40 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {due west} PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: VISIT MORRO BAY frankly, it’s hard to stop watching all the furry little otters. In almost every direction, we spy one tending to her sleek pup. We pull up our paddles to watch as one of the bigger otter pups tentatively swims away from mom and ducks its head under the water, its chubby rump still bobbing on the surface. “This phase, where they’re dog-paddling and learning to dive, it only lasts a couple of days,” Mandy marvels, adding that she’s never seen as many baby otters as she has this winter. If wielding a paddle isn’t your idea of fun, other options include hopping aboard a boat for a tour with familyowned Morro Bay Whale Watching and Sub Sea Adventures or renting an electric pontoon boat that seats up to 10 people from Estero Adventures. Morro Bay and the surrounding area also offer plenty to do on dry land. Serious birders will want to visit the Heron Rookery Natural Preserve in Morro Bay State Park, where snowy egrets, great blue herons and other impressive birds raise their young. Hikers can head two miles south of the city of Morro Bay to Los Osos Elfin Forest, which offers boardwalk and sand trails. If surfing and sunbathing is more your style, check out Morro Rock Beach’s six-mile stretch of sand. ary, from harbor to wetlands. Back at the harbor, a dockside kayaking lesson builds our confidence. Paddling out in a tandem kayak behind Mandy’s is like the difference between watching a wildlife documentary and going on a safari. Instead of observers, we’re part of this watery world. We spy a huge osprey perched atop a sailboat’s mast and lanky egrets and herons stalking prey on a sandbar. We pass through schools of tiny silvery fish, their bodies shimmering in the sunlight and close in on that big group of noisy sea lions. From the kayak, we see that they’re packed in so tightly, the dock has sunk down to the waterline. If one more blubbery fellow tries to join them, they’ll all end up underwater. The sheer range of wildlife in the harbor is breathtaking, but
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