Finishing up the coastal highway

When we travel we usually go with the bite off more than you can chew strategy. The way we see it is that you can go somewhere and relax and see a few things and go home well rested—or you can attempt to see everything and go home needing a vacation from your vacation. We normally plan for the latter but then tend to normalize somewhere between the two by the time we kick off the trip. For example, when planning this trip we wanted to see Big Sur, Highway 1, Death Valley, Sequoia National Forest, Mammoth Lake, and Yosemite National Park—in 2 days. After considering the logistics of all that we settled on Big Sur, Highway 1, and Yosemite. To be honest, even that felt like too much.

After our waterfall on the beach (sounds like a cocktail name, no?) we checked out of the lodge and headed south on Highway 1 to the road that would take us through Paso Robles and then on to Yosemite. Bogdan really wanted to see an actual sequoia tree, so when we learned that the Mariposa Grove on the south entrance of Yosemite has some of the largest in the world, we added it to Saturday's itinerary.

For some reason, our GPS Mandy has been really over estimating how long it will take us to reach our destinations, but when we plugged in the Mariposa Grove from our lodge and she said it would take five hours to drive 150 miles we kind of freaked out. We looked at the route on the map and decided she was probably over estimating by about 1.5 hours. Still, it gave us pause that our journey that day be a long one.

This did not deter us, however, from finding and spending a couple of hours on a sandy beach—Sand dollar Beach to be exact. Because really, how could we pass up a sandy beach? The water was c.o.l.d. so we didn't swim, but we played in the sand and rocks and got our feet wet. It was fun and a good way to kick off the long drive.

Later that day we're traveling down Highway 1 and the GPS is slowly ticking off the miles until we can turn off the coastal highway. The mountains flatten out and the road straightens a bit, but as we round one of the last stretch of curves, Bogdan notices something on the beach ahead—all over the beach, in fact. We get a little farther and find a huge group of elephant seals bathing in the sun. We pull into a nearby parking lot, joining the many other curious drivers standing on a boardwalk watching the absolutely goofy and humongous creatures right in front of us.

A ranger of some sort is there answering questions about the elephant seals and we learn that this group of males (bulls) are about 16 feet long, weigh 6,600 pounds, and are "molting" their fur/skin on the beach. I'd say "chill-axing" is a better verb to describe what they were doing.

They lay in the sand and barely move until one flips the sand sending it spraying over his back. Then another will lift his heavy head and cry out while the others around him make a disapproving sound as if telling him to keep it down. Further off in the water a group of seals play (or fight?), jumping up and down, splashing water to and fro. One seal is done with the water and makes his slow exit from the waves back to the sand—scoot, scoot, now rest. Scoot, scoot, scoot, now long rest.

Amazingly, they all look different—the shape, face, size, eyes, color, etc.—each elephant seal has an individual look and personality, it seems. We spent a lot of time observing the elephant seals, until we realized (remembered) that we had a long drive ahead of us.