As summer comes to an end, I start thinking about Elephant Seals.  At  Ano Nuevo State Park, just North of Santa Cruz California you will find the largest elephant seal breeding colony in the world. Starting in mid December you can participate in guided public walks.  Tickets for this amazing experience go on sale October 20th and apparently the walks fill up quickly so mark your calendars!  They even have a live web camera set up for those of us who won’t be heading up North this winter.

If you visit outside of the tour season,  you will need to get a visitor’s permit to visit the wildlife viewing area.  See more info here.

I don’t think I’ll be in Santa Cruz this winter. Still,  if this amazing park stays open, I will definitely have to gather the kids around the laptop, and check out the web cam.  Perhaps when we make our annual pilgrimage to Santa Cruz next year, we will get visitor permits and try to observe the seals molting.

Every Sunday, Family Adventure Guidebooks  is featuring a different California State Park in order to call attention to the potential State Park closures that will be happening after Labor Day.  The California State Parks Foundation is organizing I Heart State Parks actions throughout the state over Labor Day Weekend.  For more information and to learn how to organize your own event click here.

If you would like to do a State Park Sunday guest blog or just contribute a photo of a California State Park, please leave a comment below.

Happy Trails,

Bridget

PS The beautiful photo is provided by bike4freedom2 under a Flickr Creative Commons License

Tags: Ano Nuevo, California State Parks, California State Parks Foundation, I Heart State Parks