The elephant seal bulls arrive on the beach first. They head-butt each other with bulbous, trunkish noses (it’s called a proboscis) and bash cornified chests together, grunting and roaring. They all want to be in prime position when the elephant seal cows show up.
When the females pull ashore, they head right past the males, into the dunes, where they birth their babies. The cows have arrived pregnant, and not until their pups are born and nursed for several weeks will they turn their attention to the hovering males. Then, after some interaction, the cows head back out to sea to feed—and grow a pup to be born here next year. The bulls stick around to impregnate as many as 50 cows before they move out, too.
So goes the family life of the northern elephant seal. Between Dec. 1 and March 31, it’s on display for visitors who sign up for a $7 guided walk at Año Nuevo State Park. It’s a nearly 4-mile round-trip hike, some trudging through sand, to witness the stinky, noisy spectacle. This is nature in one of its rawest forms, and there’s something awesome and beautiful about the glistening grayish-silver creatures returning to these beaches year after year, roaring with vigor.
Año Nuevo State Park lies 22 miles north of Santa Cruz and 55 miles south of San Francisco on Highway 1, near the teeny little community of Pescadero. The park’s windswept beaches and dunes contain the largest mainland pinniped rookery—seal breeding ground—each winter, and are a molting residence for elephant seals each summer. Elephant seals are viewable throughout the year at Año Nuevo, but prime time is right now. The bulls arrive and start fighting for land rights in December, the cows begin arriving and birthing pups from late December through early February, and by mid-March, most of the grownups have returned to the sea, leaving the milk-fattened youngsters to bask and frolic in the early spring sunshine. During these four winter months, the seals can only be seen during docent-guided walks—reservations highly recommended.
Bring your walking shoes and layer up; winds can be stiff, and tours go rain or shine, no umbrellas allowed. Don’t forget your binoculars! You can see plenty, but you can get only so close to the elephant seals.
On the walk out, you’ll likely hear a bit about the area’s history and seismic activity, and a lot about elephant seals and their reproductive habits. As you near the beaches, you’ll hear and smell the animals before you see them. The seals themselves are a glorious, tubular mass of gray matter, heaving themselves around on undulating blubber bellies. Listen for the cows as they call to their pups—when the babies are born, the mothers imprint on their youngster with a specific vocalization. If pup loses mama, the two find each other again with that one-of-a-kind call. Behold the power portrayed by two fighting males; it’s enough to make you glad you’re not allowed to get any closer. This might be state parks land in San Mateo County, but this is still a wild outpost governed by beasts.
While at the park, visit the Marine Education Center, where natural history exhibits include wall displays that cite nuggets of information about elephant seals—for example, a lactating female produces milk that’s 55% fat (compare that to human milk, which is 4.5% fat). The onsite bookstore sells books, post cards, stuffed sea creatures, and other marine-related treasures. Check out the whitewashed old buildings from the Steele Dairy Ranch, including the barn and creamery.
When you’re finished at Año Nuevo, head south on Highway 1 into Santa Cruz County. At Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, Santa Cruz County’s newest public open space, miles of trails run among forests and grasslands once home to the Cotoni tribe of Coastanoan people, on land that has long been grazed by dairy cattle. These trails afford hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians vast views of meadows, marine terraces, and open ocean. Farther south, Natural Bridges State Beach invites beach combers, tidepoolers, and bird-watchers to the area, which is anchored by spectacular archways carved out by surf. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch sight of some remaining monarchs at the park’s eucalyptus grove, Monarch Butterfly Natural Preserve; some 150,000 migrate here from mid-October to mid-February each year.
In Santa Cruz proper, grab a snack downtown, where shops and eateries line the oh-so-walkable Pacific Avenue. Throughout downtown, public art brightens the streets and buildings. Adjacent to Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Abbott Square is a gathering ground for people to enjoy food and drink, live performances, a children’s playground, and dynamic works of art.
Next stop could be West Cliff Drive, a beautiful spot for a walk on the oceanfront. At the famous Steamer Lane, wetsuit-clad surfing daredevils ride winter waves while the less-brave admire their feats from on-shore lookout points. It’s sobering to come upon the surfer memorials—benches inscribed with names, and memorial signposts just above the stairs that descend the cliff straight to the boulders lining the wild ocean below. Visit the Surfer Museum at the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse for more about the area’s wave-riding culture.
A few miles from Santa Cruz, in Felton, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park has an awe-inspiring 40-acre grove of old-growth redwoods. These spectacular giants scrape the sky—the tallest is 277 feet tall. It’s approximately 1,500 years old. In addition to the redwoods, three other habitats exist within the park: grasslands, river and sandhills, and plenty of trails criss-cross the area. Watch for banana slugs, a specialty of the dense Santa Cruz County redwood forests.
At press time, Visit Santa Cruz County was preparing to open a new visitor center, which will include a sensory-sensitive room specifically for travelers with autism (and their families). For more information, contact santacruz.org.
To make your reservations for Año Nuevo’s guided walks, call (800) 444-4445 or register online at reserveamerica.com.