Have you ever heard the flap of a butterfly’s wings? Imagine the sound of thousands of them filling the air around you. Have you ever seen beasts the size of small cars fighting for dominance? Imagine them tearing into each other right in front of you, looking close enough to touch. You don’t need to travel to the far ends of the earth to witness such wildlife spectacles: They occur every winter on California’s Central Coast. Of all the tours we lead, the Beauty and the Beasts Tour for elephant seals and wintering monarch butterflies remains one of our favorites. 

The central coast of California in the winter is a fabulous place to visit in its own right. The weather there is generally better than what most of us are enduring across the country. Everything is green and flowers are still in bloom. The rocky shores, the crashing ocean waves and the colorful sunsets are just as great as at other times of the year, but in the winter you can also experience a solitude that is rare in California. The restaurants, inns and roads of the region are seldom crowded in the winter adding to the peaceful feeling of this area in the off-season.

Land of the beasts

Elephant seals are a recent addition to this part of California. Fifteen years ago, this beach north of San Simeon would have been empty all winter except for a few shorebirds and gulls. The first elephant seal showed up here in 1990, and the first pup was born in January of 1992. Today, this rookery is the winter home of more than 8,000 seals, and more than 2,300 pups were born here last season. 

The elephant seals can be seen beginning in early December when the bulls begin establishing territories. By New Year’s Eve, almost all of the adults have arrived, and the rookery is a very noisy place. It will remain this way until March when most of the adults return to the sea, leaving the beach to the weaned pups or “weaners.”   

Nearly all of the pups are born in January. This is the time to come to see them at their cutest.  And though the newborn seals look tiny next to the 16-foot long, two-and-half-ton bulls, they weigh about 65 pounds at birth. Nursing on the richest milk (55% fat) in the animal world, the pups gain about 10 pounds every day. At the end of four weeks, they’ve gained 300 pounds and their mothers abandon them.   

The activity at the rookery is continuous, and you will be close enough at times to smell the breath of a roaring bull – it’s a hazard of being a close observer, but worth it. Though there are always seals loafing and sleeping, it is more comparable to cat-napping than a restful night’s sleep. Babies are always crying – for attention, for food, because a gull is pecking them, or they got too close to another mom and she challenged them, or a bull seal is crushing them as it races across the beach (the babies are pretty flexible and are rarely seriously injured even with a few tons of seal pushing them into the sand).  The females are just as noisy as the pups – arguing among themselves over the best patches of sand, barking at their noisy pups and letting the courting bulls know what they really think of those big noses.  Plus there is the background noise of 8,000 seals constantly snorting to clear sand from their nostrils.   

The bulls are what most people come to see. Most of the time they lay there like logs the tide has washed up. At regular intervals, though, they rise up, barking their mating calls, challenging the other bulls. There will be a fight if the other bulls in the immediate area don’t retreat.  And if the two seals are evenly matched, it’s going to get bloody. 

After watching this spectacle for even a few minutes, it’s hard to believe that elephant seals were nearly exterminated in the 1800’s, killed for the high-quality oil that could be rendered from their blubber – nearly 25 gallons from a single bull. They were believed to be extinct until a few remaining seals were discovered on Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja in 1892. The Mexican government was the first to protect this species, and the U.S. government added its protection a few years later when the seals began appearing off the coast of Southern California.   

Today their numbers are between 120,000 and 150,000 and they are increasing, with new breeding sites still being established. These mammals are protected by the Marine Mammals Protection Act and visitors are required to keep a distance of at least 20 feet. Once you’ve seen a bull elephant seal run over anything in its path, you’ll want to keep your distance anyway! 

Moving south down the coast, our next stop is the town of Morro Bay, a small coastal town that boasts great seafood, a photogenic marina and Morro Rock, “The Gibralter of the Pacific.” rising 576’ above the bay. Morro Bay can be a great spot to find sea otters, California ground squirrels cavorting in the flowers (yes, flowers in January!), shorebirds in the thousands, raptors (peregrine falcons nest on Morro Rock) and, one of our favorites, Anna’s hummingbirds. For three years in a row, we’ve been able to photograph hummingbirds on the same twig as they flash their brilliant, pink head feathers at rivals. 

Flying beauties 

We continue our trip down the coast with our wildlife shrinking in size. From the huge elephant seals, to shorebirds to hummingbirds, we move next to the winged beauties – monarch butterflies. Between October and March monarch butterflies winter at Pismo Beach in huge numbers. The monarch grove here is one of the largest in the world (some estimates reach 100,000 individuals). Seeing the huge clusters of butterflies hanging from the trees is amazing, but let the sun come out and the temperatures warm to above 55 degrees and the real fun begins: Thousands of orange, flapping jewels take to the sky and surround you. For sheer numbers and mind-blowing bursts of kaleidoscopic color, it’s hard to beat the butterfly groves of Pismo Beach. 

The monarchs that over-winter here are the longest lived generation. Monarchs generally live for only six weeks, but the winter generation can live for up to six months. They cluster together for warmth, hanging from the trees using their sharp tarsal claws. Each animal hangs wings down, one below another, creating a layering effect. There are so many butterflies in each cluster that the weight of the group actually helps prevent the tree from whipping around in the wind and dislodging the butterflies. 

Winter has always been one of the best times to visit the Central Coast of California. The weather is usually mild, the scenery is great, the food is wonderful and the crowds are simply not here. Throw in the opportunity to observe some of the grandest wildlife spectacles that occur on the planet, and it becomes a must-see destination. It’s not necessary to visit Africa or Antarctica to see huge concentrations of animals. Some of the most incredible scenes can be found right in our own backyard, on California’s Central Coast. Photo Page