The hike at Pt. Lobos this past Saturday was great. We started our hike by heading to Bird Island. We enjoyed the cool gray morning and fairly calm seas early in the hike. We got to China Cove right before the Bird Island trail and it was a lovely jade green color. We found some volunteer park rangers later and they said the color was due to the bottom of the cove being sandy rather than rocky. After enjoying China Cove we headed off to look at Bird Island. There is no missing why its called Bird Island. There were loads of Pelicans and Cormorants on the island rock. It was an awesome sight but we didn't stay too long as it smelled very fishy and we could only stand the smell for so long.
After checking out Bird Island, we had lunch at the picnic area. It was not very crowded yet so we had the place mostly to ourselves. After lunch we retraced our steps back to the car and as we hiked the sun crept out, the wind started up, and the seas started to get a little wilder. When we got to the car, I dropped my pack off so I could travel light.
We then hiked the short Cypress Grove loop. It was beautiful. Then we headed to Whaler cove on the North Beach trail to see if we could spot some otters. We had already spotted many sea lions and quite a bit of kelp that we thought might be otters! We were in luck and when we got to Whaler cove we spotted the real thing, a lone otter. We got out the binoculars and had a good time watching the otter swim around. We also got a glimpse of the U.S. Open golf crowds at Pebble Beach just south of Carmel through the binoculars.
The hike back to the car was exciting. We heard a great squawking sound and saw a Great Heron land in its nest in a tree top and start to feed its young! We and other hikers stopped to watch. This was a first for me at Pt. Lobos. I have seen sea lions, otters, etc. but never a Great Heron's nest. The rest of the hike was beautiful as ever but uneventful. We drove home in the bright sunshine and managed to avoid any U.S. Open Golf traffic since the tournament went on late into the evening on Saturday.
Cathy