New elephant seal tour gives visitors access to private Arroyo Laguna viewing spot
A new special guided elephant seal tour will now access scenic oceanfront State Parks land north of San Simeon that hasn’t been open to the public before, an area that’s accumulating a seasonal assortment of the marine mammals.
California State Park interpretive guides will lead tours of the meadow area at Arroyo Laguna (about 2.25 miles north of the Hearst Castle entrance on the ocean side of Highway 1 ). The tours, part of a pilot program, will happen Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Tours are expected to be offered through the end of March.
Each tour will include a 45-minute, ½-mile guided trail hike on varied terrain. Parking is free. Tour tickets, $13, are available only on the day of the tour at the Arroyo Laguna site or from the Hearst Castle Visitor Services Office, 750 Hearst Castle Road, San Simeon.
Those fees help to pay for tour and monitoring staffing, according to coastal sector superintendent Eric Hjelstrom. That includes the guides, plus staffers who will monitor the gate and inform other members of the public that they, too, would be allowed to go on the property, but only by taking the guided tour.
The tour will lead visitors south toward Arroyo Laguna Creek, according to organizing interpreter Robyn Chase. They’ll learn about the elephant seal life cycle while watching (from a safe and respectful distance) battling bulls, birthing cows and squealing pups. People are encouraged to bring binoculars and cameras.
For details, go to www.parks.ca.gov/HearstSanSimeonSP. Watch the seals at the Piedras Blancas seal cam at https://www.elephantseal.org/view.htm or www.parks.ca.gov/live/hearst_piedrasblancas.
Chase said in a Jan. 2 phone interview that up to 20 people can go on each tour. Paid State Parks guides Lillah Ferrera, Kirk Thomas-Olson, Austin Werland and Eric Brunschwiler will lead the tours, Chase said. She added that some test tours given on Dec. 27 and 29 went very well.
She said the Arroyo Laguna tours will be similar to those given at the more sequestered Año Nuevo State Park rookery in San Mateo County, although the local walk is considerably shorter and some of the seals on the narrow land strip between the sea and Highway 1 can be easily observed from vehicles passing by.
That visibility can cause traffic, parking and other problems, as it did when the main rookery began to be established in 1990. The problems eventually prompted the formation of the Friends of the Elephant Seal nonprofit and the training and deployment of its large cadre of volunteer docents.
Changes at Arroyo Laguna
Arroyo Laguna has for years been nicknamed “Windsurfer Beach,” because those ocean sportspeople frequently access the sea there, and their specialized, careful use is grandfathered into permission documents developed for the Hearst Ranch Conservation Easement and agreement with State Parks.
But for several recent years in the depth of wintertime, the shoreline has also been known as “Bachelor Beach,” because rebuffed male elephant seals would haul out there to rest and recover from turf battles fought in the seasonally crowded rookery to the north.
During those times, Friends of the Elephant Seal docents would monitor and patrol the area, advising curious people that they’re not allowed on Arroyo Laguna property and directing them to the rookery’s public viewing area just south of Piedras Blancas Light Station. State Park rangers were also available in case of problems.
However, as of Dec. 31, the Arroyo Laguna meadow also had three newborn pups and their moms, and pups were born there last year, too. That could mean the rookery will expand permanently into Arroyo Laguna, because elephant seals usually return twice a year to molt, breed, give birth and rest on the beaches where they were born.
So, State Parks has assumed responsibility for the area.
“We know the elephant seals are expanding (their areas),” Chase said, “so we needed to build up our interpretive offerings.”
“Visitors see the seals from the highway, someplace where the people don’t expect to see them. The animals are extremely fascinating,” Chase explained, and some people would “go over the fence to look at the seals.”
That’s not allowed, and it’s certainly not safe, she said.
Viewing and parking remain free at the main elephant seal viewing area just south of Piedras Blancas, as is the information shared by the trained Friends of the Elephant Seal docents there.
State Parks’ guided tours are part of the plan to allow people to see the wildlife while not endangering it or themselves.
“We’ve tried to strike a balance between recreation, wildlife viewing and stewardship,” Chase said, “incorporating into the tours a lot of respect for the wildlife. All hiking will be in the meadow, not on the beach.”
And if the seals, not knowing the rules, wind up in the meadow, as they sometimes do?
“We’ll adapt,” she said.
