It’s as good as it gets, folks. Whale watching, Baja style. It’s the only place in the world were you can get up close and personal, and actually touch the whales. Combined with a motorcycle ride, it makes Baja even more special…
Figure on two days from the Los Angeles area to get down to Guerrero Negro. I’ve done it in one day, but that involves getting up at 4:00 a.m. to leave LA and riding hard for 700 miles…it’s not the best way to do it.
The ride south is awesome, especially once you get south of Ensenada. You could make this an easy 5-day run if seeing the whales was your main objective, and hey, I’m here to suggest it should be. We’ll talk more about that in just a bit.
The deal is this…the California gray whale herd spends its time migrating north in the summer (all the way to Alaska) and south in the winter (down to two major lagoons on Baja’s Pacific side). It’s the longest mammal migration in the world. The two lagoons where you can see the whales are Scammon’s Lagoon near Guerrero Negro, and San Ignacio Lagoon about an hour west of San Ignacio via a gnarly dirt road.
My preference (and my recommendation) is to do Scammon’s Lagoon from Guerrero Negro, as getting to the little boats only takes about 10 minutes. If you want to do San Ignacio Lagoon, you have to go with a service that picks you up in San Ignacio and takes you for a one-hour van ride to the lagoon. There are several whale watching services in Guerrero Negro; my favorite is Malarimmo’s or my good buddy Martin’s whale watching tour. It’s $50 per person, it includes a box lunch, and it’s literally a life-altering experience. Nobody does this who doesn’t come away moved by the experience. I know it’s hard to accept that reading a blog, but trust me, it’s what will happen.
The whales are cool. They’re longer than the boats we’re in. And like I said earlier, you actually get to touch them. Ever been kissed by a 45-foot California gray whale?
The whales are only in town (i.e., in Baja) from January through April, and then they’re back on the road headed north to Alaska. I like to visit with them in March; it’s when I think the whales are most friendly. This is a really cool thing to do.
I used to do these tours for CSC, and we’re thinking of opening it up for anybody in the ExhaustNotes crowd who wants to ride with us. You can be on any kind of bike, with a maximum number of people we’ll define at some point in the future. There won’t be any charge for this, folks, but you will have to sign up for our automatic ExhaustNotes email blog notifications to ride with us, and basically you’ll have to pass the personality test (that means you can’t be a jerk if you want to ride with us).
If you’re interested, let us know at info@ExhaustNotes.us (but only let us know if you’re serious; we not interested in a lot of “if” pre-qualifiers…you know, if I can get the time off, it my wife says it’s okay, if I can get my bike running, etc.).
Follow the ExhaustNotes blog if you want to know more about our planned Baja whale watching adventure ride. You should be reading the blog at least once every day, anyway (it will make you taller, thinner, better looking, and a better rider). Get your bike insured with BajaBound. We’ve got a lot of good info on Baja on our Baja page, and there’s more coming.
Stay tuned…there’s lots more to follow, but in the meantime, if you want to get a feel for what it’s like riding in Baja and seeing the whales, check out Moto Baja!
Unbelievable experience, another Joe Berk bucket list check mark. Thanks for sharing.
Ralph, you gotta fly out and ride with us.
Joe, we have seen that same migration of whales passing by along many spots on the Oregon coast, and one time had one of them right next to a Motel we have gone to many times in Depot Bay, on our wedding anniversary. Very impressive indeed.
Amazing! Such small boats! Beautiful experience!