Hiking - Bishop's Beach at a Very Low Tide

Low tide at Bishop's Beach

Stats

Distance:  Up to you                             Difficulty: Easy                                   Time:  Up to you

Summary

Bishop's Beach is probably the best known beach in Homer.  This beach is popular for dog walking, clamming, and driving.  On an unusually beautiful Saturday in May the low tide was lower than -3 ft.  We decided to hike on the beach to see if we could find sea stars.

Opinion

At high tide Bishop's Beach is a fairly ordinary beach, but at low tide it becomes something special.
 As boulders begin to surface and tide pools begin to form all kinds of interesting sea life can be seen.  Best of all is when the tide is really low (-3 ft or more).  Creatures, such as anemones, that are normally never visible are exposed.

Trail Advice

For once, while we will recommend mosquito repellent, it isn’t really necessary, the wind on the beach is almost constant and the mosquitos can’t compete.

Bring a jacket.  The water temperature is typically in the 50s or colder so the wind off the water is quite chilly.  And it is almost always at least a little windy.

Check the tide tables.   This hike cannot be done at high tide and is at its best a low tide.  Pay attention to your surroundings if the tide is coming in.  If you are too far up the beach you could be stranded between the cliff and the bay.

Wear waders.  There are several creeks that empty into the bay and it can be hard to cross them while keeping your feet dry.  Plus you will need to wade to reach many of the tide pools.

Set out 1 or 2 hours before low tide.  This will allow you to go quite far down the beach before you need to head back.

Suitability

This trail is suitable for anyone except wheelchairs.  The sand would make using a wheelchair impossible.  But the beach sand is firm near the water and great fun for children.

Trailhead

To find Bishop's Beach, turn south off Sterling Highway onto Main St.  Follow the signs to Bishop's Beach.  You can also park at Islands and Oceans and take their short boardwalk hike through Beluga Slough and down to Bishop's Beach (maybe 1/4 mile from the parking lot).

The Hike

Weed covered rocks

To reach the tidal pools at low tide you need to head west up the beach about 1 mile (the distance varies depending on how low the tide gets).  At that point the rocks start to stick up out of the sand.  The tidal pools are nestled between seaweed covered boulders and often buried in seaweed.  As a side note, the tidal pools are occasionally mud flats instead of sand, so be careful not to get stuck or lose your shoes. 

Walking on the beach

At first all we saw in the tidal pools was a lot of weed and some small white/brown anemones.  But after we stood and looked for a while we started to see dozens of small fish darting then stopping.  On looking closer we realized that most of these small fish were diamond shaped; it turns out the tidal pools were filled with 1/2 in halibut!  Unfortunately, none of our pictures of the halibut turned out; they are very tricky subjects to photograph.

Anemone just barely underwater

Then, as we walked further, we saw strange red-colored lumps of jelly attached to some of the boulders.  When we looked closer we saw they were large anemones exposed to the air by the low tide.  They had pulled all their arms into themselves and were desperately trying to keep wet until the water returned.

Sea star reflecting in shallow water

Close to the end of our hike, we finally found a couple of the sea stars we had been hoping for.  One was exposed on the sand, the other was buried in weed on top of a rock.  Sea stars in this area can be very colorful I've seen a light yellow, red, brown, purple, and pink so far.

Truck tracks into infinity

But don't just look down.  Watch for people driving trucks on the beach.  And listen and you will hear Bald Eagles twittering overhead, crows and ravens cawing at each other, and gulls crying.  You might see any or all of these on the sand or boulders searching for dinner exposed by the tide.  If the day is particularly windy, the birds can actually hover as the wind cancels out their forward momentum.

I never tire of the beach at low tide and this hike is now one of the hikes we will do whenever the tide is really low.

Google Maps stopped accepting KML files. So from here on out, we'll be putting in a Google Earth map unless we get comments saying something else is needed.