Today we drove almost to the Point Reyes Lighthouse at the end of the point. We hiked down an extraordinarily steep ravine to end up on the south side of South Beach. Sarah Pointed out the extent of invasive iceplant which now covers the hillsides which the park is now trying to remove. We walked along a creek in a narrow gorge to open up onto the beach where there was a small colony of elephant seal. On the beach to the left of the stream were about six immature males. To the right of the stream were seven females with their pups and at each end of the females the alpha and males positioned themselves. hgcd The alpha male was enormous and Sarah estimated his age to be eight years plus because of his fully developed nose and chest shield. All the elephant seals were sleeping peacefully as Sarah and John looked for flipper tags. They can tell by the color of the tag where these seals were tagged. Using the spotting scope was futile so Sarah had to get close to the animals in order to record their numbers from the tag. We then walked down the beach and spotted nine or ten more random seals. We made our way back to the car.
