Lowest Tides of the Year This Weekend

Photo & Text © 2010 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.

While walking along Alki Point in West Seattle this morning, we observed lots of people out enjoying the -3.17 tide. Tomorrow's low tide will be a little lower still. Beachcombers might find a colorful organge, red purple or brown sea star, an ocotopus, crab, clam, or anemone. Tidepooling on the cusp of summer is always a popular outing with Seattlites, with nearly every park along the shorelines offering outings with naturalists today, including the Olympic Sculpture Park which kicks off it's "Get Out" events with tidepooling along it's little beach cove. And what a perfect day for it, eh? :-)

Were you wondering where the marker in Wednesday's post was? It was on the curb at Kerry Park on W Highland Drive on Queen Anne Hill. The building noted in the marker's survey data sheet (the Park View Apartments) doesn't exist anymore, but if you at least got in the general vicinity you would have found it. I left a pink note on the marker saying the treat for finding it was inside the cube sculpture. I stood at the marker and took this shot of the cached treat in the pink bakery box (2 pan au chocolat). I had to leave before 9AM, so hope whoever found it enjoyed!

If you were wondering WHAT the marker in Wednesday's post was:  it was placed by surveyors in 1940 as part of the National Geodetic Survey from which maps and now GPS coordinates are made. The data for these markers is periodically updated and you can find the data sheet for this and other markers all over the nation at NOAA's page on the NGS, and searching for your marker's data sheet using the surveyor's stamped information. The data will include latitude, longitude, altitude, and sometimes even measures of gravity. The things one can learn from just looking down and noticing a disc!