Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sea Lion Caves

My family’s Spring Break trip featured several visitations, including a car ride to go see the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. Located south of Newport, this is home of the largest sea cave in the world, as can be seen from the picture below. I think I also remember reading that the Sea Lion Caves feature the largest sea lion habitat for the creatures off sure.

The visitors building itself was a pretty cool sight do to the fact that it is built on a cliff right next to the ocean. I also learned that whale sightings are common to see from this location, when the whales are migrating up to Alaska from Mexico.

The actual journey down to the caves is taken by an elevator in which you plummet over 200 feet. The actual caves we weren’t able to go into, due to the fact that it would disturb the hundreds of sea lions that lounge there. It was still a cool sight though, and is something worth visiting if you ever get the chance.

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Once we pulled up to the center, this was the sign that greeted us, letting us know of our arrival.

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Although the lighting wasn’t good, and the photo quality is poor, you can make out the many sea lions that were laying against the rocks. This picture doesn’t even show how big the cave was either. Imagine each of those animals are 500 pounds, and it will give you an idea of size. 

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It was a nice dry day, and the coast line looked great from our view point.

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This was the entrance to the cave–-at least I think it was.

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Another shot of the cave. We were behind a wire fence to let the sea lions have privacy.

0326091327b Before the elevator was built and the shaft excavated, people had to take a long set of stairs to see the wonder. Talk about a long walk.

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