Visit the Oregon coast for Whale Watch Week Dec. 27 – 31
SALEM — Winter Whale Watch Week is back Dec. 27 -31! So throw on some layers, grab your trusty pair of binoculars and high-tail it to the coast to spot some of the 25,000 Gray whales migrating south past Oregon’s coast.
Oregon State Parks has picked out more than 20 of the best places on the coast to spy the whales: check out this online map of all the locations. Each site will be staffed with super smart volunteers from the Whale Watching Spoken Here program and they’ll be happy to help you locate the whales and answer questions. The volunteers will be there 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. each day, but most viewing sites are open to visitors 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Can’t make it to the coast that week? No problem: we’re live streaming the event on the Oregon State Parks YouTube channel. Check in during the day for a live feed from the Whale Watch Center in Depoe Bay.
The whales’ journey south is one leg of their annual migration pattern. They begin near Alaska and swim all the way down the western U.S. coast before settling in the warm lagoons near Baja, Mexico. The end of December is the peak time for their journey; roughly 30 whales pass by per hour.
More info about state parks on the coast is on oregonstateparks.org.
