{"id":412374,"date":"2025-11-29T07:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412374\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T07:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:22:14","slug":"californias-least-visited-national-park-sits-on-a-whale-migration-highway-heres-how-to-see-15000-gray-whales-there-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412374\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s Least-Visited National Park Sits On A &#8216;Whale Migration Highway&#8217; \u2014 Here&#8217;s How To See 15,000 Gray Whales There This Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Channel-islands-whale-watching-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid\" alt=\"Gray whale spy hopping and view of the Channel Islands\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbenedek, Gerald Corsi from Getty Images Signature via Canva <\/p>\n<p>    Save<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/whale-watching-los-angeles\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/whale-watching-los-angeles\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">\u201cWhale season\u201d<\/a> is a virtually year-round phenomenon in California, but <strong>gray whales<\/strong> are the most frequent visitors during the winter and spring, making the <strong>longest migration of any mammal.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From December to February,<strong> 15,000 gray whales<\/strong> travel from the Arctic down the California coast to the warm lagoons in Mexico. In mid-February, they return north, providing another opportunity to see them migrating through May.<\/p>\n<p>While you can witness the gray whale migration from numerous points along the coast, the<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/channel-islands-national-park-least-visited-california\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/channel-islands-national-park-least-visited-california\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-category=\"click_internal\">Channel Islands<\/a><\/strong> are widely regarded as one of the best whale-watching areas in California \u2014 keep reading for a closer look.<\/p>\n<p>     Winter whale watching in the Channel Islands <\/p>\n<p>The Channel Islands sit right on a <strong>whale migration \u201chighway\u201d<\/strong> through the Santa Barbara Channel, with thousands of gray whales migrating through this area every winter.<\/p>\n<p>Whale watching companies offer <strong>nearly daily excursions in the <a href=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/winter-bucket-list-los-angeles\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/winter-bucket-list-los-angeles\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_2\" data-category=\"click_internal\">winter<\/a><\/strong>, weather permitting, for guests to witness the migration against the dramatic backdrop of California\u2019s famous island chain.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/islandpackers.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/islandpackers.com\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_3\" data-category=\"click_non_sales\"><strong>Island Packers<\/strong><\/a>: As an authorized concessioner for the NPS, Ventura-based Island Packers offers a range of trips to the Channel Islands, including gray whale trips from <strong>Dec. 26th through mid-April. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelislandswhalewatching.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.channelislandswhalewatching.com\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_4\" data-category=\"click_non_sales\"><strong>Channel Islands Whale Watching<\/strong><\/a>: This Oxnard-based operator runs winter whale watching tours from<strong> Dec. 26th through April 30th<\/strong> each year.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.condorexpress.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.condorexpress.com\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_5\" data-category=\"click_non_sales\"><strong>Condor Express<\/strong><\/a>: This Santa Barbara-based company hosts high-speed catamaran tours starting at the<strong> end of November. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-42284\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/whale-watching-los-angeles-1024x767.jpg\" alt=\"Three gray whales swimming in the ocean.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\"  \/>Photo by Josh Withers on Unsplash The \u2018Gal\u00e1pagos of North America\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>Did you know that the Channel Islands are known as the <strong>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/channel-islands-national-park-least-visited-california\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/channel-islands-national-park-least-visited-california\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_6\" data-category=\"click_internal\">Gal\u00e1pagos of North America<\/a>?\u201d<\/strong> You\u2019ve likely seen the islands when driving down the coast of California, but they are incidentally the least-visited national park in the state. Due to the islands\u2019 isolation and lack of human development, they\u2019re also teeming with <strong>150+ endemic species<\/strong> found nowhere else in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Above water, visitors can explore ample hiking and camping spots and learn about <a href=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/channel-islands-california-oldest-human-remains-north-america\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretlosangeles.com\/channel-islands-california-oldest-human-remains-north-america\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_7\" data-category=\"click_internal\">13,000 years of human history<\/a>. But below the surface, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary protects 1,470 square miles of ocean waters with<strong> 33 species of marine mammals.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the gray whales, more notable residents include blue whales, humpback whales, seals, sea lions, and even endangered white abalone and leatherback sea turtles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"benedek, Gerald Corsi from Getty Images Signature via Canva Save \u201cWhale season\u201d is a virtually year-round phenomenon in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":412375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-412374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115631786896658765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}