Seal Rocks (San Francisco)

Seal Rocks are a series of jagged, natural sandstone formations rising directly from the Pacific Ocean just offshore. You are looking at a location that earned federal protection in eighteen eighty-seven, when the United States Congress designated it as a wildlife preserve. This act was spurred by the lobbying of Adolph Sutro, a wealthy mining engineer who sought to protect the colony of Steller and California sea lions that claimed these islands as their home. The islands are individually named from south to north as Cone Rock, Hermit Rock, Arch Rock, and Repose Rock.