Thursday morning we packed up, checked out of Wyndham, drove Auntie Marilyn back to her car in Berkeley, said our good-byes, and headed off to find the route that would take us south along the Pacific coastline back to LA. The day was a bit overcast and foggy as we got closer to the water, but it did not deter from the sheer beauty we experienced driving this particular part of California.
We hopped on Route 1 in Monterey and headed south through Carmel by the Sea, a State Reserve, and Big Sur. We wound through the twisting, cliff dropping, very-little-protection-so-you-don't-fall-over-the-side, road. I cannot adequately describe the beauty of the views we saw. Tom, who hesitated to take this route due to added distance and time, finally had to pull over at one of the many side viewing areas just to take in the sight.
The road twisted around the cliffs without barriers much of the time. I did a lot of sucking in of my breath as Tom drove, and I was torn between looking down the cliffs and closing my eyes. It was reminiscent of our drives through Ireland and Scotland, but as I did there I had to look at everything. The beauty was just too incredible.
Eventually we made it to the Piedras Blancas rookery where elephant seals cover the beach at various months of the year. In July and August there are hundreds an from January to May there are thousands. It was quite the sight to see these 5,000 pound animals up close. We pulled off and parked in one of the lots and hiked to each side of the viewing area to stand and watch them.
You can smell them and hear them before you actually see them as you walk to the viewing area. Most of them just lie there sunning, occasionally using their flippers to flip the sand on to their blubbery bodies. But as we stood there watching a male would slink around searching for warmer companions or bodies and another male would rise up and attack. At any given time there could be a handful of males jousting with one another, loudly barking, and I mean LOUDLY.
The males can be 16 feet long and weigh 5,000 lbs. The females weigh as much as 1,800 lbs. and can get to 12 feet long. The female loses 40% of her weight while she births, nurses, and weans her pup in an average of 34 days. The males take two four month trips to sea and dive continuously without touching land, averaging dives 20 to 30 minutes long. The females spend even to eight months at sea which is the ongest uninterrupted time of any of the elephant seals. The seals are protected by federal law since they were heavily hunted in the eighteenth and nineteenth century for the oil from their blubber. Their population has grown to over 200,000 and they have been coming to the California coast line since the early 1990's.
We left the seals and continued south, arriving at our destination for the night before dusk. Tom had made arrangements for us to stay in Morro Bay for the night, a smaller city on the coast named for the giant rock sitting in the ocean by the town.
The inn was an interesting place decorated in Victorian heavy cloths and colors, but the beds and pillows were the best of our entire trip. Our room was huge with an electric fireplace and a small kitchen area with refrigerator and microwave. We walked around the town for dinner and later some ice cream, getting some of the history from the locals. Stopping for the night broke up the driving, but we paid for it the next day by getting stuck in LA traffic for several hours.
I wouldn't change that drive for anything, however. It should be a requirement for all Americans to tour that coastline. It's breathtaking, beautiful, eye opening, and SO worth it if you are considering it. We were certainly glad we got to have the experience.
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