Day 49: On the road again, across California to the coast, to camp at Amy’s niece Teresa’s organic farm in Pescadero. The traffic near San Francisco Bay was heavy, even on a Sunday.
Day 50: At nearby Año Nuevo State Park, there is a stretch of beaches used by northern elephant seals for breeding and molting. This species was hunted nearly to extinction, but it has made a comeback since being legally protected. Elephant seals returned to this part of the California coast in the 1960s. The park has an excellent visitor center and hiking trails to viewing spots close to the beaches where the seals congregate.
The breeding season is in the winter, but during our visit in August there were several males that had returned to molt. As we watched, some of the males were pairing off in mock fights (the serious fighting to determine dominance over harems occurs during the breeding season).
Males and females migrate separately and spend most of the year far out at sea, traveling thousands of miles (as far as Alaska and Hawaii) before returning annually to their breeding areas on the beaches. They dive incredibly deep to feed, hundreds of feet and even as deep as a mile down.
In the evening, we had a visit from Amy’s grad school apartment mate Karen, now a cardiologist living in Palo Alto. Karen treated us to a restaurant dinner in Pescadero: local seafood and olallieberry cobbler.
Ok, never heard of olallieberry. What is it? Was the cobbler sweet?
Never mind, I just checked it out in Wikipedia. Very interesting!! So many berries I’d never heard of…
These logs with pictures are terrific. We find ourselves on Google Earth trying to follow your journey by satellite. Checked out your Elephant seals and discovered that some females can dive to over 1,700 meters. The physiology allowing that must be amazing.
You guys are about halfway through the trip. How are you and the equipment holding up? Keep posting – and go carefully! Rob and Judith.