Fading swell from the south collided with moderate swell from the northwest. Rippled by southwest wind and a menacing wall of fast-approaching fog, I had much to consider as I bobbed and weaved by kayak while circumnavigating Point Bennett and the rest of San Miguel Island’s 27 miles of ragged coastline.
The Channel Islands National Park has always kept the wild in the wilderness, and it is no more evident than the pungent smells and cacophony of barks, bellows, and yelps of thousands of seals and sea lions at Point Bennett. The remote, wave-battered beach fortified by weather-beaten crags and bluffs allows for one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on the planet: the largest congregation of pinnipeds on Mother Earth.
Point Bennett is difficult to paddle to. Maybe the pinnipeds know this and selected the gritty beach with gnarled fingers of sand extending in all directions, which is coveted by northern elephant seals, harbor seals, northern fur seals, and California sea lions. Also visiting are Steller sea lions and Guadalupe fur seals, isolation and the elements offering a safe haven on steep berms and teeming kelp forests.