Humpback Whalewatching at Devils Slide
Devil's Slide is a stretch of Highway 1 that hugs the Pacific coast just south of San Francisco. A two mile stretch was notorious for major landslides in stormy winters that had the road crashing into the ocean. About 5 years ago a tunnel was completed that takes the road inland and solves the recurring road-slide mess.
An older stretch of pavement was left, and converted into a walking and biking path, with dramatic high views of the ocean. We took a friend there for a little outing, not really expecting anything dramatic.
We alway hope to maybe see a whale or a porpoise pod, but this day we had quite a show - at one time, 5 whales feeding in cove, for over an hour. Most times when we spot whales, they are migrating and swim out of view. These ones lingered, I'm assuming the feeding was good. At one point, we saw three swimming together, and it appeared they did their 'bubble-net' feeding thing, where they swim on their sides and exhale, the bubbles disorienting their prey and then they just open thier huge mouths collect their prize.
(To orientate the unfamiliar, the whales are facing us, with the bulbous lower jaw expanding as they collect their prey along with a lot of seawater. They then 'push' the water out through the baleen - and swallow the goodies!
© 2018 Images By Gregory - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
