Whale Tale

Gray Whales have one of the longest migrations of any mammal, from the Arctic Ocean to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. However, there is one group of them that doesn't follow the pack--and the mother in these photos with calf is part of that group. For some reason, in summer they don't like to go all of the way up to Alaska and prefer to chill off the shores of Olympic National Park in Washington. I'm not sure why on this particular day they came so close to shore of Shi Shi beach but it was a pretty killer sighting for me on this otherwise lonely, foggy day along extreme NW section of the Washington Coast.