Day Trip – Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo State Park
Recently we took a little day trip to the Ano Nuevo State Park, near Pescadero, south of Half Moon Bay. Every December, elephant seals start appearing at this site to give birth and mate before heading out to sea to fatten up again. From mid-December through March, visitors must reserve a tour to see this spectacle of nature. The park is the largest site in the world for a breeding colony of the North American Elephant Seal.
The male elephant seals weigh up to 2 ½ tons and they are the first to arrive to start fighting each other to form their harems of female elephant seals. Towards late December, the females start to arrive and give birth to the young they became pregnant with during the prior breeding season. They will nurse their young for only 25 to 28 days before leaving the pups to fend for themselves in March. The females will mate about 24 days after giving birth. It is interesting to note that the fertilized egg does not implant for about 4 months as nature allows the female elephant seal time to start eating again and build up her fat reserves before the fetus starts growing. When the pups are about 4 to 6 weeks old they start learning how to swim in preparation to leave in April to start feeding along the northern coast of Washington and in British Columbia.
My family took a special extended tour offered by a non-profit organization. We walked out from the visitors center about 1 ½ miles to view the seals at various points as guided by volunteers. Our first stop was an overlook over a large expanse of elephant seals sunning and flinging sand on to themselves. This was a noisy place with hundreds of elephant seals making all sorts of noises. It almost sounded like a jungle of monkeys. The pups, females and males all make different noises but the most interesting is the guttural sound of the humongous male elephant seal. We witnessed several fights during our time there as the males repeatedly bash their chests together and fight with their mouths to earn their dominant spot among the females. We spent about 2 hours walking out and observing and photographing the seals before heading back on the moderate 1 ½ mile hike back to the visitor’s center. We went in late January, which would normally be cold and possibly wet. However, we went on a beautiful sunny day and I was over dressed in a long sleeve sweater and other layers. It was a great day to observe these large creatures in their natural habitat.
This was an interesting trip that I had always meant to get around to and I was glad we went. I think the best age to take kids on a trip like this is from age 7 on up. The hike is mostly flat but you do need to walk over sand dunes at times. Strollers are not allowed so I recommend that you take a child that can walk for 3+ miles or one that is small enough to fit in a baby carrier. My kids would have probably been happier with the shorter tour that is offered everyday during this season for $7 (plus booking fee) per person as they felt that our tour was too long. You can get information about the park, elephant seals and book tours at this website. These are popular tours and you may find availability better during the week than on the weekend. Read all the details on the website to know what to expect. Have fun if you go.
Note: This article was originally published in 2012 with a few updates for 2018.
