Photo Walk 9 - Año Nuevo State Park

We had been wanting to visit Año Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals for a couple of years. It's the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seal. Last summer Rick marked a date in the calendar so we'd remember to make reservations early in 2007 (reservations are required 60 days in advance!) When the time came, we decided to make it a Photo Walk. Little did we know we'd have such a hardy bunch of photographers who would join us an hour and a half from the city on a Sunday morning!

We had a total of 34 participants, split into a group of 20 and a group of 14. The weather was a bit spotty, but it was actually quite fun. The docents told us that it was the elephant seal's favorite type of weather.

A short walk had us out in the sand dunes with the barks, yells and grunts of the seals all around us. We learned a number of facts about them: they are about 80 pounds at birth, the males can reach 5500 pounds and 16 feet long when mature, they can hold their breath for an hour and a half and they can dive as deep as a mile and a quarter!

The park's website can be found here: Año Nuevo State Park

Since it was all about the seals, we chose some categories that would allow for a variety of interpretation. Follow the links above to see what each photowalker submitted.

Thanks again to everyone who joined us, we had a great time! See you next time!

Randy and Rick