Simpson Reef

There is a scenic road which takes you south along the coast a few miles from Charleston, Oregon, not far from Coos Bay.  This was the area from which I could view the Cape Arago lighthouse and also has two State Parks, one of which I will be posting pictures from tomorrow.

Along that road is an overlook which allows people to watch and hear the activity out on the rocks offshore.  This is where literally hundreds of seals and sea lions like to play in the water and, more often, nap and “sing” on the rocks.

The photo above was taken Tuesday at low tide, when a much larger area of rocks is exposed and the seals and sea lions were on the rocky areas much further out in the ocean.  The rest of these photos were taken Sunday at high tide when the water came almost all the way up to the mainland and the seals and sea lions were much closer.

There are different types of both animals which hang out along this part of the coast and their “barking” goes on non-stop.  It sometimes has a very rhythmic, musical quality to it.  Sea lions are generally smaller in size that seals and the easiest way to tell them apart is how they use their flippers to move around on land.

This seal evidently had barked himself to the point of exhaustion. This sequence of shots were all taken within a minute: