The new moon week of good tides continued with a -0.7 tide on Friday July 17 at 6:45am. My friend Paige and I set out from Arroyo Quemada Lane between Refugio and Gaviota. This involves a tricky left turn off the freeway 2 miles north of Refugio State Beach. (If you immediately reach a gate, you are on the wrong end of the lane.) It is a very bumpy, poorly kept road that ends in a gate. About 600 feet before the gate, there is a large gravel parking area. After crossing the railroad tracks, there is a path off to the left that descends steeply down the bluff to the beach at the beach wall. Paige had hiking shoes and was better off!
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| Path down to the beach |
Once on the beach, we headed for Refugio State Beach. In this week of heat, the temperature was perfect. There is so much beach when the tide is this low. There wasn't much tar, seaweed or rocks on this stretch. It is pretty incredible to contemplate how much concrete it took to make these walls and the logistics in getting it all down to the beach.
The tidepools are incredible at these low tides along these beaches above Goleta because there are less human impact. We saw lots of birds but few people.
Thanks to Paige for walking this section with me! It was 2.5 miles of unique beach--61 km (38.2 miles) down!
