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Home >> Americas >> USA >> California >> Sonoma County >> Point Reyes National Seashore Coast, San Francisco
 

The beach that you see in the foreground is the same one that you will see in a minute covered with elephant seals.

The beach that you see in the foreground is the same one that you will see in a minute covered with elephant seals. What you're looking at is mostly weened pups, and a couple of adult males. The cows have already returned to the sea after having their pups. (Elephant seals spend most of their lives in the ocean, returning only to land a couple of times a year). Pups weigh 70 pounds at birth. When weened at 4 weeks, they weigh nearly 300 pounds. Bulls weigh 3000 to 5000 pounds. t another day at the beach... We were able to get a closer look with the help of a spotting scope, provided by volunteers. We went on a wildflower hike with a guide and wound up spotting these handsome bachelors lying on a beach next to a research area. Although it is normally forbidden to approach elephant seals, our small group got permission from the marine biologist to take a closer look. These guys are hanging out on what the staff calls "Loser's Beach". Apparently the seals who fail to find a mate get kicked off the main beach and wind up here. The part they don't tell you in the brochure is that these things really stink! Their large eyes allow them to feed on average at 2000 feet, in almost total darkness. The average dive lasts close to half an hour and is followed by only three to five minutes at the surface to breathe. The deepest dive on record is over 5000 feet and the longest is two hours. (Thanks, Point Reyes National Seashore brochure). We saw this on the wildflower tour. It is red everywhere else, but at Point Reyes it blooms yellow. Wild Iris This actually grows in big bushes all over the place. There were tons more different kinds of wildflowers. Unfortunately, it was a very windy day and it was hard to get the flowers to cooperate and stay still for the camera. The2 Road out to Point Reyes. Actually, these hills, and the vineyard that you see in the middle (those are rows of grapes) are pretty typical of Sonoma County (where we live) in general.