The Traveling Widower

Tag: california

  • Exploring Ano Nuevo: A Elephant Seal Adventure on the California Coast

    January 13th/14th, 2026

    View from Capitola cliffs
    View from Capitola

    After a full month of boredom at home, I really needed to get out of Dodge for a while. I had considered going to Yosemite, but decided to head to the coast to see the Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo State Park. It was snowing quite a bit in the mountains, and I just did not feel like dealing with a long drive in winter conditions. I have chains for the Subaru, but really don’t want to use them. Wimp.

    I had visited Ano Nuevo many years ago, when we lived in the South Bay – I remembered the long walk to the beach, and wandering around the huge seals which were sprawled around the trails. I did recall that it was a complete waste of time in terms of photography, but that it was amazing seeing the huge seals up close. So, I went ahead and booked two guided walks, and try to figure out a better way to photograph these weird beasts. And while I’m in the neighborhood, visit some friends I have not seen in a while. 

    It was a relatively short, 30 mile drive from the hotel I stay at in Scotts Valley to the park, along an incredibly beautiful stretch of US 1 Highway. But then again, almost all of US 1 is beautiful. 

    The park is open all year long, but access to the beach is restricted during the pup/mating and molting seasons, when there are just too many seals on the beach to allow visitors to wander around unattended. The males are enormous – about the size of a mid-sized SUV. You just don’t want to have tourists flattened by one of these behemoths. So you have to reserve a guided, docent tour to get down to see the seals. 

    The guided tour is about 2.5 hours, and requires 6 miles round trip of walking, mostly on graded trails. It’s a pleasant walk down to the shelter where the tour starts. 

    Trail leading to the beach at Ano Nuevo State Park
    Ano Nuevo State Park HQ buildin

    And sometimes if you are lucky, you might see some other creature other than seals.

    Black Tail Deer having breakfast

    The docents take you the last 2 miles along the beach trails, which get you up close and personal with the seals. It’s pretty amazing. There are hundreds of male, female and newborns pups scattered around the beach, with some of the huge alpha males hauled up on the trails. It’s quite noisy with the big males trumpeting, and the pups all shrieking to be fed. From a photography viewpoint, it’s pure chaos. The seals are pretty much sand colored, except for the black pups, and they cover themselves with sand to maintain their temperature when the sun is shining. So most of what you see are masses of large, tubular, sand colored bodies lying on sand, and throwing sand on themselves.

    Once in a while, the weird males prop themselves up and start trumpeting, and then flop back onto the sand. If you are really lucky, you get to see the big males fighting – sort of looks like dun colored sumo wrestlers, bashing against each other. 

    If you are more than just a casual photographer, this mess of seals and sand is a real challenge, and if it’s a beautiful sunny day, the lighting will be awful. As it was the first day. Even in the morning, the glare from the ocean is intense.

    The seals pretty much do nothing most of the time – the pups move around a bit, and the adults throw sand up every now and then. Not exactly photogenic or very exciting. I did learn my lesson from my last experience to:

    1 – Use a tripod/monopod

    2 – Look for interactions between the females and juvenile males – they are all more active then the huge alpha males. The females get into arguments over the pups, which make for interesting action shots. 

    3 – Focus on the pups – the newborns are tiny, and scattered all over the place. Most of them are sheltered next to their mothers, so you can get interactions between them.

    4 – Head shots of the males are interesting if you can get their eyes open. On the other hand, blob shots are not interesting. 

    And my plan to experiment on day one, and make some approach changes on day two worked out well. Granted, the seals were more active on Wednesday, but I also changed some camera settings, and set up the monopod before we got to the viewing points on the trail. I have spent some time curating some of the images with Adobe Lightroom, mostly just cropping and changing exposure setting. Here are some of the results (double-click on an image to expand it):

    Alpha male elephant seal with a female peeking over him
    Very young elephant seal pup
    Alpha male elephant seal, throwing sand on its back
    Two female elephant seals arguing about something.

    And a few more…

    After the tour on Tuesday, I decided to visit Capitola, hoping to get a few shots on the beach, but more importantly, visit the ice cream shop (Polar Bear Ice Cream) in the village. I was pretty tired from the hike, but I always enjoy wandering along the beach there. But…tragedy. The ice cream shop was closed! They only open on weekends in the winter. I was really bummed. I wound up heading back up to the car, and stopped at a Diary Queen instead. A Blizzard was not really what I wanted, but it tasted pretty good. And I did get to climb some stairs once again. It has become an obsession.

    Steep stairs at Capitola Village

    The second day I was more successful with my post-hike extensions. I stopped at the wonderful gelato shop in Los Gatos. A successful and tasty end to this little adventure.

    Great gelato at Dolce Spazio Gelato, in Los Gatos.

    Cappacino chip and vanilla bean from Dolce Spazio Gelato. A million calories and worth every one.

    This turned out to be a pleasant, short trip – perfect weather, two nice hikes on the beach, and met with friends I have not seen in a while.

    And if you ever wander through the Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in San Jose (went to a restaurant there), you might walk by one of the strangest store displays I’ve ever seen.

    There is more strange stuff inside, including a robot which was dozing when I wandered through. Apparently, she does get quite animated.

    If you are wondering what this place sells….upscale eye glass frames. Sorry, I’ll stick to Warby Parker.

  • When To Start Acting Your Age

    Well, I’m back home alone again, talking to myself (very interesting conversations of course), and one of the topics we (me & myself) discussed was whether I need to start “acting my age” in terms of the adventures I’ve been doing this past year. I am heading into my mid-70’s, I have a number of non-life threatening medical conditions and, worst of all, I live by myself. Jan kept me in check, but was always there when I needed someone to drive me home from a remote location after dislocating my ankle on a winter 14’teener climb, or take me to the E/R when I cut my lip off from a bicycle accident (it was sewn back on without shaving my moustache). I worry about what I’ll do now if I get seriously injured or ill. 

    I’ve always pushed my own physical limitations in the outdoors and sports, a major issue since I’m a klutz. Always have been. My mother eventually got used to taking me to the E/R with a broken or bleeding something. I’m sometimes surprised that I’ve survived this long, given that:

    • I was serious rock climber (5.9 lead),  until I wasn’t (hint: gravity always wins in the end).
    • I also took up ice climbing – a really dangerous sport. Lots of really sharp tools, climbing on a brittle surface. Falling can be very painful
    • I climbed a number of peaks in Colorado in the winter. By myself.
    • I frequently went on peak hikes by myself. What could possibly go wrong? 

    As I’ve aged, I have not completely outgrown these self-destructive tendencies. If there is a more difficult way of doing things, I’m all in. Who needs to eat breakfast before going on the 16 mile round trip jaunt up Half-Dome in Yosemite? I have at least managed to stay in shape through the years, and have taken up normal sports and activities – tennis, pickleball, swimming, and light hiking. Up until Jan was diagnosed. 

    During those 11 months of misery for Jan, I was no longer able to  leave her alone after the second month. No more workouts or tennis.  Our eating habits changed, and our collective alcohol consumption increased. By a lot. Add to that the incredible stress I was under, and I was pretty much a physical and mental wreck when she passed, and for many months afterwards.

    To make matters much worse, I ignored issues with my left knee during this time, and paid dearly for that. I have been sidelined from all racket sports for over a year, which eliminated significant sources of social activities. It’s a good thing I like talking to myself. 

    So here I am, aging rapidly, struggling to stay healthy (and sane), and going off on all this strange adventures. Remarkably, I have done well so far when you consider some of the activities associated with these trips. 

    Ocean Kayaking – every NatGeo trip I’ve been on has the opportunity for open water kayaking. Nothing too serious, but I’ve managed to stay dry so far. Can’t wait for Antarctica.

    Snorkeling – two of the trips have had snorkeling, and in most cases, in cold, rough water. With sea lions and penguins. No sharks. 

    Hiking in the SW – most of the hiking on the NatGeo trips has been pretty mild, other than trying to avoid falling on sharp lava rock in the Galápagos Islands. My hiking trip to the Utah parks was much more strenuous, and I was able to keep up with the group, with one hike up and down at about 8K’. 

    Hiking in Colorado – my first trip included moderate hikes in a number of state parks, and I managed to haul myself up one or two trails at 10k’ in Rocky Mountain National Park. On the most recent trip, I managed to get up all the steep stairs and hike a few miles at over 7500’ at the Seven Falls and meandered through a cavern tour, also at high altitude. And then there was my epic hike/climb of the Manitou Incline. I was proud of myself for getting to the top. Maybe that was one of the adventures I should have passed on, but I’m glad I did it. 

    Hiking in California – Mostly going up and down endless stairs during my Cave-A-Week tour of caverns, but also wandering around in some state parks, and the Donner Pass railroad tunnels at 7K elevation. Moro Rock was not exactly a big deal (300’ elevation gain), but I was in much better shape at high altitude, and pretty much scooted right up to the top. For once, I was actually passing groups.

    So I may be old, but I seem to be holding my own on my adventures this past year. Injury free – that’s a good thing. I work out most every day now which helps a lot. And finally, after 73 years, I’ve developed some sense for self-preservation and avoid things that I know I’m not in shape for. Angels Landing in Zion National Park is one of those, and sadly, so is a return climb of Half Dome. I’ve learned how to deal with my balance issues which gets me through moderate hikes – I have been using hiking sticks for years, especially on peak climbs, but now, they are a necessity. I used just one pole on the Incline climb, sort of as a third leg to keep from leaning backwards.

    None of my planned trips the next two years have overly strenuous activities. The National Geographic trips are all reasonable, and they always offer alternative activities each day. Madagascar has a lot of moderate hikes – no mountains, just 4 or 5 miles along forest trails. I think I can handle that. And all I really need to do on the Kodiak Island trip is not be the slowest person in the group.

    I have been careful in selecting future trips – most of the catalogs rate the level of activities they offer which helps a lot. It pains me a bit, but I no longer consider any of the pure hiking trips that Road Scholars offers. My focus is no longer on reaching the end point of a hike, but enjoying (and photographing) what you see along the trail. There was also an outfit that does a luxury climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. Maybe 15 years ago. Not now. Same for a trek in the Himalayas to Everest Base Camp, something I’ve always dreamed of. 

    So I guess I am acting my age. It’s sort of like learning not to run holding sharp objects – I learned the hard way. I’ll just keep modifying my goals and expectations as I age. Fewer sharp objects = fewer trips to the E/R.

    I need to have another talk with myself now about scheduling a few more trips for 2027. Hopefully, we will be in agreement. I hate arguing with myself. I can be such a pain in the ….

     Peace