Our Car Camping Trek: The Whales in Baja California

We left on Wednesday, December 27, at 2:30 pm. Of course, it took hours to pack, to prepare the animals and leave instructions for the pet sitters, to clean the front porch, to find the gear we wanted and to make it fit into our trusty Toyota Rav 4 (El Minimúsculo). We headed down Highway 5 and after a couple hours got off in search of a campground I saw marked on one of my old maps, near the state Tule Elk Preserve. We drove in darkness—the trouble with winter camping—and finally came to the preserve. Day use only. By luck we found a campground a few miles away at Lake Buenavista. The next morning, we drove back to the wildlife preserve. Wow. These are really big elk (smaller than Roosevelt elk, however, which you can see at Redwood State Park up north).

What a story of survival: They outwitted the Spaniards, but near extinction was due to the Gold Rush (in two years they were hunted until there was just one pair left) and agricultural modifications to the marsh habitat to which they retreated in order to escape hunters and farmers. They are resilient animals, but that also makes them hard to herd or put to pasture. Apparently, they are fed supplemental hay because they need so much more space than they have—in fact, according to the preserve, the long-term plan is to move them elsewhere. We were the first visitors in two months. The ranger was away, but the groundskeeper asked if we’d like to go drive into the pasture and get a closer look, so we did. I breastfed the baby while we drove slowly down the dirt road to see the cows, who stay away from the bulls.

Next we checked out Carrizo Plains National Monument, a vast open space in the Central Valley with antelope (but probably no elk—there are only three herds of Tule Elk in various Central California parks). It was freezing cold, arid and empty. I’m always in search of camping spots where few dare to tread—I think if you want to be alone, this is an excellent spot. We turned around after 10 miles on the dirt road, determined to make it to San Diego instead. I’d like to come back in the future and see some antelope, though.

We stayed the night in San Diego with my brother Peter and his girlfriend Renée, and the next day we went to the beach and the San Diego Zoo. That night, Emilio and I started to get the hang of Dance Dance Revolution, the computer game René has at home. Then, on Saturday, Peter and Renée accompanied us to Ensenada, Baja California, where we window shopped and ate some great seafood (sopa de siete mares, yummmm) at the fish market. They drove back home, while we found an R.V. park near La Bufadora. It was still rather cold, and we were the only folks in a tent with a baby, but in the morning we collected shells on the shabby beach and congratulated ourselves on our first time ever camping in Mexico.

That day we drove several more hours, to the Old Mill in San Quintin. Sebastian made fast friends with some boys who lived nearby and we all roasted marshmallows. It was New Year’s Eve, so I was worried things might get crazy. Just after dusk, we heard a car barrelling down the dirt road for several miles. It turned into the area where we were camping, headlights off, and spun in the dirt before parking. Emilio and I voiced the same fear: Were we going to be run over in the middle of the night? Emilio moved the car in front of the tent, creating an obstacle for any drunk drivers. At midnight people were setting off firecrackers nearby and at 5 a.m. they were singing drinking songs, but no one approached the lone tent. In the morning Sebastian and his new friend David traded toys (a football for a car) and we set out for our goal, Guerrero Negro.

We stopped at a beautiful spot on the highway for a delicious breakfast (eggs with shredded carne seca, huevos rancheros, instant coffee with lots of milk and sugar and fried potatoes, which are common in Baja. The food was so good, we timed our return trip to come back and sample more of the doña's cooking.) We drove 8 hours that day, arriving at Laguna Ojo de Liebre in the night and finding a gorgeous palapa waiting for us! Setting up the tent was easy with the palapa blocking the wind and a full moon to light our way. Once we bedded down, the coyotes started their eerie crying, and kept it up until dawn.

In the morning we inquired about boating out to see the whales. They said there were only five to 10 grey whales in the lagoon at this point, but that we’d see some anyway (apparently in February there are around 2,000). Sebastian and I went first, while Emilio drove into town to wash clothes with the baby. We saw some whales early on, spouting, but I didn’t get any pictures. They were always far away and didn’t resurface, though, so we ended up spending over 4 hours searching (although during that time we saw groups of dolphins several times, including a pair diving under our boat and arcing up on the other side!). Then we suddenly came close to a pair. The first thing we saw was the behavior where they stick their head straight out of the water, perhaps to look around. Then they blew several times and flipped their tails. We loved the salt water on our faces during the boat ride back.

Later that day, Emilio went out with Sebastian. In less than an hour they saw two whales and the guide told them to call them to the boat by splashing their hands in the water. The whale came close and then dove under the boat with his flipper exposed. The guide said “Reach down and touch it!” to Emilio but Emilio only stuck his arm a little ways into the water. Afterwards he said he felt almost like crying, to have seen these creatures after having read about the preserve in the magazine Mexico Desconocido and seen it on TV.

I’m so happy Sebastian is old enough to remember this experience. We all talked about what we felt when we saw the whales: Fear that they’d flip over our boat, insecurity at being out in the open water far from land, awe at their size, wonder at their curiosity in us. Emilio was a bit chagrined that he hadn’t touched it. The guide had told him it was a pity I hadn’t seen them as close up as they had, but I’m more than satisfied. When you see the whales, it’s like getting a glimpse of the watery world that is as foreign to us as outer space.

In sum, it was probably the smoothest vacation we’ve ever had: We operated as a well-oiled family camping machine, we saw lots of wildlife (elk, coyotes, dolphins, sea eagles), we ate great food, our boys were marvelously patient car travelers, I didn’t think once about work (musical or editorial) and we finally got to see Baja and the whales!

P.S. If you’re thinking about going, now is the time to see many more whales than we did!