King Tides walk along the estuary

Today the Friends of Sausal Creek and Waterfront Action hosted a walk along the estuary to look at the effects of the King Tide. The walk was led by local historian Dennis Evanosky, and despite being on a Thursday, there was a large turn out, with 50 people and 4 dogs.

We started the Fruitvale Bridge Park, which is where Sausal Creek flows into the estuary. If you weren't familiar with the area, it probably didn't look much different, but it's clear in the above photos how much higher the water was for the King Tide. Particularly notice the gravel bank to the left that's completely gone when the water is high. Normally there's a small drop from Sausal Creek into the estuary; instead the water was high enough to flow back into the culvert a ways.

As we walked along, Dennis told us about the history of the area, from the days of the Ohlones to the Spanish and the Peraltas to more recent times. The history isn't just cultural, it's also geographical. Sausal Creek used to flow freely into the estuary instead of being culverted much of the way, and the shore around the estuary was very different then. Most notably, Alameda was then a peninsula, and the areas near the shore where much marshier.

A nice easy walk, with lots of birds to see. If you want to see near the other end of Sausal Creek (actually, Palo Seco Creek which feeds into Sausal Creek), come on the Oakland Urban Paths walk on Saturday, February 8. That will be more of a hike on dirt trails, with lots of elevation to climb.

More pictures from the walk: