I visited this WHS in 2024. Due to its location, it is much easier to visit from the United States and/or Canada (especially overland but also by flight) than it is from Mexico City.

There are flights to Loreto (still a good 3.5-4 hours drive to the San Ignacio base) from the United States (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and Phoenix), from Canada (Calgary) and from Tijuana (Mexico) but NOT from Mexico City. Wanting to avoid 2 internal flights CDMX-Tijuana-Loreto and back, and since the rental car rates with unlimited mileage as well as domestic flight prices were significantly cheaper on my planned dates, I opted to travel to Mexico City-La Paz (a much longer 8hr drive; a very boring extra 4 hours when compared to starting from Loreto). Still, when adding up the travel time to Tijuana plus the extra costs involved, the time difference, and keeping in mind the added bonus of being able to visit the newly added Gulf of California WHS component of Balandra, I used La Paz as my southern base and San Ignacio as my northern base.

San Ignacio is still a good 1.5 hour drive away (with around 25 kilometres of dirt road driving on compacted sand and gravel; doable slowly with a standard non-4WD vehicle on a sunny day) from the San Ignacio Lagoon area where the boat tours depart from. The Ojo de Liebre Lagoon is also reachable with a further drive to Guerrero Negro and then a much more bumpy dirt road to the boat tour departure point. The plus point when choosing the latter is the better chance of spotting the endangered Baja California Pronghorn, the second fastest animal on the planet after the cheetah, thanks to the excellent work of a breeding center nearby. After all, the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve is the largest wildlife refuge in Mexico, so large that it encompasses 2 WHS: the El Vizcaino North Pacific lagoons and whale sanctuaries, and the El Vizcaino marine and coastal belt in the Gulf of California. The site is also a Ramsar site, so expect to see lots of birds of prey, especially ospreys, kites and caracaras.

Make sure to book ahead (by email and/or by phone/whatsapp) as the few accommodation options at San Ignacio fill up very quickly. We stayed at the reasonably priced La Muralla Motel just opposite the expensive Ignacio Springs B&B and were able to use all the latter's facilities and help to book a driver and arrange a guide for the Rock Paintings of the Sierra San Francisco. The driver service is the most expensive part as they charge a flat rate of 3500 pesos/210 USD for a maximum of 12 people but you're very likely to be the only one going for the rock paintings tour and/or the whale watching trip. While a 4WD high clearance vehicle is surely needed for the Sierra San Francisco WHS, it isn't to get to the San Ignacio Lagoon. It is advisable to let the hotel and boat tour company know that you'll be driving there on your own and make sure to have plenty of time/water to spare in case you have any mechanical problems with the car as there is no mobile phone reception for most of the dirt road near the salt plains.

Due to time constraints, and since I wanted to visit the Sierra San Francisco on the following day, I joined Antonio's Eco Tours on a 2 hour whale watching trip. For those who want to spend more time in the area and do more than one whale watching trip, they also have eco cabins but again book in advance. A boat trip now costs 70 USD and includes the conservation bracelet entrance fee (lunch is also available for an extra 12 USD). The whale watching boat trip lasts for 2 hours. Boats are allowed 90 minutes inside the whale watching area, plus 15 minutes to go in and another 15 minutes to go back to the departure point. The shallower areas deeper in the lagoon are out of bounds so as to not disturb the whales during mating season (especially since the male whales breach quite often to impress female whales). However, if you look closely over the horizon between the small islets with huge sand dunes and the rest of the rocky landscape, you'll surely spot more than one whale breaching.

The whale watching area is much deeper and is also the point from where the grey whales enter/exit the lagoon to mate, breed and calve. It is the perfect spot to see scores and scores of whales with their young at very close distance. There were so many whales around the small boat that everyone had more than enough opportunities to see the whales up close and snap some photos. The mother whales with their young seemed to be the most curious and kept bobbing out of the water to get a good look at us and some wouldn't leave the boat's trail unless that got a fair amount of pats from the passengers onboard. I wasn't too eager to touch the whales, out of fear and respect, but two whales in particular kept bobbing just next to my side (and also hitting the bottom of the boat a couple of times!), sort of expecting a friendly pat, and in the end I went for it and I must confess that it was truly a magical and humbling moment to be able to "interact" with such gentle giants.

If you visit in the right season, you're guaranteed to at least see scores of grey whales and bottlenose dolphins. If you're lucky, you'll be able to pat them, and also perhaps get a chance of spotting some orcas or other harder-to-see whales. Do bring a cap and sunscreen as there will be no shade, and take sea-sickness pills if you usually need them and go to the restroom before departure time. At the different departure points, and at the beginning of each dirt road providing access to them, I spotted different UNESCO WHS inscription and information boards: one next to our departure point, and another two several kilometres away at points locally known as San Zacarias and San Juan de las Pilas.

It was also shocking to see how many of the grey whales died and washed up to the shores between 2018 and 2023. Almost every boat trip company has tens of whale skeletons on the shores just next to a few rusty remains from the whaling industry. The whale die-off was significant with around 690 gray whales washing ashore in the US, Mexico and Canada, most probably because of too little food available along its epic migratory route possibly linked to climate change. Luckily scientists now believe that the die-off is over. The grey whale population is believed to have plummeted to 14,526 in 2023 from 20,500 in 2019, while calf production was estimated at 217 in 2022, down from about 950 in 2018. The good news is that in 2023 and 2024, there was a sort of rebound effect with good signs of repopulation, and now the total population is estimated to be around 21,300 grey whales. Overall really a great WHS thanks to the whale migration!