The deepest daylight low left in 2026 at Newport, Oregon is −1.91 ft MLLW at 6:46 AM on Wednesday, August 12, computed from NOAA station 9435380. But this month's best window lands Friday, July 17: a −1.66 ft low at 9:15 AM, workable from about 7:05 to 11:35 AM — and timed, for once, to suit Yaquina Head's 8:00 AM gate. The August dawn run belongs to Otter Rock's Marine Gardens instead.
Newport's two tidepool grounds sit a few miles apart on the coast north of town and obey different clocks. Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area is federal land with an entrance station, posted hours, and the tidepools of Cobble Beach. Otter Rock's Marine Gardens, in the lee of Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area, is an open shore inside Oregon's smallest marine reserve. The reference for both is the tide station at South Beach, NOAA 9435380 — and in 2026 its calendar splits the year's best days between the two shores almost perfectly.
When is the lowest tide at Newport in 2026?
Here are the eight deepest daylight lows remaining in 2026, ranked by depth, with the score that folds tide depth and daylight together. (Computed July 17; the deep mornings earlier this summer have already rotated out.)
| Rank | Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed, Aug 12 | −1.91 | 6:46 AM | 88 |
| 2 | Wed, Dec 23 | −1.91 | 5:53 PM | 61 |
| 3 | Tue, Nov 24 | −1.86 | 6:04 PM | 59 |
| 4 | Thu, Aug 13 | −1.79 | 7:28 AM | 86 |
| 5 | Tue, Aug 11 | −1.76 | 6:00 AM | 78 |
| 6 | Fri, Jul 17 | −1.66 | 9:15 AM | 88 |
| 7 | Tue, Dec 22 | −1.42 | 5:04 PM | 58 |
| 8 | Fri, Aug 14 | −1.38 | 8:06 AM | 83 |
Computed 2026-07-17 from NOAA station 9435380 predictions, MLLW.
The top two rows are a photo finish: −1.913 ft on August 12 against −1.910 ft on December 23 — a difference of 0.003 ft, about a millimeter of water. The calendar settles what the depth can't. August 12's low arrives about half an hour after sunrise with the whole morning ahead of it. December 23's window opens at 3:40 PM and holds roughly 60 minutes of light — putting sunset near 4:40 PM — while the low itself doesn't arrive until 5:53 PM, more than an hour after dark. Same water, one usable, one not; that is the entire reason the score exists.
Notice, too, that the year's two best remaining days tie at 88 for opposite reasons. August 12 trades daylight for depth: the deepest water of the year, with 179 minutes of light. July 17 trades depth for daylight: a shallower −1.66 ft, but 270 daylight minutes — the most of any window in the table, and the only one of the eight that runs entirely in daylight, no alarm required.
The near-term windows: July 17–18, then August 11–15
| Date | Low (ft) | Time of low | Tide window | Arrive by | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Jul 17 | −1.66 | 9:15 AM | 7:05–11:35 AM | 8:15 AM | 88 |
| Sat, Jul 18 | −0.86 | 9:55 AM | 8:00–11:55 AM | 8:55 AM | 77 |
| Fri, Jul 31 | −0.94 | 8:15 AM | 6:20–10:20 AM | 7:15 AM | 74 |
| Tue, Aug 11 | −1.76 | 6:00 AM | 3:45–8:30 AM | 5:00 AM | 78 |
| Wed, Aug 12 | −1.91 | 6:46 AM | 4:30–9:15 AM | 5:46 AM | 88 |
| Thu, Aug 13 | −1.79 | 7:28 AM | 5:20–9:50 AM | 6:28 AM | 86 |
| Fri, Aug 14 | −1.38 | 8:06 AM | 6:05–10:15 AM | 7:06 AM | 83 |
| Sat, Aug 15 | −0.71 | 8:43 AM | 7:00–10:30 AM | 7:43 AM | 74 |
The eight best windows of the next 60 days, computed 2026-07-17 from NOAA station 9435380. Scores (0–100) weigh tide depth and daylight together.
The July pair is the friendly one. Friday the 17th is the month's best day at a very civilized 9:15 AM low, and Saturday the 18th — one of only two weekend days in the table — holds a modest −0.86 ft at 9:55 AM, plenty for a first visit to the Marine Gardens.
The August 11–14 run is the last real dawn series of the year, and as usual it rewards the early alarm unevenly. Tuesday the 11th is deep (−1.76 ft) but its 6:00 AM low comes about 14 minutes before sunrise — around 6:14 AM, derived from the window's daylight minutes — so it scores 78. Wednesday the 12th — deeper by another 0.15 ft, with a low half an hour after sunrise — is the pick of the run; Thursday the 13th is nearly its equal at a slightly kinder hour. If you want to know why every deep summer low on this coast is an early one, the dawn-lows guide unpacks the mechanics; the Oregon coast minus-tide calendar puts Newport beside Garibaldi, Charleston, and Port Orford month by month.
Yaquina Head: do the gate math
Cobble Beach is the marquee tidepool ground at Yaquina Head — the BLM's seasonal-access note simply calls it "Cobble Beach, the tidepools" — but it lives behind an entrance station. The BLM's summer schedule through Labor Day weekend is 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Friday–Sunday and 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday–Thursday; a personal vehicle pass is $7 for 3 days ($15 for 12 months), and bicyclists and walkers get free 1-day passes.
Now put that against the tables above. July 17's low arrives at 9:15 AM — enter at 8:00 and you have the entire falling tide and the low itself inside the gates. But all three deep lows of the August run (6:00, 6:46, 7:28 AM) land before the gate opens; by 8:00 the water is already on its way back. The gate decides for you: work July's late-morning windows at Yaquina Head, and give the August dawn run to Otter Rock, where the shore has no opening time to argue with.
Two more things the BLM wants you to know before you commit the morning. Seasonal wildlife protection can close the main event: "Harbor seal pupping season from mid-May to mid-June and seabird nesting season from May through September may result in limited or no access to Cobble Beach, the tidepools" — which spans this entire summer season, so check access at the entrance station or interpretive center (open 10 AM–4 PM daily) before planning around it. And the rules on the rock are look-only: "Stay well away from wildlife and leave rocks, plants, and shells in place."
Otter Rock: the Marine Gardens and the punchbowl
Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area, at Otter Rock off US 101 north of Newport, is best known for its namesake — Oregon State Parks describes winter water that "slams with a thunderous roar into a hollow rock formation shaped like a huge punch bowl." The tidepooling is the quieter headline. The park's own advice: "Don't forget to explore the tidepools on the north side of the punch bowl!" That rocky cove is the Marine Gardens, and the Otter Rock Marine Reserve — Oregon's smallest at 1.2 square miles, with harvest restrictions since January 1, 2012 — is "accessed through the Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area," per the state's marine reserves program, which adds: "At the north end of the marine reserve you'll find extensive rocky intertidal habitats along the shore." Its rule is five words long: "No take of animals or seaweeds."
Practicalities: a day-use parking permit is required (1-day permits sold on site), and the park's current advisory is blunt — "Parking is limited and is only allowed in parking stalls. Please respect the private property surrounding the park." The lot sits in the small Otter Rock community, so on a deep-low morning, arrive early for the stalls as much as for the tide.
What you'll find in the pools
Newport's recent community observations are a clean sweep: every one of the ten most-reported marine animals within a few kilometers of the station over the last two months is a nudibranch. The Horned Nudibranch (Hermissenda crassicornis) leads by a wide margin, followed by the Monterey Dorid (Doris montereyensis), the White-and-orange-tipped Nudibranch (Antiopella fusca), and the Branched Dendronotid (Dendronotus venustus); the back half of the list runs through the White-lined Dirona (Dirona albolineata), Three-lined Aeolid (Orienthella trilineata), Fisher's Aeolid (Orienthella piunca), Homely Aeolid (Eubranchus rustyus), Humped Ancula Sea Slug (Ancula gibbosa), and Rose-pink Cuthona (Cuthona divae). Finds this small and this soft are what the deepest lows are for — and why the no-take rules matter.
Species reflect recent iNaturalist observations near the station (CC BY-NC, © the individual observers), including divers' reports from deeper water; NOAA is the tide-prediction data source. What you actually see on the rocks depends on the day.
How to work the window
Use the arrive-by column, not the low time: be on the shore about an hour before the low and follow the water out, keeping your exit line in mind as it turns. The BLM's practical advice for the cobbles is worth taking — "Wear non-slip, close-toed shoes in tide pools." These are predictions, not observations; check conditions before you commit to a scramble.
One honesty note: station 9435380 sits at South Beach, inside Yaquina Bay, and its predictions are the standard reference for this stretch of coast. But Yaquina Head and Otter Rock are open-coast shores a few miles north, so the exact minute of low water on those shelves can differ a little from the table — margin the arrive-by column already builds in.
After the morning season ends
From September on, Newport's daylight windows thin fast and the deep water migrates to dusk: −1.86 ft at 6:04 PM on November 24, −1.91 ft at 5:53 PM on December 23 — lows that arrive after sunset, leaving only the last stretch of the falling tide in usable light. The best of the winter bunch is actually January 21, 2027: a −1.73 ft low at 5:39 PM that lands about half an hour after sunset, close enough to catch real depth in the last of the light. Those dusk tides ride the same alignments as king tide season, when winter's highest highs drain to the year's lowest lows a few hours later.
For the full year at a glance, the year heatmap shows the August run standing alone, the trip picker finds multi-day runs automatically, and the August calendar for Newport has every window of the dawn series. Two shores, one gate, and a race for the year's deepest water decided by a millimeter — set the August alarm for the punchbowl, and let Yaquina Head have its lazy Friday.