Low Tide Hikes

When the tide is high most of the sedge meadow and the sandbars are under water. There is very little beach to walk on. At low tide it is a whole different place. At low tide you can walk on the beach away from the bay. Here you will find the shoreline lined with rocky cliffs. I am no Geologist so I can't tell you what they are made of but I can describe it. The cliffs are made of thin layer after thin layer of a black shale like rock with ash layers found every so often. These layers of rock were just beautiful. And on the last night at Katmai Bay we walked for hours exploring as far as we could go before the water started to rise again.

In the layers of rock, you could find fossil imprints. We find fossils of plants, clams, and shell creatures. My partner, the other biologist was looking for dinosaur prints. They had been found on this beach before. Katmai Park I was told had once held the record for the largest set of fossilized dino tracks in Alaska, that is, until Kenai Fjords found bigger ones. My partner was determined to get the record back. Though we didn't find dino tracks it was fun looking.

Every so often there would be a waterfall coming down from the mountains. Each was beautiful. Flowers were blooming on the sides of the stream. Purple, yellow and white blossoms that made the area colorful and smell terrific. At one part of our walk we came across some natural arches that the water had carved into the rock. They were also amazing. When the ocean would not let us go any farther we headed back to camp. We didn't mind the rain at all.

The sad thing about our walk was all the trash we found washed up that when the tide comes back in will again be taken out to sea. We found a shampoo bottle with shampoo in it. We found empty plastic bottles, buoys that had broken loose, and we even found what was left of a childs shoe. We found nets lost by fishermen, pieces of metal all rusted, and pieces of rope. It makes you wish we took better care of our planet.