Orange County Murals

The OC Register published an article titled Love art? These must-see murals bring added color, history to Orange County on March 5, 2025. It featured Dana Point. You can read the entire PDF article here and see the Dana Point feature below:

An Orca is part of the whale walk at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, CA. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Whale Walk, Dana Point

There’s no shortage of whale paintings splashed across the coastal parts of Orange County. The likely most well known found in Laguna Beach, marine artist Wyland’s first-ever Whaling Wall, recently recreated at the Pacific Coast Highway home of his gallery to depict the original painted in 1981.

But head down to Doheny State Beach in Dana Point to find a lesser-known whale mural, not on a wall, but on the sidewalk of the popular beach boardwalk just steps from the ocean.

Former State Parks ranger Jim Serpa, volunteers and art students have been maintaining the Whale Walk since it was first painted 1995, showing up every few years when the marine mammals fade and need touchups.

All the whales that pass by in nearby waters – the gray whales, blues, orcas and humpbacks – are depicted on the walkway.

“The blue whale is the best we’ve ever done, it looks phenominal,” Serpa said last week following a spruce up of the whale paintings.

The whales are painted life-size on the ground, so beachgoers can see just how large the sea creatures can grow to become.