the back bay, by paddle

The ocean side of Newport gets all the attention. The back bay is where the water goes still.

Most people know Newport from the pier, the peninsula, and the open water beyond it. Fewer make their way inland to the back bay, which is a shame, because it is one of the calmest places to be on the water anywhere near home. No surf, no crowds, just a wide protected estuary that sits quiet most mornings of the year.

Upper Newport Bay is a tidal estuary tucked behind the harbor, ringed by bluffs and marsh. It is a nature preserve, so the water stays calm and the pace stays slow. In October, with the summer heat off and the light turning gold a little earlier each day, it is one of the better paddle mornings you can have in Orange County.

why paddle here

The back bay is flat water. That changes everything if you are newer to a paddleboard or kayak, or if you just want a morning that does not involve fighting the surf. You can launch, find your balance, and settle into a rhythm without a wave in sight. The bluffs block a lot of the wind early, so the surface often stays glassy well into the morning.

It is also quiet in a way the coast rarely is. Herons stand in the shallows, egrets pick along the mudflats, and in fall the bay fills with migrating birds working their way down the coast. The marsh is full of them. You hear your own paddle more than anything else. That stillness is the whole reason to come.

read the tide first

The back bay is tidal, so the water you paddle is not the same from one hour to the next. A rising or high tide gives you the most water and the easiest passage up the channels toward the top of the bay. Around a low tide, broad mudflats come up out of the water and the navigable channel narrows, which is part of what keeps the wildlife close but can leave you walking a board through shallows if you misjudge it. The simple version: aim to launch on a rising tide so you have water under you and an easier paddle back. Check the tide and the wind the night before, since both decide what kind of morning you get more than the temperature does.

the morning, start to finish

Go early. The water is calmest before the wind picks up, and the light low over the bluffs is worth setting an alarm for. Launch, paddle out into the open middle of the bay, and let it be slow. There is no destination to reach. You are here to move quietly across calm water and watch the place wake up. If you want a direction, point toward the upper channels where the marsh closes in and the birds are thickest, then turn back before the afternoon wind fills the bay.

The one thing that always comes with us is the towel. Paddling is a damp business, and a sand free towel earns its place here: it is waffle microfiber on both sides, dries fast between uses, and shakes clean when you pull up onto the bank. At sixty-three by thirty-one and a half inches it is big enough to dry off properly and still rolls down small enough to stash on the board. When you get home, tumble it dry low or hang it in the sun and it is ready for the next one.

a few local notes

• Go on a calm morning, and launch on a rising tide for the most water and the easiest paddle back.
• It is a preserve, so keep your distance from the birds and pack out what you bring.
• Fall and winter mornings are the quietest of the year here, and the best for birdlife.
• Bring water and a towel; there is not much in the way of services on the water.

The back bay is the calm-water counterpart to everything we love about the open coast. For more from our home stretch, here is the rest of Newport Beach, and here is the towel we would bring on the water.