Visiting the Elephant Seals

We spent a couple of nights in and around San Luis Obispo on our SoCal trip. We visited several amazing wineries, spent an afternoon at the Hearst Castle (more about both of those excursions later), and we watched the elephant seals at the Piedras Blancas rookery.

They're amazing animals- loud, and huge, and totally dangerous, which is why we weren't even mildly tempted to go over the fence or climb down the cliff to scratch any behind the ears.

I'd say there were a good 200 seals sunning themselves the day we were there. About half were mamas, and most of the rest were babies or half-grown pups. There were a couple of bulls in sight (all sleeping) and at least one bellowing out on some rocks- we couldn't see him, but we could sure hear him.

Elephant Seals are very territorial, so we saw some fights over sand wallows, and one pair of mamas fought over a baby. I have no idea which one it belonged to, or how the fight came out, since the battle lasted the entire time we were there. Nature can be very cruel, and elephant seals don't kid around about the babies, so I hope everything came out okay.

I didn't get many pictures because I spent the entire time just being amazed at the noise and commotion.

 The day was cool but the sun was warm. There was much napping going on.

 Check out the blissful napping pup.

 Mama Seal is so over being photographed.

You'll hear more ocean than seal in this clip.