Luffenholtz Beach and Houda Point

Trinidad Coastal Land Trust

Click for map.


The tide would hit a low of 0.1 feet (not so great, but not so bad) around 4PM, so I was aiming at the afternoon for the beach to see the tide pools. First up, Luffenholtz Beach (dark orange upper track on the map). There's supposed to be tide pools and it certainly looks a bit rocky.

A sign marks the steps down to the beach with Luffenholtz Creek pouring through the middle of it.

Looking back at Trinidad Head. The beach certainly looks rocky enough for a few tide pools.

I headed down the steps and swung to the left since the alternative was crossing the significant water pouring across the sand as Luffenholtz Creek. The beach doesn't go very far that way before ending in the rocky discards of Houda Point. There's plenty of places for things to cling with all those rocks, but pools were few, shallow, and sandy. I wasn't seeing much in them although I did catch a fish zipping away as I approached one.

Luffenholtz Creek rushes to mix with the salt of the Pacific Ocean.

The beach ends in rocks, then cliffs.

Maybe four different sorts of limpets (or one that varies a lot, but there's this and this) and a couple snails and barnacles, even on the limpets, and kelps and that stuff that looks like more rock but isn't all hanging on to the rocks.

I poked around a big rock studded all over with mussels, big ones toward the bottom and getting smaller on the way up. Once I got past looking at the rock itself and started focusing on the surface, I spotted the stars of the intertidal zone.

The easiest starfish to find are the ones in the fairly empty space around the bottom two feet of rock.

Some of the starfish are quite hard to notice tucked away among the mussels.

I headed back to cross over the creek. High enough up, it was possible to cross on boulders and logs, although it required balancing across surprisingly long log sections to do it.

That's a lot of water thundering past the bare willows in this little creek.

Many people crossed before me.

I headed again to the high tide covered areas of another big rock. These rocks on the beach at low tide are partly covered at high tide. Does that make them part of the California Coastal National Monument? I found more starfish, clustered so thickly they were on top of each other. I finally found sea anemones bigger than a quarter, and some of there were huge. They were also closed up into dark blobs decorated with broken shells.

These light colored blobs between some sea anemones and limpets are apparently snail eggs.

Thatched barnacles like little volcanoes with a monster within. They're more impressive feeding when the feathery lava spews.

No doubt about it, that is an island in the high tide.

A few of the starfish and a couple giant anemones nearly closed up.

I wandered a little more where the more usual tide pools of depressions in rocky areas. It's rather hard to travel around there, although many have and the tops of the rocks tend to be clear. The pools didn't have much in them and were a bit cloudy if they had any depth.

Looking back toward Tepona Point.

These sea anemones are pretty even when closed up with their green skin.

More pools among the rocks.

The snails in the kelp vanish as they become deeper.

Then I noticed I was looking and not seeing again. As I watched snails in the murky pool, one of them got up and started walking around. Then more and more. They were nearly all hermit crabs, little claws working away at the kelp, feet and eyes extended.

This turban has legs and antennae sticking out. The one up to the left is feeding. The one down to the left has antennae too.

I headed back, crossing the creek a little further down, which required more rock climbing than the spot I used the first time. This beach is considered a fishing beach and a few had arrived who were actually out to partake in that activity. Mostly, people were just looking around the pools or relaxing.

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Next I headed to Houda Point Beach (light orange lower track on the map). This one gets a bit more traffic and I found a fellow painting at the top of the steps and a frequent flow of surfers up and down. It is the surfing beach and they beat a consistent path down the steps and across the beach.

Getting that first overview of the majority of the beach by Houda Point on the left. That little dot at the edge of the water is carrying a board and will probably spend the next few hours on the water left of the large islands.

The path drops down via those steps and splits at the low point. The surfers all head down the north steps. The steps down the south side look nice too. I continued along the spine of land as the path climbs again onto the point itself. I took the spur up to a high point and lookout.

The view to the south from Houda Point has a small beach before some impassible rocks that divide it from the large beach of Moonstone, Little River, and Clam Beach.

The view to the north from Houda Point has a little more beach before ending at Tepona Point. Oh, and there's Trinidad Head.

I continued along the trail, which continued down the southwest side of the point until becoming a rocky mess. I clambered down the groove in the rocks without too much trouble, but it really gets sketchy at the bottom. I probably should have gone back up and taken those nice steps down the south side instead as I then turned to the nearly empty beach to the south. At high tide, it is Houda Cove.

Houda Cove at low tide is a rippled, flat expanse of sand.

A little bird watching instead of tide pooling. These oystercatchers were poking around the rocks, but didn't seem to be finding much.

At the south end of the beach and looking back to Houda Point and Camel Rock. Also, the one other person (and dog) on that part of the beach.

I got a shoe wet when I didn't quite pay enough attention to the turning tide and increasing wave runs. Ripe for a sneaker wave attack! I headed back toward the point, noting that the south steps look pretty good from the bottom, too. I didn't take them. I headed around the point finding that it has some caves with pools in the bottom and water dripping from the top. There's a little bit of life in and around them. It's rather like a tide pool display, raised up for easier viewing.

The shallow cave and shallow tide pool at the end of Houda Point. It is quite encrusted with barnacles and little sea anemones. The rock colors hint that this might be a weak point between two distinct layers of rock.

The constant dripping makes it hard to check out the larger sea anemones in the pool.

Some lovely black mussels of one sort or another hiding away in the cave.

Really everything seems to be raised like a display. I finally noticed it, the thing like a high water line. It is everywhere on both beaches, maybe 2.5 feet up. Beaches don't get high water lines. They have a high water zone where the effects of wave erosion diminishes to nothing. This is a line below which only a few little animals like barnacles and mussels and sea anemones are holding on. It's a high sand line. This beach used to have a lot more sand on it. Well, that happens on a seasonal basis, but I can't recall seeing that have such a stark, consistent effect.

More ripples in the sand on the other side of the beach.

One rock displaying the stark line between bare bottom and encrusted top. There are a couple big sea anemones in the sheltered spots on the bottom. Behind, there's another rock showing less at the bottom. The far rocks also show it.

The rock behind that last has a pool in the top and great cascades of giant green sea anemones. They're a little open in the water.

I headed back, pausing along the line the surfers take. I clicked a picture or two, but figured the guys with the really big lenses were probably getting plenty. Maybe even with an appropriate polarizer for the sunlight. I then continued up the north side stairs. There's a lot more of them than at Luffenholtz Beach.

Halfway up the main steps. The steps on the north side come down among trees and a small stream. It's rather busy and two people are on their way down.

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Lastly, I headed down the trail at the top of Tepona Point (yellow middle track on the map). There's a few parking spaces by the road and a few more down a short spur road. The path is a narrow, short thing that drops a little on steps, then winds out to an observation area.

Every bit of the trail out to Tepona Point. Admittedly, it is getting lost in the sun.

I headed down to the end and observed a bit. Just the obvious stuff: the beaches to either side, the surfers, the rocks, and the sunset. The rocks here have the largest colonies of a few other birds. I only observed some boring old sea gulls. Those come in a lot of varieties also.

Houda Point Beach to the south.

Luffenholtz Beach to the north.

The photographers on the beach pointing big lenses at the oceanic people who sometimes pop up to ride the waves in.

Those surfers catching waves and getting photographed.

The sunset happens right on time out here on the ocean.

And the lighthouse starts up. Lights can be seen on the pier on the right and a single one from the lighthouse on the left of Trinidad Head.

I headed back after the sunset. It had been breezier earlier so wasn't quite so cold as when the sun was up.

©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 2 Mar 2021