Elephant seals strutting their stuff at Piedras Blancas captured by photographer Robb Most

What better way to spend Valentine’s Day than to head to Piedras Blancas to see elephant seals, particularly since that day just happens to be the peak of the mating season, according to the Friends of the Elephant Seals website.

If that wasn’t InMenlo contributing photographer Robb Most’s exact thought, it’s close enough. Accompanied by wife Timi, he headed there this past February 14, and the result is this Photography Exploration.

Here’s more background on the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas, courtesy of the Friends:

“The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, is an extraordinary marine mammal. It spends eight to 10 months a year in the open ocean, diving 1000 to 5800 feet deep for periods of 15 minutes to two hours, and migrating thousands of miles, twice a year, to its land-based rookery for birthing, breeding, molting, and rest.

“The Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery spreads over six miles of shoreline around Point Piedras Blancas on the central coast of California. The viewing areas are located 90 miles south of Monterey, 5 miles north of Hearst Castle State Historical Monument in San Simeon, 1.5 miles south of Point Piedras Blancas. The viewing areas are open every day of the year, are wheelchair accessible, and free.”

Footnote from Robb: “The zebras are left over from the Hearst wild animal zoo when William Randolph was there.”

Photos by Robb Most (c) 2018