page (both linked in sources):
- The eyeball rule. Cabrillo's guideline is to touch animals "only as gently as you would touch your own eyeball." It is the single best sentence ever written for teaching a six-year-old restraint.
- Nothing comes home. Cabrillo prohibits collecting any natural item, "including living and dead organisms, shells or rocks." The empty shell counts.
- No prying. Olympic warns that forcing an animal off its spot can tear off its feet or squeeze its organs. If it resists, it stays.
- Rocks go back exactly as found. Peek under a rock, then return it to its original position and orientation.
- Step on bare rock. It's less slippery than algae-covered rock, and you avoid crushing the residents. Olympic's rule: do not leap from rock to rock; keep one foot on the ground.
- Keep small children close. Both parks say it plainly — Cabrillo notes that a kid's enthusiasm "can quickly translate into a slip or tumble."
How do you time the day?
Every window in the table lists an arrive-by time computed one hour before the predicted low; Olympic National Park's own guidance is to reach the beach trailhead at least 30 minutes before the lowest tide. Arrive early, follow the water out, and keep an eye seaward throughout: Olympic's page says to watch closely for the returning tide and "sneaker waves."
The Tide Window Finder lists the arrive-by time for every upcoming window at all twelve stations. July 12 is a Sunday and it scores 100. Pack the bag the night before.