Warren's Place

We were hiking on the Bird Island Trail at Pt. Lobos State Park. The park is just 5 minutes south of Carmel, California. We paused for a moment on the cliff above China Cove. This is a beautiful, sheltered cove where the water is turqoise and clean. There is a small, white sand beach at the end of the cove. The access stairs were closed to the public by yellow tape. As we surveyed the scenery, we noticed a pair of harbor seals in the water. Then we noticed that it was actually a mother seal and her pup. We watched the mother coax her pup onto the beach. We saw two other pairs of mothers and pups come onto the beach. So after the swimming lessons, it was feeding time. The pups seemed to instinctively search out their mothers' milk. It was such a marvelous experience to be able to witness this behavior in the wild. We were standing on the high cliffs overlooking the cove, so the seals were not disturbed by our presence at all.

China Cove inlet with Bird Island in the background:



An artist is sketching the cove:



Mother nursing her pup:



Here they are snuggling up to each other after the meal. The mother was affectionately patting the pup with her flipper. It was too cute. Notice the pair of seals in the background. Judging from their swollen look, we think that they are pregnant females. The pups that we saw were very young.



A hint to future visitors of Pt. Lobos: Gail and I went there in the morning. There were people there already, but not very many. It was nice and uncrowded. By the time we left at around 12:30, we saw a line of cars at the entry gate that snaked out to Highway 1. I think it would be more enjoyable in the morning.

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--Warren