Elephant Seals at San Simeon, CA

12/17

As we were leaving the Pfeiffer Big Sur campground, we noticed all the little "tent cities" of about 10 each grouped together of firefighters that traveled into the area. The fires still burn in Big Sur, and continuing our journey down the Pacific Coast Highway we noticed catering trucks and more firefighters on their way to help.  They hope to have it contained in the next couple of days.  From what we heard, it was not spreading too much at this point.  It is such a beautiful part of California and mostly untouched by developers and housing.  From the road, we only saw a glimpse of fire…most of it will be hidden from view and regrow while no one is watching. 

Hey, Hey! It’s the Pacific Coast Highway!  I think this was the most stressful road for my Dad.  Besides it was a swervey and up and down. Plus, there was cliff right next to us.  We kept stopping to look at the overlooks, and one time scraped herself really bad on her knee when she was getting out.  My Dad sent Tyler and I out of the RV so he could see what he could do for my Mom.  The highway stretched back for a long time. I picked a car and watched it until I couldn’t see it anymore.  Our Dad called us in, so we ate some lunch.  Our Mom showed us how big her scrape was.  It was pretty big.  After lunch everyone came out.  We all looked at the ocean.  It was an amazing sight!  I think this was the greatest highway ever.

~Jack

Unfortunately, we did need to get some gas.  Now, choices are quite limited on this stretch of highway.  Classic Supply vs Demand! We had to pay $5.499/gallon! yikes!  I dropped my my Christmas cards off in the hotel lobby at the Ragged Point Inn.  The guy behind the counter was a bit unsure because I had so many.  Maybe he did not want to burden the USPS employees.  Anyway, let’s see if any of you actually get them!

The drive continued to be spectacular.  We stopped at many vista points along the way and even drove by our bicycling friends.  I can’t imagine riding a packed bike on this road!  We saw some surfers and thought that was pretty cool until…

Elephant seals!  Today we are at the Elephant Seal Rookery.  Once we got to the fence, there were so many of them!  All the males had these trunks that were above the mouth.  They were mostly just lying down and flipping sand up.  Some of the bigger ones were fighting.  On a sign it said it was actually called sparring.  Some of the intense fights were some that were actually bashing their teeth into their opponent.  The babies were so cute!  One funny thing was that an adult flopped up to a baby, so the baby went further away.  Then the adult went up to him again, so the baby went further away.  They kept doing that for a while. Some were swimming, but barely any.  That night, I did some photo editing with my Mom.  We cut out the outlines of a baby elephant seal and put him on a pacific coast highway picture.  We made that into a postcard.

~Jack

We arrived at the Elephant Seal Rookery near San Simeon, CA.  From mid-December thru March, elephant seals follow an ancient migration and reproduction cycle. They haul out onto the beaches twice a year, once for breeding and birthing, and once for molting.  Bull hierarchy is established with dramatic and often bloody battles.  Pregnant females give birth and nurse during this chaotic time.  After the pups are weaned, the females are receptive to mating with the dominant bulls.  This was definitely the highlight of the day.  We were all so fascinated, even Scout!

We got lucky and found a State Park to settle into for the night, but before we did that, we parked it at the beach for the sunset.  The sky was on fire!

We decided last night that we would wake up and drove out early this morning to watch the moonset at the ocean.  When we got there it was all fog!  Oh well, we are just staying parked here for awhile since we finally have some internet here…make breakfast and then head on over to the Hearst Castle.

~Linda