Though it’s less than an hour south of San Francisco and hour west of Silicon Valley, the stretch of Highway One along the California coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz seems oddly remote. The drive passes windswept beaches, foggy canyons, and solitary lighthouses, but only one or two small towns.

Although sunbathing is likely to be out of the question, nature conspires to make this stretch of wild seaside particularly attractive in late winter. If your timing is right and luck is with you, you could score the California coast wildlife trifecta: elephant seals, gray whales, and monarch butterflies.

This is pup time at the 4,000 acre Ano Nuevo State Reserve elephant seal rookery. Visitors are greeted by a cacophonous symphony of squealing, grunting, and roaring elephant seals on ranger lead guided walks through the elephant seal breeding grounds during the breeding season (December through March.) The males battle for mates on the beaches and the females give birth to their young on the dunes. The elephant seals are unperturbed by humans, so the guided walks get remarkably close to these huge animals. [Read more →]