San Simeon and Elephant Seals

This past Wednesday we travelled up the coastal highway to San Simeon, home of the Hearst Mansion. We were not there to visit the mansion, at least not on this trip. We were here to view the Elephant Seals.

Each year the seals migrate from the waters off the coast of Alaska to the central coast region of California. They are here to give birth to their calves. Each year starting in late November to early December the adults begin to arrive.  It is estimated that this year there are somewhere between 4000 - 7000 seals.  It is a really awesome sight to see.

The males are between 14 to 16 feet long and can weight up to two tons. The females are about 10 to 12 feet in length and weigh between 1000 - 2000 pounds. When the calves are born  they usually weigh about 75 pounds, but while nursing durning the next month they  rapidly gain weight to between 250 to 350 pounds.  You can find the elephant seal rookery in Google Earth : 35º 39'09. 52 N  121º14'28. 20 W. There are some other people's pictures posted there as well

Here is a You Tube video, someone shot last year.

Before we left the area, we also had the chance to visit with some of the local squirrel population:

Have a good week at school... I will post another blog later this week