snorkeling the Kelp Forest with sea Lions | la Jolla Cove

This post takes you on a snorkel with sea lions in a “kelpy” area near the caves.

The clarity, for most of the dive, was unusually good, so I swam over to the sea caves ~ the main one is known as The Clam. This is an over/under shot of the approach to The Clam, showing some of the lovely kelp remnants.

Here are some tourists getting about as close as they can to the sea lions, who are sunbathing below.

This is where my video adventure begins, with some up-close-and-personal time with a couple of lions.

Hello Mr. Sea Lion!

 *Yaaaaaawn*

This female came quite close to me, but she didn’t blow any bubbles or seem threatened in any way. I do favor solo diving for this very reason; you are much less of a threat to them as a singleton than you are as a group.

The male, however, was definitely more suspicious…

I decided to check out the inside of the Clam – it’s only safe to go in when it’s relatively calm, like so (get it? CALM inside the CLAM? Oh nevermind!):

Once inside I was treated with the magic of the internal views, but there were no sea lions around…

See? They were all outside on this day.

So I made my way outside again and captured an over/under of sea lions topside, and a juvenile opal eye underneath.

Thanks for looking! xo