There is a seal sanctuary right off the coast of California, right off highway 1. It is north of Hearst Castle, pretty much directly in-between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is called Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. There are so many seals molting/resting/mating/giving birth right in front of your eyes! Obviously not all at once! That would be a bit much for the seals. 😉
There are so many seals!!!!
There are signs that tell you what the seal’s behavior is like at each time of year. As an example I went there during June, so it was juveniles and sub adults I saw at the beach and they were molting.
There are interactive signs all along this trail so you can learn about them.
It becomes a very fascinating experience. For me at least. I love seeing wildlife in their natural environment.
When I went there, there were hundreds of them, scattered along the coast for about a half mile.
Just me with the seals 🙂
They mostly just laid around but they moved sometimes flipping sand on themselves or occasionally finding a different spot on the beach or migrating to the water.
They are very sedentary, or at least when they are molting. They don’t eat when on land so they conserve their energy. You read all about it on the signs. It’s very interesting. Hope you get to go and check this out for yourself!
Oh no seal, don’t get eaten by the shark!!!
And as cool as it may seem to be, don’t go by the seals.
They are conserving their energy. They don’t eat when on land, and if they expend their energy trying to get away from humans, they have less of a chance of surviving once they go back into the water, aka, more humans or sharks! Don’t make them expend their energy on the count of your behalf. You can get plenty of good pictures right from the trail. Sorry, just want to protect the seals and I bet you do too!
Hope you enjoyed this article! It really is a great place to go.
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Sincerely,
Shelly/Livingonthedirt
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