Nature Extraordinaire at Point Reyes National Seashore

We drove out to the westernmost tip of the continental USA on Thursday, to Chimney Rock, to view an entire elephant seal colony and to the lighthouse for whale watching.

To get there we travel the road which narrows significantly past the Drake's Beach cutoff. The cows are all loose, no fences, and we wait for them to allow us our turn. Even the deer don’t care much about we humans as they frolic miles above the ocean.

The seals numbers are increasing rapidly since the late 80’s after near extinction (they were hunted for their blubber like whales). We've been shooting video footage for a documentary, and as much as we’ve been fascinated the last two years watching the males on the beach, this was nutso. Thousands of seals and so much going on!!! Privacy, not an issue for them – except no humans allowed.

The males fight for dominance over the colony – I’ve included a pic of one of the losers – not a pretty sight. The women come ashore to give birth and wean their young after 28 days. Only half of the pups survive. The women are tired and want to get back in the sea but not b/4 the men mate with them and let me tell ya, they don’t know a thing about foreplay. The noise is amazing: the pups are squealing, the bulls are posturing and I think the women are saying, “I have a headache."

The whales are very active this year too, though we didn’t catch any on camera. The steps to the lighthouse are the equivalent of a 30-floor building – down, easy, but up is a killer.

We’ve been blessed this winter to see so much with the weather cooperating so nicely and are especially blessed to live here!

(Note - on the weekends you must take a shuttle bus from either Drake's Beach or South Beach.)