Baja Whale Trail

Baja Whale Trail is an itinerary that goes above and beyond taking a Whale watching tour in a coastal city. The itinerary takes a serious traveler through the bays and estuaries of the Baja Peninsula, focusing on the feeding and breeding areas. While commercial whale watching tours from large coastal cities are an easy and convenient way to see migrating whales, the places in this article are where the whales spend several months each year in the same place. These are typically remote and may be several hours off the beaten path and require persistence, some Spanish language skills, and maybe a level of fitness and outdoor skills.

Understand
The importance of Baja California to the world's whale population can not be overstated. UNESCO called the whale sanctuaries in the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve "the key to the survival of the grey whale". French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau famously described the Gulf of California as "the world's aquarium" due to its astounding biodiversity. The Gulf of California (usually referred to as the Sea of Cortez in Mexico) is home to 39% of all the world's marine mammal species.

Whale Species
A large number of species can be found along the Pacific coast of Baja and in the warm, relatively protected waters of the Gulf of California. Species with particularly good opportunities to observe include:


 * Gray Whales - the largest population of gray whales in the world spends summers in the northern Pacific (near Alaska), then migrates to Baja Mexico in late fall (around December), returning north in spring (around April). They feed and give birth in the warm waters of several estuaries of Baja California Sur, in particular Laguna Ojo de Liebre, Bahia Magdalena, and Laguna San Ignacio.
 * Humpback Whales - humpbacks can be found in oceans around the world, often migrating between cold summer waters and warm winter waters. Humpbacks can be seen along the North American Pacific coast, but the best concentration of migrating humpbacks can be seen from Los Cabos northeast into the mouth of the Gulf of California, including Cabo Pulmo. The best place to see young humpback calves is San Lorenzo.
 * Blue Whales - largest of all the mammal species, these giants of the deep are frequently seen in the Gulf of California; Loreto is the top spot for blue whales but San Lorenzo is a popular birthing spot for them as well.
 * Others: though not as commonly seen as the previous three species, many other whales are commonly spotted in the waters around the Baja Peninsula. These can include Fin Whales and Orca (killer whales).

Though not a whale, the Vaquita is a critically endangered porpoise species that is the world's smallest cetacean. When they are seen, the vaquitas tend to be in the northernmost waters of the Gulf of California though groups of vaquitas are also seen close to the Cabo Pulmo National Park on the southeastern edge of the Baja Peninsula.

Though not a whale, nor even a mammal, whale sharks are frequently of interest to whale watchers. Whale sharks are the largest fish on earth. They are common in the Gulf of California and boat tours from La Paz will take you to places where you can swim with the whale sharks.

Prepare
These are generally not places you visit on a quick day trip but rather they often require a more significant time commitment. An intrepid traveler can make arrangements locally at local prices, but this requires patience and language skills. Tour companies exist in most parts of Baja and you can arrange trips with tour operators that include camping (or other lodging), kayaks, or boat trips in pangas to the whale sanctuaries. There are also some dive shops that can arrange diving tours to some of these areas. See Diving in Mexico for more info.

3-5 days may be adequate in some locations, but you may want to plan to spend a week or more in some places or for more involved activities (like multi-island kayak trips).

Get in
The best airport for most travelers will be Los Cabos International Airport, located 15 km north of San Jose del Cabo. The closest to most whale sanctuaries is Loreto International Airport, though it receives fewer flights than SJD. Other airports that could be used are La Paz International Airport or Tijuana International Airport.

Los Cabos has the best selection of flights from U.S. and Canadian cities. American Airlines flies to Loreto from Phoenix. Tijuana has the best service for Mexican domestic flights, but is far from the whale sanctuaries and would require a full day of driving (or a long bus ride). La Paz is very convenient to the lower Gulf of California, but usually requires a connection in Mexico City or another Mexican hub.

Trip Overview


This itinerary could be approached from various perspectives. The order of sites above assumes that a traveler would be driving from the north, focusing first on the Pacific Coast before going up the eastern (Sea of Cortez) coast later in the trip. But that's just one way to do it.

If you have a week or less, then focus on just one experience so you don't waste a lot of time getting between areas but rather increase your chances of a mind-bendingly awesome interaction with the whales. The gray whale sites along the Pacific are probably most rewarding, but some of the sites near La Paz or Loreto are logistically easier (as in, no rustic camping required).

If you are master of your own schedule and just can never get enough of whales, a great trip would be to start at the southernmost tip of Baja (Los Cabos) and work your way north over an 8-week period spanning the months of February and March. Try to end up in San Ignacio the second or third week of March and then shoot on up to San Lorenzo. By late March, many of the males have started their migration and the females and calves are often the most social towards humans. That's when you have the best chance of a whale approaching your panga and getting close enough to touch.

Gray Whales on the Pacific Coast
The three best areas to observe gray whales and their young calves are (from northernmost to southernmost): Laguna Ojo de Liebre, Laguna San Ignacio, and Bahia Magdalena.

Laguna Ojo de Liebre
Laguna Ojo de Liebre is part of the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve.

The town of Guerrero Negro offers numerous hotels with at least 10 clustered along Avenida Emiliano Zapata. Most hotels can help you arrange a boat for a whale tour into the lagoons. Hotels and tours should be booked ahead as the town tends to fill up during the busiest period between mid-January and the end of March. The lagoon is quite large and a multi-day trip would allow you to see more areas and of course, more whales. Guerrero Negro is easy to reach via federal highway MEX-1 (the main highway through the Baja Peninsula). It is a 12-hour drive south of Tijuana and is served by frequent bus service on ABC and Aguila. From the south, it is about a 12-hour drive north from La Paz.







Laguna San Ignacio
Laguna San Ignacio is part of the UNESCO El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve. It is also a designated Ramsar wetland. In addition to its importance as a nursery for the gray whale, the bays and beaches are critical habitat for four endangered species of sea turtle: leatherbacks, hawksbills, green turtles, and olive ridleys.

A favorite activity of whales is to go on human watching tours. The whales are very curious about humans and seem particularly willing to approach pangas in the Laguna San Ignacio. It is very common for a small panga to be approached by one of the 40-ton creatures who will often approach close enough to be touched. Although tour boats are not supposed to approach the whales, there's not much the captain can do when the whales approach the boat. Some whales will not get too close, but will exhibit spyhopping where they seem to stand on their tales with their heads poking out of the water as they keep an eye on the humans. Later in the whale season, mothers with young calves will often approach the pangas.

The "town" of San Ignacio is a small village of about 500 people just off highway MEX-1. Several hotels and campgrounds are close to the highway. There are no real towns directly on the Laguna San Ignacio, but several tour operators have set up camps where travelers can stay in "glamping" tents that typically have sturdy reinforcement, wood floors, and real beds with mattresses. Whale watching tours are generally arranged ahead of time and the tour operator will either handle your transportation or tell you how to navigate the dirt backroads to get to the camps.











Bahia Magdalena
The Bahia Magdalena is a 50 km long bay protected by two sandy barrier islands, Isla Magdalena and Isla Santa Margarita. Hiking trails are on both islands. Bahia Magdalena has several areas of dense mangrove swamp that are roosting spots for a number of bird species. In addition to the gray whales who populate the bay between December and April, there are dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions. The bay can be accessed from the towns of San Carlos or Puerto López Mateos. San Carlos is fairly easy to reach by car as it is the terminus of a good highway (MEX-22). Puerto Lopez Mateos is more remote, further north, and is further from the larger estuaries where most of the whales are found.

There are a number of hotels and restaurants in San Carlos and a large number of boat captains with pangas who will take visitors out to the areas where the whales live. Many of the better restaurants and tours get fully booked, so advance reservations are recommended.

To get to San Carlos by car, drive to Ciudad Constitucion (B.C.S.), then turn west on highway MEX-22 for 60 km. From La Paz, it is an 11-hour drive. Autobuses Aguila has service to Ciudad Constitucion. From La Paz, the bus takes 12 hours and tickets start at M$1200. Once in Ciudad Constitucion, take another Aguila bus to Puerto San Carlos (1 bus per day, M$100) or use a taxi for the last 60 km to Puerto San Carlos.





Blue Whales in the mid-to-upper Gulf of California
Blue whales are the largest animals on Earth. They can grow to a length of almost 100 feet (30 meters) and weigh up to 200 tons. Blue whales are roughly twice as long as a Gray Whale and weigh 5 times more. Blue whales can be found in oceans around the world though they tend to prefer spending summer months in polar areas and winter months in warm tropical waters where they often give birth.

Although Blue Whales can be spotted along the Pacific coast of Baja, they prefer breeding and birthing in the northern half of the Gulf of California, particularly in two protected areas: the Bahia de Loreto, and further north in the San Lorenzo Archipelago (near Isla San Pedro Martir). Visiting either of these areas is likely to give you some views of oether whale species as well, particularly Humpback Whales and Sperm Whales. These waters are protected by various government agencies. Bahia de Loreto is a national park and part of a larger UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The islands of the upper Gulf of California is a and a federal biosphere reserve.

Loreto
The waters and islands off the coast of Loreto are home to a number of whale species including the Blue Whale. There are also Fin Whales, Sperm Whales, and sometimes even Orcas, as well as dolphins, sea lions, and other marine mammals.

This is an easy city to travel to with direct flights and whale tours leaving from the city's downtown marina.















San Lorenzo
The waters of the northern Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) are where you'll find the most Blue Whales and the largest diversity of whale species with Fin Whales, Sperm Whales, and other species sharing the large area of warm open water. This area is the least visited of all the whale sanctuary areas and can pay the biggest dividends for the committed naturalist or whale watcher but at the cost of being the most difficult to reach. There are no major airports within several hours drive and the only significant town is Bahia de Los Angeles, which is where you will find the only real hotels, the only gas stations, and the only selection of food in the region. The downside to Bahia de los Angeles is that it's a very long boat ride to the area where you'll see the most whales, which makes the best location near San Lorenzo Marine Archipelago to be a tiny hamlet with a choice of one place to stay, which is also the one place to get food and the one place to charter a boat: San Francisquito

Getting to San Francisquito can be either easy or hard, depending on whether you own your own light airplane or whether you have to drive, like mere mortal humans. If you have a plane, there is a paved airstrip at Bahia de los Angeles and a primitive airstrip at Puerto San Francisquito. Contact the folks at Puerto San Francisquito for instructions on how to get permission to use and how to land at their private airstrip. If you drive, you first need to get to Bahia de los Angeles, which is easy because federal highway MEX-12 is a good, paved road that connects the town to MEX-1. To get from there to San Francisquito requires another 3-hour trip on the old Baja 1000 road. It's a mostly dirt road that is frequently covered by potholes or sand dunes. It is best traversed by dirt bike or 4WD truck (fill up with gas before you leave town), but it's been said that RVs can make the trip. You can probably hire a taxi in Bahia de los Angeles to take you, but negotiate the fare and expect it to be expensive since you are likely the only fare he'll be able to take all day.







Humpback Whales, Whale Sharks and Vaquitas in the lower Gulf of California
Be aware that most of the "whale" tours in La Paz don't actually go anywhere the whales live, they take you to places where you can see and swim with Whale Sharks. That's still pretty cool because whale sharks are the largest fish species on Earth, but they are considerably smaller than whales, plus you can do whale shark trips in other places, so La Paz is safely skipped if you're pressed for time.

In both La Paz and Los Cabos there are whale watching tours that focus on whales, but they tend to use larger vessels and go offshoare along the migration paths (more like the whale watching tours you find in many coastal cities). These tours are very different than the more intimate, awe-inspiring trips to the various sanctuaries of the peninsula.

Stay safe
Whale watching is generally a pretty safe activity, but there are some things you can do to prepare yourself:


 * 1) Use a high-quality, insulated, reusable water bottle. Disposable single-use plastics are banned in many coastal areas and biospheres in Mexico, and tour operators are likely to insist you not bring disposable drink bottles. You're still likely to get thirsty out on the water for 2 or 3 hours, so bring the good water bottle.
 * 2) Protect yourself from the sun. A hat and sunglasses are a good idea. Sunscreen might be as well, but try to use the brands advertised as "reef safe" which do less damage to fragile coastal ecosystems.
 * 3) Wear comfortable rubber sole shoes. Wet boat surfaces can be slippery.
 * 4) Wear your life jacket, particularly if you can't swim well. All tour guides in this article will use lightweight fiberglass boats called pangas. They're quite sturdy, but do tip, especially if everyone goes to one side of the boat while a whale approaches to be touched. Aside from some guy named Jonah, whales generally don't eat people.

Go next

 * Sierra de San Pedro Martir National Park - mountainous area with bighorn sheep and California condors
 * El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar National Biosphere Reserve - UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with desert landscapes
 * Isla Tiburon - offshore wildlife reserve occupied by indigenous Seri