Day 12 - Morro Bay

I just love the central coast! It doesn't have the traffic jams and big cities of the north and south, has a bit of both kinds of beaches (rocky and sandy), has gorgeous green grassy hills, and is easily accessible to the wineries of Paso Robles, Hearst Castle, San Luis Obispo, the boat harbor of Morro Bay, and cute little artist villages like Cambria.

For tonight's sunset photo opp, I drove up to the Hearst Castle area to "seal beach". One of the rangers at Yosemite recommended it and said the seals were beached there this time of year having their babies. Well, I didn't see any babies, but found literally hundreds of elephant seals.

The males are enormous, some as big as 15 feet in length and weighing up to 2000 pounds. They also have a distinctive "trunk" nose that they grunt through to swoon the ladies. It was fascinating to watch them for an hour or so!