Campground and pier closed at Seacliff State Beach during King Tides
APTOS, Calif. (KION) It was happy hour for campers Rob and Denise Drye at Seacliff State Beach, Thursday, but by Saturday the campgrounds will be a "ghost town."
"They basically said, if you're going to spend another night on Saturday, you need to leave by twelve o'clock," said Rob.
The Drye's weekend getaway will be cut short by California State Park rangers who said the beach won't be safe for visitors, this weekend.
"The waves have come up to our wheels before. This was years ago that this happened. I don't want to go through that again," said Rob.
The waves Rob described are a part of what are known as the "King Tides. This special series of extremely high and low tides is an bi-annual occurrence. The gravitational pull of the sun and moon align, creating the largest tidal range of the year.
"We measure a lot of different variables. Swell, tide, and weather. In this particular situation, a lot of boxes have been ticked in order to get people out of here," said California State Parks Public Safety Superintendent, Gabe McKenna.
McKenna said both the RV campground and fishing pier will stay closed until late Sunday afternoon.
As a result of the King Tides, California State Park officials are expecting potential flooding. "It's really public safety concerns. It's protection of people and property of the campers," said McKenna.
A high surf advisory will also be in effect from 9 a.m. Saturday to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Campers told KION they'd rather play it safe and leave, than stay and be sorry. "That's fine. Two nights is beautiful. Any amount of time you can spend here in breathtaking," said Denise.