Año Nuevo Point Trail connecting the Marine Education Center with elephant seal viewing decks

Elephant seal colony at Año Nuevo (November 2, 2025)

The three-quarter-mile-long Año Nuevo Point Trail connects the Marine Education Center in Año Nuevo State Park with the Staging Area, where, depending on season and permit, you may enter the Año Nuevo Coast Natural Preserve.   

Año Nuevo Point (Punta del Año Nuevo in Spanish) is a rocky headland jutting into the Pacific Ocean. It is at the key location of a coastal area that includes North Point, South Point and Año Nuevo Island. The island and the coves and beaches between South Point and North Point are elephant seal territory.

Año Nuevo Island, home to birds, pinnipeds, and an abandoned lighthouse station

Like most promontories along the California, this is an amazing area for bird and whale watching. But most visitors come here for the single most compelling attraction: the large colony of northern elephant seals or northen sea elephant (Mirounga angustirostris). They are named for the male's signature feature, the elongated, pendulous nose (proboscis).

Along the way

The first half mile of the trail takes you from the education center (visitor center) to coastal freshwater wetland including a pond. Here, a short side trail invites you for a sidetrip to Cove Beach. Brown pelicans can be seen on the beach, flying across Año Nuevo Bay, resting along the cliffs and splashing around in the pond and cleaning their feathers. The pond also attracts egrets, mallards, coots, as well as rare visitors like the Yellow-crowned Night Heron.  

Cove Beach: a sand beach alongside the rugged coastline at Año Nuevo Bay

Continuing uphill on Año Nuevo Point Trail you will get to a point with an interpretive board, featuring the waterbirds mentioned above. Under the title A Symphony of Motion and Song, you will read: 

This pond attracts birds of all kinds with food, water, and shelter. Each bird has its own song. If you linger and watch quietly, the pond will come alive with bird activity and sounds.

Actually, when I walked by in November of this year, I heard the songs as well as the diving and splashing sounds early on, even before reaching the Cove Beach trail junction. 

When arriving at the Staging Area, a displayed blue whale bone caught my interest. A panel provides details:

This is the occipital bone of a blue whale. It forms the back of the skull, protecting the brain and connecting the skull to the spine. All mammals have one.

We—like all mammals—have one at the back of our head protecting our brains. Of course, it does not have the impressive size of a blue-whale occipital bone. But so doesn't our brain!

Occipital bone of a blue whale

Beyond the Staging Area, you are in restricted-access land. Sand dune trails and board walks will guide you around and towards clifftop or dunetop observation decks. Helpful and knowledgeable nature preserve staff is usually not far away to answer questions you come up with. 

Sand dune trail towards Bight Beach, North Point and South Point

From a likely crowded deck of pinniped enthusiasts you may watch a crowded beach of elephant seal—some resting, others moving, playing, or fighting. These are two crowds that want to be respected and are not made for intermingling. Remember that marine mammals are protected by federal law. But you are not (when in seal world): in the case you are coming across an elephant seal at a public beach outside the preserve, you want to keep your distance. Elephant seals have large teeth and can move around faster than you may think. Like with other mammals, males—in particular—can turn aggressive any time, and do so especially during breeding season.  

Young sea elephants seen from a deck near North Point

Map

Map with Año Nuevo Point Trail and Año Nuevo Island

References and suggested reading

[1] Año Nuevo Point Trail. Peninsula Open Space Trust 2025. URL: https://openspacetrust.org/hike/ano-nuevo-point-trail/.

[2] Año Nuevo State Park. California State Parks. URL: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523.

[3] Año Nuevo State Park. Visit Half Moon Bay. URL: https://www.visithalfmoonbay.org/places/ano-nuevo-state-park/.

Año Nuevo Marine Education Center

The former dairy barn of Cypress Dairy Ranch, now housing the Marine Education Center 

The marine education center in the Año Nuevo State Park is an exhibition barn with focus on the unique elephant seal breeding grounds within the park. The education center is your gateway to nearby beaches, where elephant seals are present pretty much year round.  Access to viewing platforms involves a scenic hike over sand and varied terrain—three to four miles northwest from the education center. Elephant seal viewing is available by guided walks or with a viewing permit. On my last visit I was approached by friendly and knowledgeable park staff offering their binoculars to spot seals and giving updates of elephant seal life: northern elephant seal numbers have rebound from near extinction. Numbers have grown dramatically along the U.S. Pacific Coast thanks to strong conservation efforts. 

The barn with the marine education center also serves as the main visitor center. It includes natural history exhibits, a bookstore and a theater. You can find picnic tables nearby.    

Adult elephant seal skulls: male (left) and female (right)

A male and a female elephant seal skull are displayed in the barn; supplemented by an explaining placard: 

Note the size difference between the adult male and female skulls. Adult males weigh up to 2 ½ tons  and average fifteen feet long. Females weigh half that amount and average eleven feet in length. At birth, pups weigh about 75 pounds and are already more than four feet long. 

In the old days, the exhibition barn was a dairy barn. The historic buildings, including the barn and the creamery, are—according to an interpretive panel—“Echoes of a Dairy Ranch”:

The historic buildings you see today were once part of the Cypress Dairy built by Edwin and Effie Dickerman in 1881 for making butter and cream. Materials for construction were salvaged from a nearby abandoned wharf.

Effie was a member of the prominent Steele family that had settled along the Año Nuevo coast in 1862 from Ohio. During the late 1800's her family helped pioneer the dairy industry in California.

In the 1930s the family switched to crop farming and, like many coastal farms, grew artichokes and Brussel sprouts, crops that are still popular today. The ranch was eventually purchased by the State of California in 1968 and added to Año Nuevo State Park.

The creamery of the historic Dickerman Ranch at the former Cypress Dairy

In addition to the dairy barn and the creamy, Cypress Dairy Ranch features Dickerman's home, a storage barn, a horse barn, a blacksmith shop, a water tower, an orchard and New Years Creek Bridge.

Getting there

The former Cypress Dairy Ranch with the dairy barn—now called Marine Education Center—is located just south of the visitor parking lot in Año Nuevo State Park. The park entrance is located on the west side of Highway 1, approximately 55 miles south of San Francisco and a short drive south from the Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park. 

Further reading

[1]  Marine Education Center. California State Parks. URL: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27612 .

[2] Año Nuevo State Park. Coastside State Parks Association. URL: https://www.coastsidestateparks.org/ano_nuevo.