Elephant Seals- A Close Look

James' father's wife came to visit us on her way back to Melbourne. We all like outdoors more than shopping outlets so an outing away from Silicon Valley was arranged.

James found out that it is now elephant seal's mating season and Ano Nuevo State Park, which is only 1.5 hour drive away, is a place for elephant seal watching. I thought it means we would stand on a view point and look down on the beach for elephant seals. Perhaps seeing some black moving blobs would be considered lucky. It turned out we got to walk right next to elephant seals. Well, 25 feet away at least but it was still better than looking for them from up high.

Bob, the docent, gave us a great tour. He actually was camping by the beach while volunteering as a docent. When it's time for him to go home, he will just pack up his trailer and drive away. Pretty nice set up in my opinion.

We immediately came to a group of male elephant seals fighting with each other. The docent said these are the 'losers' as they are younger or weaker and have lost their spot on the beach. Nature's law made them stay on shore even thought they won't find a female to mate this season.

 

 We then came to the beach covered by elephant seals. Pups are among them. I sketched a pair of mother and pup. The wrinkly black pup was asking for its mum to nurse. There was also a dead pup on the beach eaten by 2 crows. Life and death are usually not far away from each other.

On the way back to our car I sketched the state park visitor centre. I'd like to come back to this little gem on the Californian coast.