You don’t have to be out on the water to see whales at the beach.

Take a stroll on the “Whale Walk” at Doheny State Beach, and you’ll see just how big the largest mammal on Earth, the blue whale, can get. Stop for a moment to marvel at the newly created sperm whale’s massive head, or check out the long fins on the humpback whale.

A baby gray whale is a new addition to Doheny State Beach’s Whale Walk. Photo courtesy of Jim Serpa

A life-size sperm whale was painted on the Whale Walk on March 11 at Doheny State Beach. Photos: Tom Baker Photography

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A dolphin was added to the Whale Walk at Doheny. Photo courtesy of Jim Serpa

The outline for the sperm whale at Doheny State Beach’s Whale Watch. Photo courtesy of Jim Serpa

In 2013, a blue whale is touched up by volunteers at Doheny State Beach. SCNG file photo.



An orca was one of the four whales to form a “whale walk” painted by volunteers from the Doheny State Beach Interpretive Association in Dana Point in 2013. SCNG FILE PHOTO

A 57-foot sperm whale is one of the new paintings on the whale walk Saturday, March 10, 2018 in Dana Point. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)

A dolphin is one of the new paintings on the whale walk Saturday, March 10, 2018 in Dana Point. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)

A 30-foot orca is one of the new paintings on the whale walk Saturday, March 10, 2018 in Dana Point. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)

Volunteers gathered in Dana Point last weekend to give new life to the Whale Walk. They created a large sperm whale, a 7-foot long dolphin and a baby gray whale on the asphalt, adding to the line of sea creatures that keeps growing since the first one was painted two decades ago.

“Kids love it, parents love it,” said Jim Serpa, who spearheaded the volunteer effort to spruce up the Whale Walk. “It’s really a graphic way to show just how mammoth these animals are, especially that blue whale. It just blows people away. They are basically life-size.”

A growing pod

The Whale Walk started when Serpa, then the supervising park ranger at Doheny, discussed the idea with volunteer Ken Watson, who ran a class at the San Diego Natural History museum. Watson, it turned out, had created dozens of similar life-sized paintings at schools where he had previously run education programs.

They enlisted the help of former aquarium park aid Erin Shea, who brought her students from Chapman Lyceum High School to create the first gray whale on the pathway. The gray was soon a member of a pod as volunteers came each summer to add paintings.

About a decade ago, the asphalt on the beach walkway was corroding and the paintings had to be ripped up for repairs. Five years ago, the Doheny State Beach Interpretive Association decided that the whales should return. Volunteers were enlisted to help put them back on the beach path, painting a whale or two each year.

Now, there’s eight life-sized whales displayed: a humpback, a gray with her baby, a blue whale, an orca, the new sperm whale, a fin and a minke, along with a lone common dolphin.

“People love seeing these amazing animals, especially in their true size,” said Ed Neely, event organizer with the DSBIA. “All day long, folks walking or biking by thanked us for doing this and told us how much they enjoy them.”

The Whale Walk isn’t quite finished yet. Serpa hopes to put in more bottlenose dolphins, some risso dolphins and a pilot whale.

“Maybe I can get a great white shark in there,” he said.