Sculptured Beach
Point Reyes National Seashore · near Point Reyes Station / Olema · SF Bay Area
Tidepooling
At a glance
- Fee
- Free — Point Reyes has no entrance fee; free Limantour lot
- Season
- Year-round · a committing 2-mi beach walk each way
What is here
- Species
- Ochre stars · Anemone-lined channels · Sculpted sandstone terraces · Harbor seals
- Highlights
- The Terraces
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
- Gear
- Tide chart — non-negotiable here · Grippy wet shoes · Layers for Point Reyes wind · Watch the time; the bluffs give no escape
Tidepooling detail
- Nickname
- Point Reyes' Hidden Terraces
- Pool type
- sandstone
- Program
- self-guided
- Mpa
- National Seashore · Point Reyes SMR/SMCA complex offshore
- Best tide
- Arrive 1 hr before low, leave within 1 hr after — the tide cuts off the return
- Docent note
- NPS seasonal ranger programs; the park's official tidepooling site
- Intl tip
- Point Reyes' backcountry tidepools: 2 mi of beach walking each way from the free Limantour lot. The tide chart is a safety document here, not a suggestion — in by an hour before low, out within an hour after. Families should choose Duxbury Reef instead.
- Directions note
- The return floods against the bluffs on a rising tide — wear a watch and obey it
The guide
Sculptured Beach is the connoisseur's pick of this list — Point Reyes National Seashore's tidepool ground, reached only by a tw…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Sculptured Beach — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.008, -122.854