Great tides in Crescent City

The upcoming tides in Crescent City worth planning around, ranked from the next 90 days of predictions (October 18, 2026 to January 15, 2027).

Crescent City sits on a sweeping, crescent-shaped bay in Del Norte County, a few miles south of the Oregon border on California's far north coast. The harbour opens to the Pacific at the north end of the bay, with Battery Point Lighthouse on a small tidal island just offshore and the redwood country of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park beginning a short distance inland. It is one of the northernmost coastal towns in California, and its tidal range is among the largest on the California coast.

Lowest low tides

The lowest predicted low tides at Crescent City in the window, by height. The very lowest tides of a season often fall after dark, so the daylight list below is usually the more useful one for a visit.

Daylight low tides

Low tides that fall between sunrise and sunset in Crescent City, ranked by height. A low tide of 1.5 ft (0.46 m) or lower generally exposes much more of the intertidal zone than an ordinary low; at or below 0.0 ft the exposure is at its best.

Highest high tides

The highest predicted high tides at Crescent City in the window, by height. The top of this list is where this season's king tides appear.

Largest tidal ranges

The biggest swings between one tide and the next at Crescent City: the absolute difference in height between consecutive high and low events, with the time the change takes.

How these rankings are calculated

Great Tides downloads the high/low tide predictions published by NOAA CO-OPS for station 9419750 (CRESCENT CITY) covering October 18, 2026 to January 15, 2027, and ranks the events directly: low tides by predicted height ascending, high tides by predicted height descending, and tidal ranges by the absolute height difference between consecutive events. Daylight is calculated for Crescent City's coordinates (latitude 41.756, longitude -124.217) with a standard solar-position calculation: a low tide counts as a daylight low when its predicted time falls between that day's sunrise and sunset. Quality labels use height thresholds only: at or below 0.0 ft is labelled “Excellent tidepooling” and 0.0 to 1.5 ft “Good tidepooling”. Rankings are relative to this station and this window; heights at different stations use the same MLLW datum name but are local to each station and are not directly interchangeable.

Questions

Where do these predictions come from?

From NOAA CO-OPS, the US agency that operates the national tide-gauge network. The predictions for Crescent City are calculated for the CRESCENT CITY station (9419750). This page was generated from the same predictions NOAA publishes in its own tide tables.

Why does the station name differ from the place name?

Places and tide stations are not the same thing. A station is a specific gauge or calculation point; CRESCENT CITY is the station chosen to represent Crescent City. Tide times and heights shift gradually along the coast, so spots a few miles away will see slightly different times.

Are these live water levels?

No. These are astronomical predictions, calculated in advance from the positions of the Moon and Sun. Wind, storms and air pressure push real water levels above or below the prediction, sometimes by a foot or more.

Can I plan a tidepool visit from this page alone?

Treat the prediction as the starting point, not the whole plan: check the local forecast and conditions before you go, and look up any rules for the open Pacific coast at Crescent City locally. A low prediction tells you when the water will be out; it says nothing by itself about surf, weather or whether a particular spot is safe that day.

Nearby places

Half Moon Bay · Santa Cruz · Port San Luis & Avila Beach

All California places