We camped at the Shelter Cove RV Campground, so we didn’t have far to drive to the Black Sands Beach parking lot to meet the shuttle at 7 am on our first day. We were warned the drive to Mattole Beach was very windy and as a precaution, I took some Dramamine before the ride. I also sat in the front seat and luckily I didn’t get carsick at all. It’s only fifty miles from Black Sands to Mattole Beach, but the shuttle ride takes about two hours given the nature of the road. It was a foggy morning, but occasionally we had glimpses of the King Range and I had a nice time chatting with the driver, who had grown up in Shelter Cove.

Our plan for the day was to hike 4.5 miles to Sea Lion Gulch. It wasn’t advised to go any further as an impassable zone lies beyond Sea Lion Gulch and it is recommended to hike this zone when the tide is below 2.5 feet. On the day we started the tide would not go below 2.5 feet during daylight hours, so Sea Lion Gulch was the logical campsite for the night. There is a pinch point at Windy Point, about 2.5 miles from the Mattole Beach trailhead, but this was not a concern as it is passable below 5 feet and the tide was below five feet for the whole day.

It was very foggy when we arrived at Mattole Beach and we couldn’t see much when we started out, but eventually the fog burned off and we had a sunny afternoon. We saw seals and/or sea lions along the way (we weren’t always sure what we were seeing in the water) and were excited to see an otter on the beach. We were walking along a small bluff as we approached the Punta Gorda Lighthouse and were surprised by seals lying on the beach very close to the trail. Then we were even more surprised when we expanded our view and saw a whole colony on the beach. A woman had been down among the seals and came up to talk to us (mainly to caution us to stay off the beach). We learned this was an elephant seal colony - which wasn’t apparent by looking at the seals closest to us as they were juveniles without the large proboscis’ that make the large adult males distinctive (Norah and I saw the huge males at Año Nuevo State Park on a previous visit to California in the winter). The woman was a researcher studying the seals and explained that this colony showed up at this location nine years ago - the furthest north they have observed an elephant seal colony - and has been growing since then. This time of year is the fall juvenile haul out phase of the elephant seal cycle. Most elephant seals have returned to sea to feed and small numbers of juveniles (one to three years old) haul out on beaches as part of their development. After spending six months at sea, they return to shore to feel gravity again and strengthen their muscles and bones. They also might practice fighting (we did see some of this) or play with each other. Although most seals we saw seemed to be enjoying some leisure time with naps. We watched the researcher for a while tagging and photographing the seals. She had a large stick with a stamp on the end and sometimes a seal would get a little sassy with her and she would have to dart around to tag him. It was fun watching the seals, especially from such a good vantage point. I wasn’t expecting to see elephant seals, so this was such a great surprise.

After watching the seals we stopped at the Punta Gorda lighthouse and climbed to the top (that didn’t take long - it’s a small lighthouse, especially compared to lighthouses we have seen on the East Coast). The lighthouse was built in 1911 and eventually it was decided the station was too costly to maintain due to its remoteness (it was accessed by horse through most of its operation) and it was deactivated in 1951. Most of the buildings around Punta Gorda were demolished and today only the lighthouse and the oil house are still standing. From here it wasn’t that much further to Sea Lion Gulch and there was a trail to follow along the bluffs. By this time the fog had mostly lifted and we were treated to beautiful views looking down across the beach and ocean. This was definitely a stellar campsite - what views! And the location lived up to its name as we could see and hear the sea lions on rocks just sitting off the beach. I had read that sometimes this can be a crowded campsite, but there was only one other trio that camped there for the night. This was a great way to start our hike!