After great trips last year and the year before, we are considering it
again this year, in early March. We would go for a week, Sun-Sat from/to
San Diego. Other people interested in traveling along should send me a
PM for more details. You don't need Syncro, just a reliable VW van with
5 good tires. We will cover about 1200 miles of mostly paved Baja road.
Down below is my re-posted report from the the second trip a year ago.

Here is a link to a few photos from last year when 4 vans went.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117635085394690440875/BajaWhales2011#

Mark and (maybe)Anne

mark drillock wrote:
> After a nice trip last year, we went again this year to visit the
> whales. Each winter the Gray Whales migrate by the thousands from the
> cold waters near Alaska down to the calving and breeding lagoons of
> Baja. It is quite a spectacle, and people come from around the world to
> experience it. The season lasts through mid April or so.
>
> This year I organized a trip for VW vans and 4 vans took part. We spent
> 7 days in Mexico, covered about 1200 miles in Mexico. We camped 6
> nights, at 4 different camps. After 2 nights at the whales we came part
> way back north to camp 2 nights at Bahia De Los Angeles on the Sea of
> Cortez for some beach sun, kayaking, and fishing. The other nights were
> on the road coming and going.
>
> Here is a link to some photos taken on the trip.
>
> https://picasaweb.google.com/117635085394690440875/BajaWhales2011#
>
> The whale counts this year are higher than usual. Supposedly about 300
> in our lagoon the day we were there. We spotted our first whales before
> we even arrived at the camp. Just driving down the 30 mile dirt road we
> saw spouts and some whales hopping in the water as we drove along the
> shoreline approaching the camp. Once we got to the camp we saw many
> more, everywhere we looked. The next morning we went out on a whale
> watching boat to get up close. This is a must see. Go!
>
> Here is a link to some gray whale migration info and one for the
> eco-tourism oriented place we camped at to see the whales.
>
> http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/gwhale/map/route.html
>
> http://www.kuyima.com/whales/index.html
>
> We encountered no problems on the trip, other than a flat tire when one
> of our party abruptly decided to drive off the pavement to take a photo
> of some cattle crossing the road. He plugged the tire himself but the
> tire completely failed while driving the next day. The hole was where
> the sidewall joined tread. He managed to buy a used tire of the same
> size in a town along the way while the rest of us ate and shopped.
>
> Tourism seemed on the upswing while we were there and others were camped
> everywhere we were. On the way back there was a steady stream of gringo
> vehicles loaded up and heading south. We ran into a few other Vanagons
> too, and some Eurovan campers. There were also some big organized
> caravans of large RVs, like there used to be more of. I am happy to see
> that more people are going down this year.
>
> Our vans were all Vanagon Westfalia types, 2 were Syncros and 2 were not
> but all had over-sized tires. I think I was the only person who got
> stuck, while scouting out a camp spot on a sandy beach. Once I aired
> down and locked the rear diff I was on my way. The others chose a
> slightly different path.
>
>
> I may organize a similar trip again next year.
>
>
> Mark
>