Take a drive through a couple of trees down a very twisty road, and you’re not in Silicon Valley anymore. Here, even on a day when it’s pouring rain and freezing cold, there is a way to go outdoors.

Año Nuevo State Reserve is the site of the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seal. During the breeding season—December through March—daily access to the reserve is available through guided walks only, because the “bulls,” or male seals, are very protective of their harems. Most of the adult seals are gone by early March, leaving behind the weaned pups who remain through April.

Hundreds of thousands of northern elephant seals once inhabited the Pacific Ocean, but they were slaughtered in the 1800s for the oil from their blubber. By 1892, very few were left. Currently, Año Nuevo supports the recovered northern elephant seal population and the endangered Steller seal population on Año Nuevo island, which is closed to visitors.

“This is probably the state of California’s most undiscovered gem,” Docent Naturalist Karen Smith said. Smith has been volunteering at the reserve for the past five years. She became interested in volunteering after she worked with seal pups at a marine mammal center.

“You apply and go through the program and learn all of these amazing things that you never knew before,” Smith said. “It teaches you how to turn people on to what they’re seeing.”

Volunteers make up the core California state park system, and Año Nuevo is no exception. The reserve has funded a 2.5 million dollar research and training center to a center to study marine life and educate visitors. The center trains volunteers as docents to lead walks and teach visitors about animal life in the reserve. These docents interpret the wildlife available to visitors and keep the experience of nature alive in Año Nuevo. “Being a docent at Año Nuevo attracted me because I work in an office during the week,” Docent Janelle Zamora said. “Being out at Año in nature, with the elephant seals and the public, is very enriching for me.”

Cultural resource volunteers are able to preserve human artifacts precious to the California State Park collection and research their historical importance. There are also opportunities for volunteers to work with trail reconstruction, native plant enhancement, exotic plant removal, habitat restoration and beach cleanup. These natural resource managers preserve and protect the native species in the Bay Area.

“I started coming here as a visitor thirty years ago,” Docent Claude Reichard said. “I realized it would be good to try to share what I’ve learned. As a docent I’ve learned much more, and I’m constantly rewarded by the pleasure of meeting interesting, wonderful people from all over the world.”