Sea Lion Cave

Jill's Journal: We’ve established that Oregon has wildlife (and lots of it). We’ve also established Oregon has caves (neat ones). Friday we decided to do something wild and crazy and totally different – see wildlife IN a cave!

The Sea Lion Cave in Florence on the Oregon Coast is the world’s largest sea cave, located 300 feet below Highway 101. It’s a basalt rock/lava tube and was discovered in 1880 by a William Cox. It’s literally a cave accessible only by the sea…or (since 1961) by a single elevator from the cliffs above. The cave is 12 stories tall, the length of a football field, and smells to high heaven. The stench is overpowering at first, but after several minutes your nose goes numb and it may (or may not!) stop bothering you.

A wild herd of about 200 Stellar Sea Lions (who knew there were so many different types of sea lions?) call this two-acre cave and the ledge just outside it their home. They live here almost year-round, breed here, give birth here, die here. These are not the cute, charismatic, little sea lions exhibited by marine animal trainers. These are massive creatures (the bulls average 12 feet in length and about 1500 pounds) who spend most of their day complaining and roaring at each other, very reminiscent of extremely annoyed lions. They’re fascinating to watch, but most certainly not the warm and fuzzy type you’d want to keep in your bathtub as a pet.

Erika loved seeing them, but the littler girls were bored in about two minutes flat. And Rob and I felt a little fleeced by the whole experience. We’d heard this was an awesome thing to do and maybe it can be. But, it was close to a 90-minute drive to the coast for us and admission was ridiculously expensive ($48 for our family!) for a sight that we were done with in minutes. It was very disappointing. I don’t think we’re hardened travelers, but every once in a great while, we have an experience that seriously fails to live up to its hype. This was one of them.