1) On April 1, 2017 two Mira Costa High School students, freshman Taylor Ettley and freshman Malia Balzer hike to Palos Verdes Cove. They hiked to the edge of the cliff to overlook the cove and watch the locals surf below.
2) Ettley and Balzer hike to the sunny Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes. The Golf Course had a clear view of Catalina and this is where the students began their hike down to the tide pools below the golf course.
3) Ettley (left) and Balzer (right) begin their hike down to the tide pools at Trump National Golf Course. The students followed the long trail down to the tide pools that was covered by wildflowers which made it a difficult trail to hike.
4) The students hike down to the tide pools and find a clear view of the beach below where they can find the tide pools. The ocean was rough because of the winds that picked in the late afternoon.
5) Ettley (left) and Balzer (right) continue their hike down to the beach and tide pools on a steep trail. They walked on opposite sides of the trail to stay safe avoiding the trench in the middle that was formed from all of the rain the previous day.
6) The students make it down to the tide pools to find out it is low tide, meaning they can see a bunch of sea creatures in the tide pools. It was slippery to walk because the waves were constantly crashing over the rocks.
7) The students came across a small pool and found out that to pool has sea anemones, hermit crabs, algae, and sea slugs. The students looked around the pools and found even more sea creatures in various pools.
8) Ettley (front) and Balzer (back) look for more sea creatures and sea life in the tide pools while the tide starts to rise. The students stopped to look at and touch hermit crabs that crawled all over the rocks.
9) Balzer stops her hike and picks up at hermit crab. She found the hermit crab’s shell and looked at it for a while before she returned it back to the water and then continued her walk back to the shore.
10) On the hike back to the shore Ettley comes across a big sea anemone. After the students looked at the sea anemone that returned back to the beach and hiked back up to the golf course.
Photos by: Josie Collier
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