Close Encounters with Grey Whales
Between December and April each year, grey whales migrate down to Mexico to breed and give birth in the lagoons around Baja California. A turbulent history between humans and whales once existed in these lagoons. Humans almost drove this species to extinction through hunting grey whales to harvest their blubber for use in oil lamps. But the whales fought back, and would regularly try to sink boats and drown whalers in the lagoon. Whaling was banned in 1947 and numbers began to recover but many fishermen still feared the whales capsizing their boats.
Until one day one grey whale approached the boat of a local fisherman and stayed by the boat at the surface. The fisherman leant down and touched the whale and since this interaction, more and more whales approaching boats seeking friendly encounters with humans have occurred. It is one of the only (if not, the only!) place in the world where whales seek interactions with people. If you visit during the peak season you may get lucky and experience a close encounter with one of these whales!
Where: Baja California, Mexico
When: January to March
Cost: £££
Difficulty: *
The grey whale lacks a dorsal fin, but instead has a characteristic series of ridges along the back
Our experience…
We spent three days searching for grey whales in February 2025. We spent nights camping in the desert and days on the boats searching for the whales with Pachico’s Ecotours. There are other options to stay in small self contained rooms. Camping was the slightly cheaper (and more adventurous) option but be prepared for cold and windy conditions if you opt to camp (we weren’t!). The temperatures drop dramatically at night in the desert and the camp sites sit on the edge of the lagoon so are very exposed. Be careful not to leave your shoes or any belongings outside the tent as coyotes will take anything left outside your tent!
The lagoons where the grey whales can be found (along with the campsites) is not the most accessible place situated on the remote west coast of the Baja California. We hired a car and drove to the campsite making it into a big road trip up the Baja peninsular. From Loreto it took around 4-5 hours to reach the campsite. The views of the road trip are incredible (One of the most stunning road trips I’ve ever done - with turquoise blue seas meeting dramatic mountain ranges of the desert) and there are many smaller towns and villages you could stay in closer on the way up to the grey whale lagoons.
Over the three days we undertook two boat trips a day in search of whales. The lagoon is tightly regulated with only a certain number of boats allowed in each day with time limits on how long the boats can stay. I was really impressed with how rigidly this was stuck to, with us having to check in and out with a guard monitoring the entrance of the lagoon.
We were warned that an interaction may not happen before heading out on the first trip - it’s completely us to the whales if they want to interact with us. The boat drivers and guides read the whales behaviour and if the whale is not interested in us, there will be no interaction. It was really encouraging to see that this was very strictly observed, animal welfare is the priority during the tours. We were also briefed on a number of rules to follow if the whale does seek an interaction: how and where is OK to touch the whale and where isn’t, etc. Excited, we headed out on our first boat trip.The first whales we encountered were busy mating and had zero interest in us. Tossing and turning and tails slapping the surface, it was quite a spectacle to watch. They came very close to the boat allowing us to get sense the true scale of these enormous 40 ton animals as they cruised along side us. We stopped for lunch and left the lagoon before our second trip in the afternoon.
As we commenced the second trip we came across many whales, none interested in interacting with us, the boat driver told us. Until we approached another boat with a large female whale and small calf by her side interacting with them. We stopped and waited (in awe of the interaction we could see happening) and after a while she came over to investigate our boat. She came right up to us, nose touching the side of the boat with the little calf staying a little further back but porpoising by her side. Now we could really see the size of these whales, growing to almost 15m long, she dwarfed our small boat. She stayed with us for around 20 minutes with each of us on our boat getting the opportunity to pat her and see her barnacle encrusted head up close. It was an incredible and nothing short of magical experience and the energy on the boat was electric.
The following two days, no further whales wanted to interact with us, although many came close to our boats and we got many amazing views and saw lots of spy hopping and tail slapping behaviour.
