Sea Lions, Gray Whales & Elk Along California Coast

Friday, May 29, 2015 continued again

We drove on southward down the California coast.  In just a short distance we saw.....

A Coast Guard cutter docked by a Coast Guard Station at the end of a jetty.

Floating on loose wooden pieces we several sea lions.  The bigger of these two was very vocal.

This duck was preening itself on another floating wooden piece.  We saw one sea lion leave one floating piece and go up on the same wooden piece this duck was on.  The sea lion started honking and working his way towards the duck.  It was funny to watch.  The sea lion stopped.  We left.

Here we are at the Klamath River Overlook.   You can see the river flowing into the ocean.  And the fog on the hilltop.

This overlook was supposed to be a good whale watching spot also.  Apparently gray whales migrate northward from nursery lagoons in Mexico to feeding grounds in the Arctic.

I was lucky and got several pictures.  I'm including 3 pictures below.

Notice the water spout in this picture.

You can tell there are 2 whales in this picture.  The ranger here said it was probably a mother and her calf.

We took a coastal drive on the south side of Klamath River.

This gold bear was at the Klamath River lookout.

From this lookout, this is the view upstream.  As you can tell the day has been foggy and or overcast all day.

This is part of the Coastal Drive.  There were notices at the start that said "motorhomes and trailers prohibited".  We could easily see why.  Also there was a narrow unpaved part of the road close to the ocean.  We enjoy having our Jeep for side trips like today.

Next we headed further south.  We drove through Prairie Redwoods State Park on the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway.  Just south of the state park was Elk Prairie.  It turns out there were several Roosevelt Elk to be seen.

We could see 2 buck in the group.

This was the younger buck.  You can tell his antlers are still velvet.

This big boy was grazing steadily.  Tic had to wait almost 10 minutes to get this picture.  His horns are velvet also.

It was time to head home.  We decided to drive US Hwy 101 back since it would be quicker. 

We saw Paul Bunyon with his Blue Ox.  We have seen Paul Bunyon from Maine to Wisconsin and now in California.  We researched Paul and found that he can be found anywhere there is logging.

As we were near May Creek in an open field we saw.....

another herd of elk.  No big bucks in this herd.

What a big day!  We stopped and had hamburgers for dinner because we were tired and neither of us felt like cooking.  It was about 7:30pm before we got home.  Another wonderfully blessed day!!