San Diego to Baja Gray Whale Watching Tours

Southern California is often the scene of arduous commutes, but few have a longer trip than gray whales. Every year, more than 25,000 gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) travel 10,000 miles – the longest migration of any mammal – in their journey from the Arctic to Baja California and back again.

Gray whales, one of the largest mammals on earth, forsake the chilly waters of the Arctic for the warmer waters of Baja’s lagoons in order to bear their calves and mate, and then after a brief two to four month stay they all turn around and head back to the Arctic Sea. Their annual migration is an exciting and memorable event, and San Diego’s coastline offers ringside seats to the amazing exhibition.

Whale watching is an enjoyable and unique opportunity for people of all ages. Residents of and visitors to America’s Finest City can witness the journey of one of the largest mammals on earth, as they take the annual family ‘road trip’ south to Mexico.

Anyone who has spotted these giant creatures swimming off our coast can tell you that it’s breathtaking: Watching a creature so large and graceful is both memorable and impressive, even more so if you manage to catch them as they breach or spyhop.

Breaching occurs when they break the surface and launch their entire bodies out of the water and then crash back down, like some exotic water ballet. Spyhopping is when they pop their heads up out of the water vertically, as if they were periscopes, and survey the scene before them. Both activities are amazing to witness, and demonstrate the agility of these enormous animals, which weigh 25 to 30 tons and can grow as long as 45 feet.

Gray whiles start heading south in October, but are spotted most frequently off the coast of San Diego between December and March – December to January heading south, and February and March making the return trip to their feeding grounds. According to the National Park Service, the peak of the migration off San Diego’s coast is in January.

Scripps Institute’s Birch Aquarium in La Jolla reports that gray whales generally travel alone or in groups of two or three, but during the peak periods pods can number a dozen or more.

Gray whales are relatively slow swimmers. In a lifetime, a gray whale travels a cumulative distance about equal to a trip to the moon and back, but they aren’t setting any speed records during their migrations. They swim close to the coast (to avoid attacks by killer whales) at a relaxed pace of about two to six miles per hour.

Gray whales establish a rhythm while swimming, just like an Olympic swimmer. Spotting this pattern is key to a good whale watching session! When unstressed, gray whales make a few short shallow dives, surfacing and spouting afterward each time. They do this before diving deeply, which they signal by raising their tails high in the air (this is called sounding). The deep dive will take them about 100 feet or even deeper, where they’ll swim for three to five minutes. When they surface after a deep dive, they will exhale hard, releasing a tall plume of vapor.

Because the gray whales hug the California coastline, using shallower waters to protect them from predators, they can often be spotted from land. Some good locations to see these aquatic giants are Torrey Pines State Beach or Cabrillo National Monument (but bring binoculars). For additional whale watching tips, click.

However, nothing beats an up-close-and-personal vantage point to truly capture the experience. Sounding, spouting, breaching, and spyhopping are all activities that should be seen up close! A whale watching sailing tour on the famous yacht ‘America’ affords the best opportunity to witness the amazing beauty of the gray whales.