by Andrew Pridgen

   Winter is the best time for seeing wildlife in the North Coast counties and neighboring Lake County.  For many travelers, this calls for a trip up Highway 1, starting north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
   As interest in marine mammals flourished during the past two decades, the number of visitors heading to the North Coast to watch migrating whales has increased dramatically.
   Because of the interest in whales, federal park officials say, of the nearly three million visitors to the area, nearly half come in the winter months, formerly considered the "off" season.
   Beginning in early winter, California gray whales begin passing by the North Coast on their 1,200-mile migration from their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.  They are heading to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, when their young will be born in warm, shallow lagoons.
   At birth,  the calves measure about 15 feet long and weight around 1,500 pounds.  By the time they are full grown, some will weight 30 tons and measure 45 feet long.

Point Reyes Lighthouse
 
   Many whale watchers have found the best in the San Francisco Bay Area to view the migration is the Point Reyes Lighthouse located a 40-minute drive west of Point Reyes Station.  Located on a promontory extending 10 miles out to sea, the lighthouse is  open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.
   The parking lot near the lighthouse is small, however, and on weekends and holidays, whale watchers will be directed in larger parking lot a bit further away and need to take shuttle buses the rest of the distance.
   Visitors should also be aware that the walk from the lighthouse parking lot to the lighthouse station is about half a mile.  And climbing the stairs from the lighthouse station down to the lighthouse itself is the equivalent of walking up and down the staircase of a 30-story building.  If you want to avoid the climb, you can do your whale watching from an observation platform at the lighthouse station.

   In Sonoma County, travelers can easily see whales from Bodega Head in the town of Bodega Bay, from Fort Ross, and from Timber Cove.
   Unseasoned whale watchers might take note of special instructions from park officials.
   "First, look for either a six-to-eight-foot spout or for their tail when they dive," said John Dell'Osso, chief of interpretations for the Point Reyes National Seashore.  "Then look for a series of three to five spouts.  The whales will typically dive after that."
   Less typical behavior is "spyhopping," he said, which occurs when a whale sticks its head out of the water vertically (perhaps to look around).  A spyhop can last 15 to 30 seconds.

The second migration

   In late November, the first whales in the migration--the pregnant cows--start passing the North Coast.  The migration begins swelling in December when adult males, non-pregnant females, and adolescents begin showing up.  The migration usually peaks here around the first weekend in January but continues into March.
   After their birth in Baja California, the calves gain size quickly and are soon strong enough to make the return trip to Alaska.  The northern migration begins passing Point Reyes in late February (about the time the southern migration is ending here) and continues into early May.  Many costal travelers catch glimpses of mothers and newborns swimming closely together.

Back from near extinction

   Whales have made a tremendous comeback to these waters.  In their heyday, prior to 1857, when their birthing lagoons were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico by Captain Charles Scammon, there were more than 15,000 gray whales off the Pacific coast.  By 1898, whaling had cut their population to only about 2,000.
   With the species about to go out of existence, the Mexican and US governments 43 years ago agreed to protect gray whales, and today their numbers have rebounded to more than 28,000.
   Despite the popularity of whale watching, many travelers head inland to the North Coast for other adventures.  Vineyards in the historically agricultural counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake are bare following the harvest.  Because of a temporary overabundance of varietal wines, this winter may prove to be one of the best years in memory for getting good deals on table wines.
   Wineries throughout Napa County; Sebastopol, Forestville, and Healdsburg, Sonoma County; Hopland and the Anderson Valley,  Mendocino County; and Kelseyville and Middletown, Lake County, offer excellent opportunities to sample new wines.  Some cellars also offer special tastings in the winter months.

   Less known than Napa County but boasting several world-class wineries is Lake County, where tasting rooms for fine wines can be found  at Steele Winery on Highway 29 near Kelseyville; Wildhurst Vineyards in downtown Kelseyville; Red Hill Wine, reached by heading south on Soda Bay Road; Ployez Winery along Highway 29 near Lower Lake; and Guenoc and Langtry Estate Vineyards and Winery on Butts Canyon Road outside of Middletown.