Most of the
sights we see as we travel along the Pacific Coast Highway are the beautiful
views of the rocky shoreline and the endless supply of splashing waves. There are other incredible sights to see, as
well, and we spent some time enjoying one of those.
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| Fog shrouded coastline |
America’s
largest sea caves are 11 miles north of Florence, Oregon and a year round home
of Stellar sea lions. The sea lions may
not always be in the cave, depending on the time of year for breeding or
birthing but you could check that online with the Sea Caves to make sure the
sea lions would be there for your visit.
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| Viewing room at Sea Lion Caves in Oregon |
After
descending in the elevator for 208 feet, we entered the darkened cavern which is
quite large. It uses the natural layout
and does have a sign to warn us it could
be “subject to earthquakes, erosion and landslides”! Nice! The
one area for viewing has a mesh screen to prevent anything or anyone from
falling but the noises are not blocked.
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| The sea lions enjoy their cave |
The noise
was incredible! They all seem to want to
be heard and the roars, grumbles and growls are a constant loud noise above the
splashing waves coming into the caves. Springtime
turned out to be a perfect time and there were hundreds in the caves for our
visit.
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| Hundreds of sea lions visit the cave |
These
beautiful sea lions were all over the rocks with some wiggling for the same
space and pushing another away. The cave
is lit up only with the daylight coming in through the mouth of the caves so
plenty of them cannot be seen from our vantage point but watching those we
could see was fascinating.
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| Lots of movement |
The Stellar,
also called the Northern Sea Lion is the biggest of the seven species of sea
lions. The female’s average length is
2.5 m (8.2’) and 263 kg (580 lbs). The
average male is 3 m (9.8’) and 544 kg (1199 lbs) but are known to be as large
as 3.3 m (11’) and 1134 kg (2500 lbs).
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| The sea lions are very vocal |
They are
found in Alaska, Japan, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, sometimes
down into California. The Stellar are
often confused with others, especially the California sea lion, even though
there are physical differences between all species of sea lions.
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| A nursing mother |
Most seafood
is their diet. They do not chew but
swallow whole so that sounds interesting, who knows what goes on inside their
stomach! Young pups can nurse for as long as 3 years. Adult males eat 5-6 % of their body weight
daily and young ones need twice that amount.
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| Heceta Head Lighthouse in distance |
Another
viewpoint from within the caverns of the sea lion caves looks north to the
Heceta Head Lighthouse, circa 1894 and is the brightest light on the Oregon
coast. The beam can be seen 33 km (21
mi) out to sea.
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| The profile of the beautiful Stellar sea lion
The Sea Lion
caves are privately owned and part of the Oregon Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve
which protects the local marine animals and environment. The Stellar sea lion was considered a near
extinction species only a couple of decades ago but thanks to organizations
like this, their population has increased about 4% annually over the past
years.
The size of
the sea lion is deceiving when watching them from this distance. The cave is
about the height of a 12 story building and the size of a football field,
covering about 2 acres. They are not
cuddle material but they sure do make for some fascinating moments, an
incredible sight to see on the Oregon coast.
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