Every winter gray whales cruise along the Oregon coast en route from Alaska to Mexico, spouting geyser-like blasts of spray as they go. Thanks to towering coastal bluffs and a string of beaches set aside as state parks, Oregon offers visitors front-row seats for whale watching.

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department park rangers are ready at the Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay to answer your questions and help you find whales to watch. Located on U.S. 101 along the seawall in scenic Depoe Bay, the center is a perfect spot for visitors to locate and watch whales as they blow, dive, spyhop and breach.

Whale watching takes place almost year-round on the Oregon Coast. We watch whales in the winter from mid-December through January. Spring watching begins in March with a peak in numbers the last week and finishes in June with mothers and babies being the last whales traveling north. Summer brings whales that feed along our coast from July to mid-November.

Download the Whale Watching Center brochure (1MB pdf); for a list of places to watch whales, go here