Robert Badham

I went to this site for a night dive in late November. We were snorkeling for lobsters on a day when visibility at Shaw's cove was reported to be 15-20 feet. At night in November parking is not an issue. You can park on the street and walk down a short, rather steep path. From what I could see it was possible to walk down the beach quite a ways towards Crystal cove and access some more remote locations, but never having been to the site we just entered at the tiny beach at the bottom of the trail. Showers are next to the restrooms which is a nice bonus. On the plus side I actually did see some lobsters ranging in depth from perhaps 5 to 15 feet. During that two hours I probably saw a dozen lobster although most were short. I also saw a moray eel and some sting rays. On the minus side, the kelp and eel grass were particularly difficult to navigate quickly. So the lobsters had good hiding places and were hard to find. A persistent person could probably pull a couple out but it will be a challenge. Perhaps if you swim farther from the easy shore entry numbers increase. Visibility was poor. We probably had ten feet of visibility which was half what was reported at Shaw's cove. Surf wasn't bad, but this was a fairly exposed site so I expect it can be bad.