Dolphin Watching in Dana Point

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Dolphin Watching in Dana Point

As I mentioned in my previous entry, my husband and I went to Dana Point for whale watching. We purchased whale watching tickets from Groupon this month. The two tickets for 2-hour evening whale watching cruise were originally $58, but they were $22.40 with a 20% off coupon code. In addition, I will get $2.67 cash back from ibotta, which is a smartphone app to earn cash back on in-store and mobile purchases. That's why my purchase will end up being $19.73 for two tickets after everything. I thought it was a pretty great deal! :)

It was our third time to go whale watching. During our previous two whale watching trips (Dana Point and Newport Beach whale watching tours), we were able to see huge whales, so we hoped to see whales again. I also hoped to see grate white sharks because since May, many juvenile grate white sharks has been spotted around many beaches in Orange county. A few months ago, I read Orange County news that two beaches in Dana Point were closed temporarily because a 10-feet shark has been seen. However, this time, we were not able to see whales nor sharks, yet we were able to see so many schools of common dolphins! Anyway, I'm going to share our dolphin watching tour with you. :)

Dana Wharf Whale Watching
34675 Street of the Golden Lantern,
Dana Point, CA 92629

The free parking lot was busy but not very crowded. We were able to find a parking space easily. We checked-in and received the tickets at the front desk. I was expecting that it would be really cold during the tour, so I brought a cardigan to keep me warm even though it was a beautiful sunny day. The ocean was pretty calm, and the wind wasn't as cold as I had expected. :)

Around the harbor, we found many pelicans, seagulls and California sea lions!

Pelican

Seagull

Brown Pelicans

After 30 minutes, we saw a large school of common dolphins swimming along with our boat. I had seen some wild dolphins before but it was my first time to see such a great number of dolphins at a time! I thought that it was more than 100 dolphins! I was really amazed at how beautiful they were! They swam very fast and jumped again and again!

It was difficult to take pictures because they moved very fast. See the dolphin photos below, she jumped very high!

We were able to see many schools of dolphins during our trip.

California Sea Lions

I uploaded our dolphin watching videos on my YouTube channel. :)

This video was recorded by my husband. He used Canon EOS Rebel SL1 and Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II Telephoto Zoom Lens.