Stay With Hike Bike Kayak!

 

Get away from it all and have some fun while doing it by booking our

Hike Bike Kayak Sports Vacation Rental!!

 

 

The Vacation Rental is located just upstairs behind our Shop.

 

VRBO Vacation Rental #501614 | View all dates

 

 

Nestled above our retail space in the quaint La Jolla Shores neighborhood, this upstairs unit is a two minute walk from San Diego's most beautiful and family friendly beaches, La Jolla Shores.

The unit is upstairs from Hike Bike Kayak and Menehune Surf School, who generously includes free equipment rentals for guests of this unit including bikes, kayaks, boogie boards, snorkels, foam surf boards, paddle boards and wetsuits. They also include 25% off guided tours and lessons for guests of this unit.

The unit is a one bed, one bath with sleeper couch. Perfect for a couple or young family.

La Jolla Shores is a mile long pristine beach and the neighborhood is much quieter, easier to park, and more relaxing than La Jolla Village. However, La Jolla Village and La Jolla Cove are still a five minute car ride, fifteen minute bike ride (for adults), or twenty minute walk. While La Jolla Shores has such famous restaurants as Piatti's, Osteria Romantica, and the five-star Marine Room, the shopping, restaurants, bars, and art galleries are still very accessible from this location.

From La Jolla Shores, depending on the season, you can relax on the beach in the sun, kayak the La Jolla Sea Caves, snorkel with the famous (and completely harmless) leopard sharks, kayak with gray whales, surf gentle waves, boogie board and bike around the beautiful coast. All with equipment or instruction from Hike Bike Kayak and Menehune Surf School.

 

Gray Whale Close Encounter!

At Hike Bike Kayak, we love that our customers have a memorable experience that connects them to the ocean ecosystems of our beautiful waters here in La Jolla. It is also extremely special that they get to witness marine animals in their natural habitats. Sea lions, dolphins, leopard sharks, to name a few, are abundant and have certainly captivated our customers with their unique behaviors and close encounters.

Speaking of close encounters, this gray whale swam just below our whale watching kayak fleet, and with help from our outrigging friend, Doug Hogan, we caught a photo of the migrating giant. 

Despite their huge size, gray whales can swim up to 10 kilometers per hour. So with go-pro camera in hand and with a quick drop into the water below, this picture was possible.

Whale Watching Kayak Tour-Photo Courtesy of Doug Hogan 2014

"Outstanding whale watching paddle with David. It was so enjoyable to go with a guide who was having as much fun as we were and was so knowledgeable. He knew right where to take us to maximize our chances of seeing whales and we did - up close and personal. Couldn't have been any better!" -A customer from Whitehall, Montana

Our Whale Watching Kayak Tour is definitely something you don't want to miss.Gray Whale migration through these waters typically dies down the end of March, and so do these fantastic kayaking tours.

Winter Heat Wave At Hike Bike Kayak!

January is bringing some record high temperatures here on the coast at Hike Bike Kayak. During the daytime, the temp hasn't dropped below 70°, and this week it hit up to 80°! The heat wave is due to a high pressure ridge which causes air to sink towards earth's surface, trapping the warmer air in our atmosphere.
This is great news for us in La Jolla Shores because it is prime weather for the great tours we offer! The Sea Caves Kayak Tour and Kayak Whale Watching Tour are our most popular kayak tours right now. Not only will they provide you the chance to kayak with dolphin, sea lion, leopard sharks, and gray whales, they will help you beat the heat!
Come join us for some sun, fun, and adventure!

Photo by TourGuideTim 1/14

Dolphin Sightings Daily!!

At Hike Bike Kayak, we've been seeing common dolphin as well as white-sided dolphin on our kayak whale watching and sea cave kayak tours!
Typically whenever there are masses of sea birds hovering over the water, there are dolphin feeding. Dolphins usually travel in pods, so it isn't difficult to spot them from our kayak tours.
The number in a pod can be several hundred or it can be in the thousands. The largest ones number over 10,000! They have a very complex hierarchy that keeps them orderly and they tend to create subgroups based on age and other factors.
Common Dolphin species are seen taking part in a variety of different behaviors including somersaults, pitch poling, breaching, and bow riding. They are very active and move through the water effortlessly.
These marine animals use vocalizations including whistling, whining, and clicking are very common. The dialogue though can be different based on the pod and that is a very interesting element of their overall behaviors.

 This is a photograph of a Common Dolphin pod surfing just off shore of La Jolla 

Aaron Chang Photography

Record Number of Whale Sightings this Season!!

It has been a truly exciting season of Whale Watching at Hike Bike Kayak. A record number of gray whales have been spotted along our coast since December. The San Diego Chapter of the American Cetacean Society has recorded at least 501 whales so far -which is double the amount of sightings from last December and more than they usually see in a whole year.
At Hike Bike Kayak, we've had some magical moments with these gentle giants. Occasionally it's a puff of mist, as the whale exhales, that calls us to get a closer look.

"Two huge gray whales caught our eye when they spouted from a distance. I guided our small group of whale watching kayakers to paddle a bit closer and we saw that they were swimming towards us. A couple in a tandem kayak had front row seats to witnessing these grays in their natural habitat. One whale swam right between our kayaks, so close you could reach out and touch it. The other swam on the outside of us, lifting its spout high out the of the water and fluking its tail."

Whether it be a spout, a tail fin, or just a glossy ring on the surface indicating there is a whale somewhere below, we are deeply invested in catching any precious glimpses of these gray whales. Most of the time, If we show up, so will they. Those special moments are what we live for.

Gray Whale Spouting within feet from the Kayak!!

Rare Visitors Spotted at the La Jolla Children's Pool!!

Looking out over La Jolla Cove on our La Jolla Plunge Bike Tour, we saw a pair of one-year-old elephant seals relaxing on the beach of the children's pool. This is a rare sighting for the area, because these massive pinnipeds prefer to frequent the offshore islands of Baja and Southern California, rather than the North American mainland.

elephant seal pups resting on the sands of the children's pool

Also spotted off children's pool were a small pod of gray whales, all from our bikes!
The gray whales were diving and spouting, possibly feeding in the kelp forrest.

We've seen whales from our hikes, our BIKES, and our kayaks! All in the past few weeks!!
Despite the colder climate in other parts of the country, December is a great time of year to take a tour with us because the sun is shining 99% of the time here in La Jolla Shores!

At Hike Bike Kayak, we are so excited that the whale migrations are picking up, even higher numbers than last year!!

2013-2014 season in red

Spyhopping; the coolest of all the cool Gray Whale behaviors!

Spyhopping

...just one of the Gray Whale surface behaviors you can see from Hike Bike Kayak's Whale Watching Kayak tours. Spyhopping is when a whale treads water to view its surroundings. The Gray Whale will thrust itself vertically above the ocean's surface and use a steady motion of its pectoral fins to maintain an elevated position. This upright position is controlled and slow, and can last from just seconds to minutes at a time if the whale is sufficiently inquisitive about whatever (or whomever) it is viewing. This behavior also allows them to pinpoint known landmarks that help them stay on course. Whether it be a familiar lighthouse on a cliff, or recalled coastal boating docks, the Gray Whale will identify such places to navigate from Alaska to Baja and back, their twelve-thousand mile round trip migration. Here at Hike Bike Kayak, Spyhopping is our favorite Gray Whale behavior because of this very reason. If witnessing a spyhop on our Whale Watching Kayak Tour, you must note that the whale is just as interested as watching you, as you are in watching it!

"Alright, take the pic, take the pic...I've got people to watch and places to see"

                                                                 

A double spyhop just off our local coast!!