Lost Coast Trail Tide Chart for 2026 and 2027

NOAA station 9418024, Shelter Cove · Three impassable zones · Computed October 22, 2026

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Three stretches of the Lost Coast Trail go under the ocean at high tide, and the Bureau of Land Management sets a separate tide limit for each one. This chart turns NOAA's predictions for Shelter Cove into a daylight window for every zone on every day through December 2027, and marks whether each window lasts long enough to walk the zone at the agency's planning pace of one mile an hour. On our own February 2022 trip, these windows decided where we could camp each night.

Check your trip dates

Predicted tide in feet above mean lower low water at Shelter Cove. Shaded bands are night, and the dashed lines are the three zone limits.

A bold window begins with a falling-tide entry and lasts long enough to walk the zone at one mile an hour. Enter between the displayed start and enter by time to allow the full crossing before the water returns over the limit. A window marked too short provides no falling-tide entry with enough time for the full crossing at that pace. The BLM describes waiting above high tide at suitable creeks, but the table does not evaluate those refuges or a crossing split across low tides.

Cobble at the foot of the cliffs in February 2022. At high tide the surf covers this whole shelf.

The best months for the tides

Spring gives the most room. In April 2027, 26 of 30 days carry a daylight window long enough to walk both long zones from end to end. Through late summer and fall the lowest tide of the day falls after dark, and in September 2027 only 1 days open both long zones in daylight. The BLM warns about the same pattern in the agency's trip planning guide, which says many late summer days never drop low enough to pass in daylight.

Impassable days

The October 2026 date lists in the body and notifications of the Recreation.gov permit listing disagree, as checked October 22, 2026. Confirm the applicable dates with the King Range office at (707) 986-5400 before booking. The calculated tide windows below do not override agency restrictions or marine conditions.

On the following 2027 days our calculation finds no daylight moment under 2.5 feet for the zone from Sea Lion Gulch to Randall Creek. These dates come from NOAA predictions and our calculation, rather than an agency closure order.

January 12, 13; July 27, 28; August 9, 10, 11, 24, 25, 26, 27; September 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24, 25; October 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 21, 22, 23; November 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21; December 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 18, 19.

Daily windows, month by month

Each row gives the daylight low tides and the window for each zone. Times are Pacific, with daylight saving time applied on the days the change falls.

How we used the tides in February 2022

Our own plan ran on the same numbers. We booked a 2:00 PM shuttle from Black Sands Beach to the Mattole trailhead on February 25 and camped at the Mattole Campground that night. On February 26 the low tide bottomed out at minus 0.37 feet at 2:15 PM, and the stretch from Sea Lion Gulch to Randall Creek sat under 2.5 feet from 11:00 AM until 5:48 PM. The plan had us leave Mattole between nine and ten, pass Punta Gorda around 10:30, and spend the long afternoon window on the way to Randall Creek, with about six hours to cover the zone. We camped at Spanish Flat that night.

The notes for the third day named Big Flat, Shipman Creek, or Buck Creek as the camp, with Gitchell Creek as a stretch goal. The stretch goal mattered because of the tide. On February 28 the zone from Miller Flat to Gitchell Creek did not fall under 3 feet until 12:30 PM, so a camp short of Gitchell meant a noon start on the last day. On February 27 the same zone stayed under 3 feet from 11:36 AM until sunset. We crossed that afternoon, camped at Gitchell Creek, and walked the last miles to Black Sands Beach the next morning with no tide to wait on. We planned from the NOAA chart for Shelter Cove and kept a tide app on the phone, since the trail has almost no signal. The full account of the walk is in our Lost Coast trip report.

Check the tide yourself on NOAA

The BLM's Guide to Tide Safety teaches the same method on the NOAA site, and a second look at the source before you leave costs nothing.

1. Open the NOAA tide predictions for station 9418024, Shelter Cove.
2. Enter the first and last day of the trip.
3. Keep the datum at MLLW, the units in feet, and the time zone at LST/LDT.
4. Set the threshold to 2.5 feet, the strictest of the three limits, and choose Plot Daily. The chart then shades every stretch under the limit.
5. Repeat with 3 feet for the zone from Miller Flat to Gitchell Creek.

What a tide chart cannot see

• Swell and storms raise the water above the predicted tide. Read the marine forecast for the Eureka coastal waters before you go, as the BLM asks.
• Sneaker waves run far up a steep beach without warning. Never turn your back on the ocean, and stay off wet sand and rock.
• Creeks rise with rain. The King Range averages about 120 inches of rain a year, most of the rain falls from October through April, and the BLM says not to cross a creek above your knee.
• The coast keeps changing. The BLM's July 29, 2026 roads and trails report describes large boulders in every impassable section, active landslides in the southern zone north of Buck Creek, and rock falling from the bluffs. At Split Rock, 1.5 miles north of Black Sands Beach, pass on the inland side.
• Hike in daylight only. The windows on this page stop at sunset for that reason.

Questions people ask

Plan the rest of the trip

The Lost Coast Trail guide lays out the walk in two or three nights with camps, permits, and a free GPX. The shuttle guide covers the ride between the trailheads, and the trailhead guide covers Mattole and Black Sands Beach.

Sources

Tide heights come from NOAA's predictions for station 9418024, Shelter Cove, at six-minute intervals, retrieved October 22, 2026. Zone limits, zone lengths, the receding-tide rule, and the impassable dates come from the Recreation.gov King Range permit listing and the BLM's Guide to Tide Safety. The late summer pattern, the creek rule, and the marine forecast link come from the BLM's trip planning guide, and current conditions from the King Range roads and trails report of July 29, 2026. Sunrise and sunset use NOAA's solar equations for the middle of the trail. The windows are our own calculation and a planning aid, never a guarantee, so confirm with the King Range office at (707) 986-5400 before you go.

Plan the trip, then walk the plan

Backpackers Friend opens the Lost Coast plan as a trip on your phone, snaps the route to the trail, and lays the days out on a topo map. Planning is free with no account. Premium adds offline maps so the route works with no signal, plus off-trail alerts for the bluffs where the tread fades out.

Free to plan · iPhone · offline maps with Premium · no account required