The Elephant Seal Ride - 2005

"So the males swim up to the beach, gather up several females and spend the month having sex..."

Wow, some guys have all the fun!  Well, at least it sounds that way until you find out that they go without food that entire time and that the rest of the year they fly solo swimming down to depths of 1700 meters and holding their breath up to 2 hours at a time.  Yikes!  Guess I'm happy to be human!

Today a group of hearty souls met in Half Moon Bay to enjoy a day on the road mixed with a walk on the beach to see the elephant seals of Ano Nuevo State Park.  Despite the threat of rain most of the group showed up on two wheels and enjoyed a quick breakfast at Joes (ok, some of us screwed up and ate elsewhere...) before hitting the road.  The route was pretty simple with a quick jaunt down Stage Road before jumping back on Highway 1 down to the park.

Once at the park we checked in at the Visitor's Center prior to our 10:45 hike to the beach.  Lucky for us the weather cooperated and gave us a clear break for over 2 hours.  We had a nice stroll down the trail to our meeting point with the docent.  From there we hiked down into the protected dune area where we saw elephant seal pups (if you can call a 300 pound behemoth a pup!) playing in a small creek.  Most were lounging amongst the sand dunes and in the water.  Occasionally they would stretch or squeal out loud but other than that they were pretty mellow.

Then we wandered back over toward the water's edge.  There we found a fairly large group of females being lorded over by one very large male.  He was doing his level best to keep other interlopers from stealing his ladies.  Occasionally one would get a little too close and the big guy would wobble over to chase him off.  Since most of them had not eaten in many, many days they really kept to a low energy level.  Two came close to a fight and then the challenger thought better of it and turned away.

All in all it was pretty amazing to see these tremendous creatures in their winter habitat.  The info from the docent was pretty detailed and just as amazing.  Things like the fact that the females will travel to Hawaii and back during a normal year while the males head north to Alaska.  Wow!  They can go down to depths of 1700 meters and hold their breath for over 2 hours.  Also the males weigh in at over 4000 pounds when they first get to the beach but often lose a large percentage of that weight during their stay.  Incredible!

What a great ride and a cool group to hang with.  After our visit we zoomed down to Davenport for lunch and then retraced our steps on the return ride home.  Here's a few pics from the day.

Here's the official website for reservations and info.  http://parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523

Craig