Gnomeo's First Adventure's Part 2

After we visited the Hearst Castle we went to see the California Elephant Seals. Everyone that we had spoke to had told us it was something that should not be missed. 

Gnomeo couldn't miss this!

The Piedras Blancas rookery is located on Highway 1 seven miles north of San Simeon (and the Hearst Castle) on the California Central Coast. There is a boardwalk for you to walk on to get a better look without being to close to the seals since they are very aggressive.

Elephant seals spend most of their life at sea, only coming to shore to molt, give birth & mate. You will notice in the pictures and videos that they are not very active. That is because they are fasting. The females fast while mating, birthing and nursing and the males will also go with out food or water for up to 3 months during this time.

Male seals are between fourteen to sixteen feet long and weigh up to 2 1/2 tons. Females are much smaller than the males, they average ten to twelve feet in length and weigh between 1,200 to 2,000 pounds. The pups are approximately 75 pounds at birth and weigh around 250-350 pounds in less than a month (mommas milk is 55% fat).

This was a male letting his voice be heard.
I guess the best way to describe the sound they make is a very loud grunt.

In this video one male was getting to close to another that did not appreciate it and let him know it. You will see the seal that was coming close turn around.

It was so cool to see these "beasts" in their natural environment. You may be able to see in some of the videos the seals coming out of the water and others throwing sand on themselves to keep cool.

This "little" guy was so cute! He kept scratching his belly. He was using his flipper like a hand and when he would scratch it looked like he had fingers. My mom and dad said he looked like their dog, Ernie, sleeping like this.

Here is a live video stream of the elephant seals at Año Nuevo Island. Please note: Due to the remoteness of the camera and actual location of Año Nuevo Island, the Sealcam ocassionally goes offline or the picture becomes less clear.

Wouldn't you know it, but we had rain July 4th.  The lady that own's the campground we are staying in said that in the 7 years she had lived here, it had NEVER rained in the month of July.  It rained like 3 or 4 days in a row.  On the 4th it was a gully washer!  We weren't sure that we would be able to watch fireworks.  Luckly it stopped a few hours before the show was to start and we drove up to Tehachapi to watch.  Tehachapi is not a very big town, so we were fairly impressed with their show.   

My mom took this video of the fireworks

& added some tunes for your enjoyment!

I am so glad I was able to spend the holiday weekend with my parents.  It was wonderful getting to share some of our California experiences with them.  I just wish they could have stayed a little longer!!

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