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SAN SIMEON — Looking for a fight?
Head down Highway 1 south of Big Sur, pull over at the sign for “Elephant Seals” near Piedras Blancas and walk across the parking lot toward the water.
Then look down.
At first glance, the sunny California beach resembles the Oregon coastline, strewn with messy driftwood after a winter storm. But a closer look reveals those black, brown and silvery logs are actually breathing, grunting elephant seals. And soon enough, you’ll see a fight — or 10 — depending on the time of year and how long you stay.
On a recent day in early December, we had just arrived when we noticed two young males positioning themselves for battle. In moves that seemed choreographed, they sidled up to each other, raised their heads and, neck-to-neck, twisted their pink mouths toward the other’s elephant-like flesh. After a few minutes, and with no apparent victor, they shimmied off in opposite directions to collapse, exhausted, on the sand.
As sparring goes, it was more wrastle than battle. The two pups were practicing for what would become part of their mating ritual when they were older, bigger and, it must be said, a whole lot uglier. By the time a male elephant seal is 8 to 9 years old — old enough to compete with other males for females — he is huge and blubbery and sporting a distinctive bulbous nose.
The ongoing fight club is just part of why crowds gather daily at this popular beach just a few miles north of Hearst Castle. They also come to observe the seals breed, give birth and undergo a “catastrophic’” molt. In fact, there’s a whole lot of activity, not to mention otherworldly noise, emanating from the sands just below the viewing area.
Thanks to the expanse of the Piedras Blancas viewing area — hundreds of yards of boardwalk and paved trail for humans to spread out on — everyone gets a good view. And that’s a good thing as there’s something oddly mesmerizing about these primordial beasts even when they’re simply rolling over or dragging their awkward bodies around, noisily hoisting themselves atop a mound of others, or flipping sand onto their backs.
With its large parking lot offering immediate access, Piedras Blancas is the easiest place to observe the seals. It’s their largest known mainland rookery, home to an estimated 250,000 creatures that return to this six-mile stretch each winter to rest, give birth, then mate again. Then in spring they shimmy back into the Pacific to swim as far north as Alaska to feed.
That elephant seals still exist is a good-news environmental story. For centuries the seals, like whales, were hunted for their oil. By the late 1880s, they were thought to be extinct — until a tiny colony was discovered on Guadalupe Island off Baja, Mexico, according to the guidebook “Elephant Seals,” by Carole and Phil Adams.
First printed in 1999, this excellent resource was most recently updated in 2015. The authors are affiliated with the Friends of the Elephant Seal nonprofit at Piedras Blancas, and their book includes a brief history that explains the seals’ unlikely comeback.
In the 1920s, the Mexican government instituted protections. As the herd grew, elephant seals began colonizing islands and mainland beaches as far north as Año Nuevo in San Mateo County and the Point Reyes National Seashore. In 1972, the United States followed Mexico with the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and these remarkable creatures continued to thrive.
Pups first appeared on the California mainland at Año Nuevo beach in the early ’60s, though it wasn’t until 1975 that the first birth was witnessed there. Año Nuevo continues to be an excellent place to watch the seals, although it does require some advance planning.
Elephant seals began showing up Piedras Blancas in 1990, and the first pup was born there in 1992, according to the E-seal newsletter, created by the Piedras Blancas Friends and available, along with lots of excellent interpretive signage, at the viewing area.
Getting a look at the Piedras Blancas seals wasn’t always this easy. According to the book’s authors, as the elephant seal population exploded — by 1996 some 1,000 pups had been born on the beaches near the lighthouse — people took notice: “Anyone who drove along this stretch of beach in 1996 and 1997 knows what a dangerous situation was developing, as vehicles parked illegally, often on the highway, while the occupants scrambled over fencing and made their way over private property to view this prehistoric pageant taking place on the beach…”
As a result, the highway was realigned and property was traded to create the viewing area now maintained by docents. In their first year, the volunteers in blue jackets fielded questions from 60,000 curious observers.
Today, the crowds show no sign of slowing down. And Piedras Blancas will be especially busy from now through February as the seals return from their eating journeys and settle into the sand for their much-needed winter break, as well as to give birth and breed.
And those male seals? They’ll be itching for a fight.
Did you know?
Elephant seals belong to the same family as walruses, as opposed to sea lions and harbor seals.
On the beach they huddle together, but while at sea they’re completely on their own, and constantly swimming — thousands of miles to the north — to feed. They generally return to the beach they were born on.
Males can weigh up to 5,000 pounds and reach 16 feet in length. In the winter mating season, males compete to breed for up to 100 days with no food or water.
Females weigh up to 1,800 pounds and can reach 12 feet in length. In an average stay on the beach (a little more than a month), a female elephant seal loses 40 percent of her weight while she births, nurses, weans her pup and breeds. She will spend 7 to 8 months, uninterrupted, at sea.
Pups weigh 60-80 pounds at birth. By the time they’ve weaned (about 28 days later), they weigh between 250 and 350 pounds. At three months, they can dive deeper and stay down longer than adult sea lions and harbor seals. At 3½ months, they head out solo to swim north. Like their parents, they go as far as Alaska. They don’t touch land again until they return to the rookery, six months later.
— Source: Friends of the Elephant Seals “E-Seal News”
Where to see them
Piedras Blancas: A 12-minute drive north of Cambria, off Highway 1 in Big Sur, this is the largest mainland colony and the easiest to access, with a large parking lot adjacent to the large overview area. Learn more about the seals by asking a docent or visiting the Friends of the Elephant Seal Visitor Center in the Plaza del Cavalier in San Simeon, 8 miles south of the viewing area; www.elephantseal.org.
Año Nuevo State Park: Just south of Pescadero, this is the second-largest mainland colony. Daily docent-guided walks, which last about 2½ hours and require a 3 to 4 mile hike, are offered through March 31. Reserve a spot, $7 plus a $4 reservation fee, at www.parks.ca.gov/anonuevo/.
Point Reyes: A small colony of about 100 seals can be observed from Elephant Seal Overlook, near Chimney Rock, above Drakes Bay. Docents, bearing binoculars and spotting scopes, are around on weekends and holidays to answer questions.