Sea Lions in Allyn

As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear them barking. They’re here! Scott and I grabbed our cameras and made our way down the dock.

It was Sunday afternoon, and we didn’t have time or energy for a full-on adventure but still wanted to get out of the house.  We picked up some coffee and headed for the town of Allyn, Washington hoping to see some sea lions.

I’m not sure how long the sea lions have been hanging out in Allyn, but this is the 3rd year we’ve seen them there. The last time we were in Allyn we also saw orca whales and I suspect the two things are connected.

The sea lions were piled on top of each other, mostly on one side of the dock. I kept my distance and relied on my zoom lens to get the pictures I wanted. It looked like we could’ve gone right up to pet them, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. I didn’t want to get that close to the teeth they have in those mouths. And they didn’t look very fast, but some of those guys were HUGE. I felt better keeping my distance.

It was fun watching some of them push each other around to get the prime spots, while others enjoyed their naps and didn’t want to move. A few sea lions swam up to the dock, but most weren’t welcome to climb aboard.

We stood on the dock in the freezing wind until we couldn’t feel our fingers anymore, and then decided it was time to go warm up. The coffee we had left in the car had grown cold so we turned the seat warmers on while we looked through the shots on the back of our cameras.

Time to head home.

We noticed that one of the sea lions had a brand on it’s side. I would love to know it’s history but couldn’t find anything out online. Only that the numbers are used for tracking purposes. Have any of you seen this before?