Elephant Seals

 Last March, I went to California with my mom and my boys.

We visited my sister in Palo Alto,
Rode a street car, crossed the Golden State Bridge and visited Alcatraz in San Francisco.
And then we spent the rest of the trip renting a house in Pebble Beach,
and exploring Carmel, Big Sur and the rest of the Monterey Bay area.
The boys went tide pooling for the first time.

 It was an amazing trip, and on the last day of the trip,
we hiked in the pouring, freezing rain at Año Nuevo State Reserve
to see a colony of elephant seals.

The elephant seals spend most of their lives at sea,
and come ashore only to molt, give birth, and mate. 

The male elephant seals can be up to sixteen feet long and weigh up to 2 1/2 tons!
They have great big snouts, as you can see.

They were amazing.
They were HUGE.
They made the most amazing noises.


This is my first time to participate in Camera Critters in a long time!
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