2017: The year in hikes: Año Nuevo State Park - Pescadero, CA (Elephant Seals)

Did someone say Elephant Seal???

Helloooooooo

Año Nuevo State Park - Punta del Año Nuevo (New Year's Point) - Home to the northern elephant seals from December through late March each year. The males and females come to mate and the females give birth to their pups (babies).

A beach full of barking, fighting and sun bathing elephant seals....this is something you gotta see....it really is quite fascinating.

Two males challenging each other

Our tour group overlooking a colony of Elephant Seals, Año Nuevo Island in the background

During these winter months, the only way you can access the beach and see the seals is by going on a guided tour with a ranger and the local volunteer guides. Plan ahead for scheduling a tour because it gets booked up fast and well in advance. A lot of schools take educational field trips here so if you do want a tour geared more toward an adult crowd you may want to consider booking an early morning time slot or weekend tour.

Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about the seals. She provided us with lots of information and answered questions regarding the characteristics and habits of both the males and females during the mating season and the "off-season" when they are migrating and traveling far away oceans before returning here to Año Nuevo. She explained the history of the Lighthouse Station on Año Nuevo Island, which is an island just off the coast that you can see from the beach. The morning of our tour it was a bit foggy so we couldn't see much of the island at first, but as the weather cleared up later in the morning, we could see some of the historical structures still on the island and lots and lots of birds. The tour guide lent us some binoculars which was great for getting a much better view of the island. I would recommend bringing a pair of your own binoculars if you have a pair, otherwise I would make it a point to borrow some from the guide if they offer them. Our guide also explained the discovery of Año Nuevo Point by the early explorers, a brief history of the native peoples and American settlers and a history of when the first seals started arriving to the beach.

Plaque showing the migration pattern of the seals - blue path is for the males/pink path is for the females

An alpha male trying to convince this female he is worth her time and attention

Año Nuevo Island with lighthouse station

The male elephant seals can weigh as much as 2 1/2 tons and get into some pretty violent physical matches with other males to prove their dominance and show the females they are the best mate to breed with. The males have a very distinguishing feature which is their elephant trunk like nose and it is something that continues to grow throughout their life. It is a easy way to distinguish the older males from the younger ones. The much older males have noses that go in a "reverse J" shape because it has grown so long that it starts to curl around in a circle.

Young male Elephant Seal

The female seals range in size from about 800-1,600 pounds. Soon after the females arrive at the beach, approximately 3-6 days later, they give birth to their young which were conceived the previous year. The females will mate again before they leave the island and return to the ocean for the next 8-9 months. The pups that are born stay with their moms for about a month to grow and nurse. After that, the adult seals leave the island and leave their pups behind. The pups stay on their own for about another month, molting (shedding their baby fur to have a shiny new skin coat) and learning to swim in the shallow waters. By the end of April most of the pups leave the island to go back to the ocean and they head north to hunt for food.

A couple of female elephant seals lounging with their pups

Even though the males are focused on fighting to prove they are the "alpha" male and the ladies are focused on their young and finding the best mate, there is a lot of in between, down time that consists of hanging around and sun bathing. We saw a lot of the seals doing this and existing in their natural habitat. They did not seem to mind our presence, with a little bit of a space buffer of course, and just went about their business as if we did not exist. There were a few that kept their eye on us, just to be sure, but eventually after knowing we meant no harm, they fell back into a peaceful sleep.

They are some very large creatures and not quite the most graceful to watch move on the beach. They kind of look like worms when they are moving on the sand. Whatever you do though, you don't want to be in the travel path of one when it is moving.

This was a real life nature show and felt like a cool clip you would see in Planet Earth. It is quite lucky that this area is so close to where we live and that this was something we got to experience.