After lunch at the Hearst Castle, we drove just a few minutes down Highway 1 and enjoyed this Elephant Seal beach. This sandy spot is one that the massive and blubbery seals migrate to from Alaska several times each year. In July, it is the males that claim their piece of this "timeshare", coming here to molt and shed their winter fur.
Mostly, they were just laying on the beach like sand-colored lumps, but we saw a few guys lumbering around. It was cool to watch this seal roll out the ocean after a swim.
A long talk with a very passionate docent taught us many things. The week we were at the coast was actually on the warm side (we LOVED it-- cool enough for the fireplace in the morning and hot tub in the evening, but warm enough in the afternoon sun to wear shorts). She explained that the seals were roasting and kept tossing sand over their bodies to cool off.
Seeing animals in the wild like this never ceases to amaze me. Later, you'll read about some of the other ocean life we sighted this week, it really was incredible!
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