Caroline’s Visit to California

Back in October, Caroline made a visit to California for a week. I didn’t take too many photos when she was here, but I did carry my 30D and 28-135 along when we visited the Natural Bridges State Beach. The state beach is famous not only for its rock formations on the coast, but also its population of Monarch Butterflies. The eucalyptus grove on the grounds acts as a sanctuary for migrating butterflies.

The first butterfly we saw wasn’t a monarch, but it was beautiful nevertheless.

We spotted a few chrysalises in the caterpillar nursery.

Caterpillars were munching away and becoming fat in preparation for their transformation to butterflies.

The sanctuary was packed with butterflies. I have never seen so many in my life. Next time I go, I’m going to go with a lens with longer reach so that I can capture much bigger photos of the monarchs.

The views off the coast.

Looked like mother was teaching her baby how to fish.

After some time at Natural Bridges, we made our way over to Año Nuevo State Park to take a short hike and to get a look at the Elephant Seals.

This guy was fearlessly resting on the hiking path. He looked battle worn.

The hiking terrain varied from gravel paths to sand dunes.

At the end of the hike, we finally reached the seals. Unfortunately, most of them were sleeping. -_-

Before heading home, we rested and made zen gardens in the sand . ^^