Lydgate Park:


Although the surf on the East side is usually too rough for snorkeling, this is a place where a bunch of large boulders were used to create 2 ponds on the edge of the ocean.  The boulders block the waves so that swimmers and snorkelers can have fun for hours without worries of currents of rip tides.  One of the ponds is very shallow and great for toddlers.  The other pond is great for everyone.  It, too, is often touted as a place to go if you're a beginner, but I've seen things there I've not seen elsewhere.  There have been a couple of trips that we weren't able to snorkel here due to runoff of storms depositing trees and junk into the ponds or right after they rebuilt the walls and it was too tight to let it refresh, but we were able to snorkel there in 2014 and 2015 and it was as great again.  There's also a huge playground in the park and lots of pic nic tables, parking, lifeguards, and showers.   
The ever crowded Lydgate (Morgan's Pond) Park.  The toddler's pond is to the far left. 

 looking back towards the beach from the water

the calmness of Lydgate

 toddler pool on the other side of the rocks on the right.

Did I mention it's never crowded?!

A really bad picture, but I'd not seen one of these guys in Hawaii, just the Caribbean---Glasseye Snapper---and here he is at lydgate.

 I've even seen a turtle in Lydgate

 And a juvenile peacock razorfish.  This is the only one of these guys I've ever seen.  I watched it awhile to make sure it wasn't a leaf.  It finally scurried under a rock.

A yellow tang.  There aren't many yellow tangs around Kauai, but I've seen one at Lydgate a couple times.

 Flounders are pretty common everywhere around Kauai, including Lydgate.

 As are goatfish, like this whitesaddle goatfish

we often see shells here, too.

There are always a school of chubs here with a trevelly or 2 amongst them.

There are always the schools of tiny silvery fish near the shallow rocks, too.

here is a school of mullets

more flagtails

juvenile puffer

white bar surgeonfish

juvenile rock mover

another picture of the juvenile rock mover

 close up of one of the hundreds of yellow fin surgeonfish in Lydgate.

 Sergeant Majors

 Lots more larger silver fish by the rocks

the occassional barracuda 

 female yellow stripe coris

 black tail snapper

some more fish by the rocks

 snowflake eel

 cigar wrasse

 yellow stripe goatfish

 belted wrasse

 pearl wrasse

leatherback jack (only seen this guy one other place on Kauai)

My Stripees!  The only place I've seen these guys other then the Honolulu Aquarium and they have been here ever year we've been able to snorkel Lydgate.

 more goatfish

another cigar wrasse

 treadfin butterflyfish

 there were a large pair of these puffer in 2014

 In 2015 I saw this Thornback Cowfish in Lydgate.  First time I've seen a Cowfish in Hawaii.

 a chub with spots on it.

 Never noticed this guy before 2015, either, but a pair of them was swimming with the flagtails.

 In 2015 I also found this Leaf Scorpoinfish here.

Usually you can see a lot of these crabs on the rocks forming the ponds, but sometimes you can find them underwater, too.

Even saw a Cardinal fish here.

 This was a small fraction of the large yellowfin surgeonfish in the center of the pond in 2014.  There has been a school of them here since we've started coming to Kauai in 2001 and it certainly has grown!

 Milletseed butterflyfish

The way Lydgate looks after big storms until it's cleaned out---but the fish apparently survive ok.

the beach outside the rock wall

outside the rock wall of Lydgate.