Tidepooling Adventure

Spring is the time of year when the Oregon Coast has its lowest tides of the year.  I checked a tide table published by the Hatfield Marine Science Center which you can find here: http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/weather/tides/tides.html and was thrilled to see a very low tide on a Saturday during daylight hours, so we made plans to go tidepooling.  Especially because the weekend in question was Memorial Day weekend, I was worried about crowds.  At the OHEN convention, a Hatfield Marine Science Center representative was on hand, and I asked her about my plan to go to Yaquina Head.  She highly recommended Seal Rock instead, because she said it was unlikely to be crowded and would be an easier place for a young child to walk around and see the tidepools without either slipping on rocks or crushing shellfish.  This was a great plan, as the beach was amazing and almost deserted.  It's located only 10 miles south of Newport. There is  more info here on this delightful park:   http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_207.php   We planned our visit to end around the time the tide table indicated the tide would be at its lowest, since we had no idea just how fast it would rise on that particular stretch  of beach.  This also  worked out well, because it rose rather quickly. Jasper loves tidepooling!  It really is astonishing how much life can be found in the tiniest tidepools.  He has learned that if he is patient and gazes for a while, he can spy all sorts of things: tiny flatfish precisely camouflaged to match the sand, snails of all sizes and shapes, things that upon close inspection turn out to be tiny shellfish in the strangest of shapes, crabs no bigger than a fingernail dancing sideways, and plants in alien shapes and colors.  Of course there were fascinating sea anemones and sea stars lurking all over.  Oregon is full of magic!

This is a corner of Seal Rock State Park.  It has a rather large stretch of beach, with literally thousands of tidepools, some large and some no bigger than a puddle.  When we arrived we could hear the joyful barks of seals, but they seemed to be coming from the other end of the park from the most approachable tidepools.  As we were leaving, we thought we would visit them, but they seemed to have vanished.  We were pleasantly surprised to find large numbers of them near the restaurant we picked for lunch.  If you visit, you may get lucky and see the seals at the beach.

What's under a sea star?  Why, tons of tiny sea star toes!

This would make a great math problem: computing the average number of shellfish per square inch.

After the tide began to come in, we headed to Newport to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium http://www.aquarium.org/, and then the Hatfield Marine Science Center http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/.  It turned out to be opening day for the Swampland exhibit at the Aquarium.  I thought the best thing about this exhibit was the alligator swimming in a very picturesque display.  But for the occasion, they brought in a really amazing array of live animals visiting from Brad's World Reptiles.  Kids had many chances to see and interact with all sorts of critters, and even a chance to pet an alligator!  

Jasper loves their jellyfish.  I have loved jellyfish myself ever since I saw a special jellyfish exhibit at the New England Aquarium, years ago.  It was very much like a surreal kinetic art show.  

It was nearly impossible to tear Jasper away from their Touch Pool.  This is one of his most favorite places ever.

We watched them feed a harbor seal.

Octopi fascinate Jasper.  We were delighted to find the octopus in residence at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in an outgoing mood!

Once again it was nearly impossible to tear Jasper away from Hatfield's Touch Pool.