Sea Lion Point

"Lots of pretty wildflowers and views, but the sea lions are so far away you can barely make them out even with the help of the docents and the viewing scopes. If you want to see seal lions, go to San Carlos beach in Monterey. Also, we saw zero otters. It was a bit disappointing, to say the least. If you go, go for the views and wildflowers, don't go expecting to see otters or sea lions."

"You can't actually see the sea lions or otters they're pretty far out on the rocks away from the trail. You can hear them in the distance or barely see them through spotting scopes. Fisherman's wharf is significantly better. Decent spot to take pictures but nothing amazing."

"So pretty! We didn't get to see sea lions though. The path is nice, it's much less of a hike than it is just a walk around the loop. This particular loop was really short, like ~10-15 minutes if you walk without stopping (which is impossible with this breathtaking view of course!) There is parking right outside the loop but it's limited. We arrived on weekday in the late afternoon and the parking was full so we had to park outside the park, walk ~20 minutes on the Lichen trail (which itself was pretty nice, actually, with lots of trees)."

"There was a State Park attendant with a camera ready to show up the Sea Lions. The trails are easy and they make a loop going through all the coast and behind the trees until almost the entrance the park"

"Complimentary entry into the State Reserve with my annual California Parks Pass (worth the $195/yr). 7/30/23 about 9 am I had to wait a few minutes for a parking space to free up, no biggie. About 9:30 am as I exited the Reserve there was a line of cars waiting to get in. I look forward to coming back to walk the other trails."