Point Vicente, Palos Verdes
Palos Verdes Peninsula · near Rancho Palos Verdes · Los Angeles / SoCal
Wildlife Watching
At a glance
- Best season
- Dec–May for gray whales (northbound spring peak); blue whales offshore summer
- Open year round
- No
What is here
- Wildlife
- whales · birds
- Species
- Gray whales, occasional blue & humpback whales, dolphins, brown pelicans
- Amenities
- Premier LA gray-whale lookout · Point Vicente Interpretive Center · Volunteer whale census · Bluff-top viewing
- Best for
- Land-based gray whale watching in LA
- Features
- Thousands of gray whales counted · Interpretive center · Easy bluff viewing · Dolphins & blue whales too
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Windy, unfenced clifftops · Bring binoculars (whales offshore) · Busy weekends & parking · Sun exposure
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Wildlife Watching detail
- Viewing
- shore
- Effort
- easy
- Habitat
- coast
- Sighting
- 4
- Viewing notes
- LA's premier land-based gray-whale lookout — high bluffs where volunteer census-takers count thousands of migrating grays each winter and spring, with an interpretive center
- Intl tip
- The best land-based whale-watching spot in the LA area, on the breezy bluffs of Palos Verdes. From roughly Dec–May thousands of gray whales pass close to shore; American Cetacean Society volunteers run a whale census and help visitors spot them, and the Point Vicente Interpretive Center has exhibits and a viewing deck. Spring (mothers and calves) is most reliable; summer can bring blue/humpback whales offshore. Easy and family-friendly — but windy, unfenced clifftops, busy weekends, distant whales. Bring binoculars.
The guide
On the breezy bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Point Vicente is the best land-based whale-watching spot in the Los Angeles…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Point Vicente, Palos Verdes — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 33.74, -118.41