Elephant Cove Vista Point - a place to watch the seals lazily sun bathe and play not a bad view for a Sunday afternoon

There is a reason I love California so much, you can find new beautiful places you never knew about even if you grew up here. I find it funny that after 31 years and extensively traveling in the state, I still never managed to come across this beach. This weekend me and my husband went to visit my friend in Pismo Beach. I always have fun visiting her because she has been my friend since college and we have had too many adventures together to count. That just adds to the fun of visiting beautiful beaches and getting away for a while.

While driving home, we went up Highway 1 along the coast. My friend pointed out some beaches that at certain times of year are full of elephant seals, they were empty as we were driving by. Then we came across a beach called Elephant Seal Vista Point, my husband wanted to stop just to see if there were any there…. and just our luck there were! Apparently in October the juveniles come out to play and rest… we took a video of them (please ignore me at the end.. I had no idea my husband was filming this!):

Apparently if you come in November and December you can see the huge funny looking males, and then in January the females have their pups. In summer they come back to molt, basically you can find them year round. I had no idea I could go enjoy these quirky animals whenever I darn well pleased (I have to go check it out more often!).

The best part? we just stumbled across them, it wasn’t like we went to see them on purpose, it was more of a surprise.  I love surprises that involve cute little barking animals that throw sand all over each other.

Have you ever stumbled across something close to home that you had no idea was there?