Wed, July 11: Elephant seals and El Capitan State Park

[Tynor] Today we left Big Sur state park to go to El Capitan state park. Along the way, we stopped to see some Elephant Seals. They are very fascinating animals. We learned that they do something called a catastrophic molt. They molt all at once instead of molting all year long like most mammals do. They lie down on the sand to dry off the outer layer to make it slide off. While on the California beaches they fast for about three months right before they molt.

When we got to the camp site at El Capitan, it was hard to jack up the tire because the tire jack isn’t working very well right now because it isn’t lubed very well. El Capitan has this funny system at the front gate where if you stop and look out the driver’s window at the check-in point (as you would normally do), there’s a sign with big letters that says “Look out of passenger window!" When you do, there is the park ranger, waving and smiling at you.

[Stacia] While we were driving today, we saw smoke and helicopters ahead. As we got closer, we saw there was a fire on the hill and they were dumping chemicals on it to put it out. Lots of fire engines and police cars – more than a dozen. The boys were quite impressed.

The scenery down the coast continues to be beautiful, though there's quite a contrast in the blue sea, kelp beds and gorgeous scenes on the west side, and the dry, dry, dry brown hills east of the road. Something else we've seen a LOT on this trip is one-lane bridges. Apparently Oregon and California agreed that this summer, they'd fix all those old bridges in one fell swoop. So we've frequently run across bridges half-way repaired or being enlarged to include more lanes or what have you. Often they've installed temporary traffic lights to allow just one direction of traffic at a time, like the one you can kind of see here:

We did pull over to see the elephant seals along our way down the winding coast today, and I’m so glad we did. What *amazing* creatures. I had no idea. Just pulled over kind of on a whim, thinking the boys would like to see seals in real life after all the sealife we’d seen at the aquarium earlier. I didn’t have a clue that these weren’t seals as I knew them, who clamber about on flippers over the rocks. The seals, all bulls this time of year, were mostly hauled out on the beach at the edge of the water, like a row of beached whales. It looked a little alarming, actually.

Fortunately a Friends of the Elephant Seals docent was nearby as I wondered aloud about their condition, and he explained all about their living patterns, lifecycle, migration, and more. He laughed when I asked if they’d be climbing up on the rocks soon. Nope, these seals don’t climb on rocks at all. They rest on the beach after their long trip from the north and fast for months, occasionally slipping back into the water to spar with each other. Not real fighting – that happens in the fall, during mating season – but just playing around. A little break from the monotony of lounging on the beach and making their loud harrumph noises.

The seals on the beach varied a lot in size, but they were all male – the females are off at sea right now. There was one particularly large bull way up on the sand, making the funniest little (well, not so little) snorting noises with his elephant nose that we watched for quite awhile. It was all just fascinating. I’m sure the docent hasn’t had such an eager visitor in weeks! I can’t wait to check out some books and movies when we get back and learn more.

We also caught a glimpse of the Hearst Castle, way up on a hill to our left. I’ve never been there but once again, no time to check it out on this trip!

Our lunch stop was in San Luis Obispo, where Highway 1 meets up with Highway 101 (a much bigger and more forgiving highway for driving with a tent trailer in tow). There’s no way of knowing from the highway where groceries stored can be found, but when I pulled over to fill up the car, I happened to spy a medium-sized health food market not far away, kind of like PCC - nowhere near the size of a Whole Foods. I would have preferred a nice Safeway or Albertson’s but didn’t want to drive all over town looking for one, so we made do with what was right there. Actually, it turned out pretty well, since they had various things I needed for Cory (soy milk, soy yogurt) and most other items on my list. (Except our standard cracker fare – graham crackers, club crackers. Nowhere to be found in this joint! ;-) As a late lunch for my starving children, I snagged the last deli sandwich in the bin, chock full of good stuff like sprouts and shredded carrots (!). Tynor and Niall wolfed it down anyway, and actually liked it pretty well they said. Amazing what hunger will do for being willing to try new stuff. ;-) Cory devoured a yogurt and I had a nice piece of humanely-harvested (I expect ;-) blackened salmon – yum!

So picture us with van and tent trailer parked across four stalls in the back parking lot (no pull-throughs or along-the-curb parking anywhere in sight), tailgate up (ah, blessed shade!), kids sitting on and in the car, eating our lunch there as if this is the most normal thing in the world. I’m sure passersby thought we were a pretty amusing bunch. But hey, whatever works when your family is hungry and you’re a fish out of water. This trip really made me think about how visitors find (or don’t find) what they need (grocery stores, gas stations) or should see (parks, trails) in our town when they come here not knowing where anything is. I’m sure there are Web sites that will lay it all out for you, wherever you are, but I don’t know about them and regardless – we didn’t have wi-fi access!

After lunch, we quickly met up with Highway 101, which is much smoother sailing (straight, fast, highway speeds) and we made good time toward Santa Barbara. Traveling down 101 reminds me of years ago when Frank and I took the highway en route to LA, mostly so we could stop in Solvang, a touristy Danish village much like Leavenworth in Eastern Washington. (Although when I look them up online, one is Danish and the other Bavarian, which are of course completely different cultures. But anyway, the style and offerings remind me one of the other.) I wish now that we’d taken 101 again and stopped along the way to enjoy the scenery and visit more places. But in those days, we were always HB to get to LA and so took boring but fast I-5 down the hot middle of the state.

Happily, we arrived at El Capitan State Park while it was still light! And before dinnertime, even. You might have guessed by now that those are both Good Things (and don’t always happen). The most notable part of our site at El Capitan was the dry dirt – ugh. Filthy everything. That, and the huge step down to the ground from the popup, the way we set up when we arrived. As I walked around the campground later with Cory, I saw several other configurations that probably would have worked better than the one we chose. E.g. situate the popup so that it opens onto the rest of the double-wide parking area, rather than putting the car on that side, or turn the popup sideways and park the car sideways along the street – though that would have been a big challenge, trying to swivel our popup that much using just manual force. But for one night, we dealt with the less than ideal – as ever!

For once, we didn’t have party neighbors! Though the park is smack dab between the highway (literally next door to some campsites) and the train tracks, so we had lots of “white noise” from big trucks using their engines to slow down coming into the town just south of El Capitan, and then big trains blowing their horns coming through the area too. Not that I’m complaining… :-)