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I couldn't believe my eyes as I have never seen or heard of this phenomenon.
Was hitting up some trails with my doggo along the American River this afternoon. We stopped at a regular spot where she likes to swim, fetch sticks from the water, and dig at river rocks.
We were enjoying the weather and relaxing when I saw something big and alien in the water.
I kinda freaked out because it didn't make sense. My dog was just swimming very near to where I was seeing this creature.
It disappeared for at least 5 minutes and I was transfixed on the water literally not knowing what the hell was going on.
It surfaced again and I saw it in all it's glory. It was a freaking Sea Lion!
(shitty photos included)
We got to watch if for about 20 minutes because it was loitering right in front of us. I'm assuming it was fishing that spot.
It kept going under for minutes at a time and coming up in random spots.
The last glimpse of it I saw it submerged for a couple minutes and surfaced hundreds of feet up river.
As luck would have it I crossed paths with a park ranger on my way out of the parkway. I told him what I saw and asked if he had ever heard about Sea Lions in the river.
Turns out it's a thing. He has seen it before on the Sacramento River (which the American River feeds into) he knew coworkers who had seen them in the American River but he had never heard of one that far up the American River before. Told me I was lucky to see it.
For reference only a few miles upstream the creature would run into a big ol dam.
I know Sea Lions aren't the most exotic animal out there but this experience was exhilarating. I had no idea what I was looking at in the first few moments and then when I figured out what was going on I couldn't explain it.
I have been recreating along the banks of that river since the mid 80s and I have never seen or heard of a Sea Lion being spotted in those waters.
It's kind of a geeky story but it made for a great afternoon adventure for me and my dog.
A map showing where the Sea Lion came from and where I spotted it.
(San Francisco Bay lower left. Animal swam up the Sacramento River and made a right and I saw it between Sacramento and Folsom Lake on the map.
Here is a newspaper article regarding the subject I dug up while I was searching the topic on the internet
Was hitting up some trails with my doggo along the American River this afternoon. We stopped at a regular spot where she likes to swim, fetch sticks from the water, and dig at river rocks.
We were enjoying the weather and relaxing when I saw something big and alien in the water.
I kinda freaked out because it didn't make sense. My dog was just swimming very near to where I was seeing this creature.
It disappeared for at least 5 minutes and I was transfixed on the water literally not knowing what the hell was going on.
It surfaced again and I saw it in all it's glory. It was a freaking Sea Lion!
(shitty photos included)
We got to watch if for about 20 minutes because it was loitering right in front of us. I'm assuming it was fishing that spot.
It kept going under for minutes at a time and coming up in random spots.
The last glimpse of it I saw it submerged for a couple minutes and surfaced hundreds of feet up river.
As luck would have it I crossed paths with a park ranger on my way out of the parkway. I told him what I saw and asked if he had ever heard about Sea Lions in the river.
Turns out it's a thing. He has seen it before on the Sacramento River (which the American River feeds into) he knew coworkers who had seen them in the American River but he had never heard of one that far up the American River before. Told me I was lucky to see it.
For reference only a few miles upstream the creature would run into a big ol dam.
I know Sea Lions aren't the most exotic animal out there but this experience was exhilarating. I had no idea what I was looking at in the first few moments and then when I figured out what was going on I couldn't explain it.
I have been recreating along the banks of that river since the mid 80s and I have never seen or heard of a Sea Lion being spotted in those waters.
It's kind of a geeky story but it made for a great afternoon adventure for me and my dog.
A map showing where the Sea Lion came from and where I spotted it.
(San Francisco Bay lower left. Animal swam up the Sacramento River and made a right and I saw it between Sacramento and Folsom Lake on the map.
Here is a newspaper article regarding the subject I dug up while I was searching the topic on the internet
