1 In Travel

California Trip: Where the Wild Things Are

Today we drove on California Highway 1 along the coast and Big Sur and I enjoyed photographing sea lions, sea birds, breathtaking shorelines and finally, elephant seals!

Big Sur. There’s a reason it’s a Thing! Gorgeous views that had us stopping nearly every turnout opportunity.

Elephant seals! These are two juvenile males sparring.

A squirrel at one of the stops on the 17-mile Drive through Pebble Beach. They have become so tame people were hand feeding them treats.

Brought her thousands of miles from Tishomingo and she takes closeup pics of a squirrel.

Sea lions at Seal Rock on the 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach.

This beach is the year-round home of up to 2500 elephant seals, volunteers (there are Friends of the Elephant Seals members on site answering questions) explained. These are all males, some up to 5,000 pounds, and they spend most of their time lolling about on the beach, and believe me, they have sleep-deprived teenagers beat for lolling around! It was hard to tell some were alive, and then they would give a massive snort! They jockeyed for position – which includes some serious lumbering in order to snuggle up to some other huge male. And they only put up with that sometimes. Some young males moved about fighting each other, apparently working for “alpha male” status.

Yesterday, I thought it couldn’t get any better when we found these adorable otters working in a slough near a beach to eat his meal of shellfish.

After supper in on the Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf we could hear seals barking, but Emma wouldn’t believe me, then, we looked over the side of the deck, and this harbor seal was watching us. She didn’t stick around long, but it was so sweet looking. Harbor seals are curious and will follow you along the shore or deck.