Dates Mar 3–9, 2008
Leader Jeff Foott
Fee $4,995 from San Diego, California
Includes internal flights
Deposit $400
Limit 10
Terms and Conditions

During our teenaged baby boomer years, “the Baja” was defined as a gritty “dune buggy” and motorcycle road race, run somewhere down a desolate desert peninsula at the outermost reaches of Mexico. These days, for many middle-aged boomers, “Baja” has become synonymous with upscale resorts and hotels, time-shares, trendy nightclubs, poolside bars and fruity drinks with umbrellas sipped at Cabo.

But for photographers, the Baja California Peninsula provides an incredible diversity of scenic, cultural and wildlife subjects to please just about everyone! The peninsula
has an assortment of ancient native rock art—including colorful pictographs, historic missions, weirdly beautiful lava flows; and the iconic cacti and boojums unique to this desert landscape. But the most compelling reason to photograph here has to be the wealth of marine mammals—most notably the gray whales that have become very acclimated to human activity in the lagoons on Baja’s Pacific side.

Across the peninsula, in the Sea of Cortez, bottlenose and common dolphins, sea lions, and elephant seals can be found in the nutrient-rich waters and on offshore islands. Here it is not at all uncommon to see large pods of sociable dolphins cruising the surf. California sea lions are most common to the “Midriff” Islands area, with a large colony just a little over two miles from our primary lodging at a remote and beautiful bay. We’ll have the chance to snorkel with the inquisitive sea lions, if desired. These islands also provide habitat to the region’s many seabirds—more than 50 species, including blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, royal terns, frigatbirds, cormorants, turkey vultures and ospreys. Our visit will coincide with breeding season when their numbers are at their peak.
cormorants, turkey vultures and ospreys. Over 90 percent of the world’s population of Heermann’s gulls and elegant terns breed on nearby Rasa Island.

We will be photographing almost exclusively in the El Viscaino Biosphere Reserve (the largest in Latin America) which stretches across the peninsula and includes both the shores of the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. This stunning region of Sonoran Desert offers a truly unique set of inhabitants. More than 20 cactus species thrive here, many of which are endemic to Baja. Here we’ll find boojums and elephant trees, giant cardon cactus reaching more than 60 feet in height, and ironwood, often growing with forest-like density.

The highlight of our tour comes when we visit the remote, northern “nursery lagoons” of the gray whales, where “friendly” whales routinely spyhop within arm's reach of the boat. Access to these lagoons is restricted to licensed whale watching boats. As a typical tourist, you would normally expect a standard short whale watching in one of the lagoons, but we have scheduled four extended tours in both inner and outer Ojo de Liebre Lagoon and San Ignacio Lagoon. We’ll put only six photographers in whale watch boats that normally transport ten or more tourists—so we’ll have a wonderful amount of time and good visibility to make great shots! No other photographic tour offers this comprehensive cross section of the very best of Baja California.

No other photographic tour offers this comprehensive cross section of the very best of Baja California.



Day 1 (Mar 3)
Participants fly to San Diego and transfer to our hotel. We meet for dinner this evening. (D)

Day 2
Morning flight by small plane directly to Bahia de Los Angeles, located half-way down the Baja Peninsula on the Sea of Cortez. We transfer by boat to the remote and beautiful bay which will be our base for the next few days. (BLD)

Day 3
At our picturesque bay we photograph dolphins, sea lions and possibly blue-footed boobies and have an excursion to shoot the pictographs at Mission San Francisco de Borja. (BLD)

Day 4
We fly to Guerrero Negro. We’ll stay in the village of San Ignacio and photograph nearby pictographs, lava flows, cacti and boojum trees. (BLD)

Day 5
An early morning trip to San Ignacio Lagoon will provide our first photographs of gray whales. We drive to Guerrero Negro to photograph gray whales in Ojo de Liebre Lagoon. (BLD)

Day 6
An early morning shoot of the whale skeleton at the visitors’ center, plus morning and afternoon whale excursions by boat in the inner lagoon. (BLD)

Day 7 (Mar 9)
Our final day begins with a boat trip to Ojo de Liebre’s outer lagoon for another opportunity to photograph the gray whales. We board our private planes for the scenic flight along Baja’s Pacific coastline to San Diego, arriving after 5 PM. (BL)





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