Visiting with the Piedras Blancas elephant seals

Nearing the end of our drive, we pulled into the Point Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. Almost immediately, the spectacular views and the sheer number of elephant seals on the beach entranced us.

Piedras Blancas elephant seals draw crowds

According to Highway1RoadTrip.com, the Piedras Blancas rookery hosts about 24,000 elephant seals each year. That’s a lot of blubber to pack into a six-mile stretch from north to south. We parked in the main parking lot and walked the short distance to the boardwalk, which is also wheelchair accessible. There were probably hundreds of people there, all with the same idea—they’d come to be entertained by the Piedras Blancas elephant seals.

What exactly are these two guys doing? Is this a young-seal sparring match? Kind of like two little boys wrestling? Is the one in the back getting ready to show off one of his signature moves? Who knows? What I know is that there was no blood and neither looked like they were too annoyed.

Elephant seals spend about 80% of their time in the ocean. They’ll travel thousands of miles to reach their destination. For seals born at Piedras Blancas, that destination is the Gulf of Alaska, where the females feed on squid and the larger males, who are at the top of the food chain with few predators, go after larger prey like small sharks.

We’d spent less than an hour at the Piedras Blancas rookery, but could have spent many more exploring. There are literally miles of coastline in the rookery where elephant seals return each year. It was an amazing way to finish our drive down California’s iconic Highway 1. 

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