Elephant Seals : Educational and fun experience

Ano Nuevo State park is open year round and seals can be seen all year long too, however for the
months of Dec – March, seal viewing is open by reservations only.
And for these guided tours, one needs to book two months in advance for weekend slots.

We had stopped at the park more than a decade ago, have memories of this visit to see elephant seals.
It has been on our list to visit with kids for last few years.
A guided tour did not happen, so we went during one of the April weekends this year when no reservations are needed.
I was however surprised to see docents and rangers at every vista point on the trail.
These individuals are volunteers who now devote their time towards this cause, helping people learn about the characteristic about this huge animal. The baby seals have a tracking device attached and it was amazing to know that they follow the same path and in the ocean during migration year over year.

There are three main vista points in the trail, each is unique and has different advantages.
Both kids and us enjoyed the self guided walk and I would recommend planning a guided one.
Each month of the guided tour has different things to view.

The seals are obviously near the ocean, so there is some walk involved from the parking lot.
The roundtrip roughly took us about 3 hours. All of us really enjoyed the experience and would definitely want to
do a guided one as the seals are in abundance during those months.

The walk to vista point passes through a variety of terrain – bridges, sand dunes, wetland, trails etc.
And it isn’t a stroller friendly hike(sand, wetland etc).
It is fully exposed hike – sun protection and hydration supply would be needed.

Park has picnic tables and restrooms near the parking lot, a small museum as well.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523

Since we went in spring, the docent at one of the vista point mentioned that whales are migrating and
Pigeon Point light house would be a good place to visit.
On our way back we stopped at Pigen Point lighthouse and must be lucky day – were able to see few whales :-).