What’s this?  Another day off?  No, we aren’t dreaming.  Since we’ve spent a lot of time in the SF Bay area this year, and years past, we decided to take a drive to an area never explored.  After a very twisty-turny road over mountain roads, the Pacific Coast Highway lead south.  Año Nuevo State Reserve lies between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.  Within the reserve is a Wildlife Protection Area from which you can closely observe Elephant Seals and other creatures without endangering them (or you).

At the end of the 19th Century due to hunting and other factors, the elephant seals (both North and South) numbers had dwindled down to almost nothing.  It is believed that there were only around 100 northern elephant seals left at that time.   Since the early 20th laws have protected northern elephant seals in Mexico and the US.   Now, there are thought to be around 200,000!

The northern elephant seals come ashore in specific spots along the west coast for different reasons, but the same animals always come back to the same spot.  In spring and summer, they haul out to molt the outer layer of skin and fur, in a process that takes 4 to 6 weeks.  Like astronauts without gravity, elephant seals lose bone mass while they are in the water.  Hauling out onto land also serves the purpose of building up bone mass and staying strong.  At this time of year, it is juvenile males in this phase.  Unlike other seal viewing we’ve experienced, the elephants were quite inoffensive (ie they didn’t stink unmercifully).  They don’t eat or drink anything during the molt, so nothing in, nothing out!

Año Nuevo serves as a rookery December through March when the elephant seals come ashore to mate and give birth.  The 1st pup was born here in the 1960s.  Now, thousands are born here each year.  Some think that all of the seals of Año Nuevo are the result of one very active, very lucky male during the time the seals were almost wiped out.

For more Photos, click HERE