Head to Baja to See California Gray Whales

By Nancy Schretter issueTravel World Magazine May/June 2008

The parade started at sunrise. I was standing on the bluff watching the inlet's colors turn to violet when I heard the first "phoof." A mother California Gray Whale and her baby calf were making their way through the water, less than a stone's throw away.

Suddenly, the colors of the sunrise took a backseat to what I was seeing before me. Our little group of campers had front row seats for one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring shows on earth.

In less than an hour's time, four pairs of mothers and calves slowly made their way past our campsite. Some were surrounded by schools of dolphins, jumping and frolicking together. Others put on an acrobatic display, breaching multiple times and then spy hopping as if to make sure we were watching. The last pair came within several feet of the shore, so close that we could almost feel the fine mist from their blowholes as they exhaled. Our group stood, cameras in hand, watching the magnificent spectacle.

Every fall, hundreds of California Gray Whales leave their cold Artic feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas and journey more than 5,000 miles to Baja California's shallow lagoons to mate and bear their calves. From our campsite along the shores of Baja's Magdalena Bay, it was quite common to see young calves swimming next to their mothers.

These newborns are anything but tiny. According to our guides, the calves weigh close to a ton when they are born and are approximately twelve to fifteen feet in size. When viewed next to their forty-foot mothers, however, the young calves do look quite small. The whales usually remain in Baja's estuaries from mid-January through mid-March before returning back to Alaska.

Sea Kayak Adventure's Gray Whales of Magdalena Bay trip offers outdoor-loving families the chance to get up close and personal with wild California Gray Whales. Tour participants arrive and overnight in Loreto on Mexico's Sea of Cortez before journeying across the Baja peninsula to Puerto Lopez Mateos on Magdalena Bay. Small skiffs called "pangas" ferry group members to the Isla Santo Domingo campsite and on daily whale watching trips. Tours range in length from five to seven days, and sea kayaking is usually included as part of the six- and seven-day itineraries.

This trip is well-suited for adventurous families with teens and college-age children, although kids as young as eight are welcome. Although comfortable two-person dome tents and warm sleeping bags with extra thick self-inflating pads are provided, kids should have prior camping experience and be able to "rough it" at a campsite with no running water or electricity. The Sea Kayak Adventures campsite has a solar shower and a porta potty in a shelter, but there are no fresh water sources on the island. Tour guides prepare three meals daily and special dietary needs can easily be accommodated if notified in advance.

On our recent trip, we spent our days whale watching, sea kayaking, beachcombing along miles of deserted beaches, and hiking in the sand dunes. The daily itinerary varied and was based on the interests of the group. Some days included two sessions of whale watching, while on other days we went whale watching in the morning and sea kayaking in the afternoon. Our group also enjoyed a full day of sea kayaking and birding in the mangrove areas of the Bay.

Gray whales came close to our boat on every one of our group's whale watching sessions, often with babies in tow. We watched countless spy hops, a behavior in which the whale pokes its head out of the water, as well as a number of impressive breaches. All of them were fantastic, but the best was saved for last.

On our final whale watching excursion, one mother whale and her baby calf lingered in our area for a long time. The two meandered slowly from one panga to another, occasionally coming up and spy hopping right next to the boat as if to get a good look at its occupants. The mother went under one of our group's two boats to scratch her back as her baby enjoyed being stroked. Then, they turned in our direction and the mother seemed to shepherd her baby towards our skiff. We collectively held our breath.

At last, the mother surfaced next to our panga, almost like a house rising out of the water. Her baby was right next to her. The two of them hovered there, close enough for us to reach out and stroke their smooth, silky skin. It felt soft and rubbery under my fingertips, almost like a wet inner tube, and my hand lingered in the water. The mother turned, and for a moment, her luminous eye caught mine. Then, the baby turned slowly and rolled on its side, one flipper out of the water, as if to say goodbye. They moved away, splashing and churning the water, before returning once more for a final pat.

We were very lucky to have such a close encounter with a pair of whales. Panga operators in Magdalena Bay abide by strict rules prohibiting them from chasing whales, so whales approach the skiffs only when they choose to do so. Although the gray whales of Magdalena Bay are known for their friendly behavior, these gentle giants certainly do not perform on command.

Sea Kayak Adventures also operates kayaking trips on the west coast of Canada during the summer months. There, the close encounters are with whales of a different kind. Orca whales are often seen on Sea Kayak Adventures' Johnstone Strait and God's Pocket Provincial Park trips.

"Johnstone Strait is the best place in the world to paddle with orcas, due to the fish funnel found in nature," says Sea Kayak Adventures' co-owner Nancy Mertz. Salmon come in from the Pacific Ocean to the narrowest part of the Inside Passage, called Johnstone Strait. The "northern resident orcas" in that area eat only salmon, and they converge on the area to feast on the fish in the summer months. In late August of last year, Nancy Mertz says she saw about a hundred orcas in just a couple of hours in Johnstone Strait. According to Mertz, "All the family pods get together there from mid-July through early September to feast, socialize and hang out in the Strait – making it a wonderful place to kayak."

Kids over 14 are eligible to participate in the Canadian sea kayaking trips and teens ages 14-18 receive a 10% discount on their tours. Participants must be at least 5 feet tall and weigh 100 pounds or more in order to paddle in their double kayaks. Special family teen trips are also held each summer.

For more information on Sea Kayak Adventures' trips, visit their website at www.seakayakadventures.com or call their office at 800-616-1943.