roche harbor

We've had stunning weather these past few days and this entire next week is going to be more of the same! Plan on highs in the mid 70s for the next seven days.

Guide Michael witnessed a very unlikely sight today during his 5-Hour Kayak Tour! Michael and his guests started off the tour by paddling along the west side of Henry Island, which is one of the remote island in the San Juan Archipelago. They paddled past many pairs of mature bald eagles and several pairs of...

Today's whale watching trip out of Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, was THE most amazing trip in the San Juan Islands that I can remember! Our trip started with limited knowledge of where our resident killer whales were located and it seemed that they might have been out of range for our trip. However, it wasn't long before our luck turned and soon we were getting great looks of J-pod in every direction - and some of them were even breaching!!! This, however, was not the...

San Juan Island wildlife update for Wednesday, July 7th, 2010:

Don and Tim reported back that they saw our Southern Resident Killer Whales on this gorgeous sunny day! For many of their guests it was their first time seeing whales, and a not-necessarily-expected but certainly welcome surprise!

Friday Harbor, San Juan Island sea kayak tour wildlife update for July 4th:

Captain Brian wanted to report that two of our 5 hour sea kayak tours are currently with the Southern Resident Killer Whales (or SRKWs)! Our whale watch tour is also viewing whales on this busy 4th of July. What a great day!!

Yesterday's whale watch trip started out unspectacularly- as we were leaving the dock the sky was overcast, with bits of drizzle here and there and we hadn't heard any news about whales in the area all morning. As a whale watch guest who has paid good money this uncertainty can be disheartening, but I assured all 8 of our passengers that sometimes while we are out we hear reports of whales from other boats and that sometimes we ourselves are the first ones to stumble...

San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Tuesday June 8th:

Yesterday I paddled out on our whale sanctuary 5 hour sea kayak tour. We left under blue skies but stiff breezes, and had a gorgeous day on the water. We saw and heard bald eagles, harbor seals, cormorants, black oystercatchers and more! We were down by lime kiln when we received reports that L pod was coming up island from the south, so all our fingers were tightly crossed and we waited in hope, but then the...

San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Sunday, June 6th:

Emily paddled out on her first 3 hour sea kayak tour of the season and what a way to start the summer! She saw a red fox on the beach, numerous harbor seals and eagles, lots of shore birds and our Southern Resident Killer Whales! Off the west side of Henry Island and moving north, she and her guests saw a few small groups at a time, from all 3 pods-- the SUPERPOD! J's, K's and L's were present and all slowly...

San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Tuesday, June 1:

Yesterday afternoon Debbie and I paddled out for a 3 hour sea kayak tour with a private group. We were thrilled with the wildlife we saw-- lots of harbor seals sunning themselves and bald eagles doing exploratory flights. Debbie even found us some purple ochre sea stars to check out!

The highlight of the trip was catching a glimpse of wild bald eagle behavior that neither she nor I had ever seen before-- or...

All three of my kayak trips had excellent harbor seal shows! The water was glassy enabling us to see every little seal head. This time of the year harbor seal pups are starting to leave their mothers and are more adventurous than ever! We had one particular pup who was very interested in our kayaks and continually popped up next to and behind us. It is also harbor seal mating season and we watched many seals launch their bodies out of the water and lob their...

On our 11am Whale Watch tour out of Roche Harbor, our naturalist Kevin reported not only seeing some members of L-Pod but also being fortunate enough to see the newest addition, L-112 born to L-86. L-112 was extremely playful at the surface of the water, rolling around and as well as breaching (leaping out of the water). It was very exciting to see such a small Orca exhibiting so much exuberance!

Orca calves are born after a 17 month gestation period and on...