1. Welcome to Tacoma World!

    You are currently viewing as a guest! To get full-access, you need to register for a FREE account.

    As a registered member, you’ll be able to:
    • Participate in all Tacoma discussion topics
    • Communicate privately with other Tacoma owners from around the world
    • Post your own photos in our Members Gallery
    • Access all special features of the site

Puckering up to Grey Whales - Baja Spring '19 trip

Discussion in 'Trip Reports' started by xplorn, Mar 29, 2019.

  1. Mar 29, 2019 at 6:44 PM
    #1
    xplorn

    xplorn [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Member:
    #168805
    Messages:
    348
    First Name:
    Ken
    Oregon, USA
    Vehicle:
    '10 DCSB OR
    I'd just been down to Baja for a couple weeks in December as a solo first time traveler. You get some hours stolen by inefficiency and not knowing routes to travel, but I had some good advice from friends. Which was mostly- just get the hell south a couple hundred miles your first day, then life is easy.

    I had also finished a lot of mods to the Tacoma, including a bunch in the Bay area that included sliders, drawers, a Long Range tank and a Vagabond camper. It was time to test things out and December was a much nicer time further south than in the West at the time.

    This spring trip was a little in prep for another next year with some offroad club friends and family. I made it down to San Ignacio last time in Dec, a week before whales started appearing, and was hoping I could catch a boat into a lagoon this time. It wasn't the main mission as I wanted to see south of San Ignacio down to Cabo and get a feel for the land.

    Towns don't really draw me as much as landscape, and the freedom and living by common sense you get in Baja is unlike many things I've encountered on this planet. Mostly I'm a tourist doing normal tourist travel when abroad, so I bet there are a lot of similarities in other countries if you have your own vehicle.

    I've come to like using Tecate as an entry and exit even though it's an hour or two out of the way. From there I take Hwy 2/2D toward MX5 directly to San Felipe and beyond. You have a choice of using a toll highway right out of Tecate toward Mexicali- I think it's a bargain for ~$5. Plus part of that highway is a stunner. It massively beats the string of towns, traffic and people coming down from Tijuana or from Tecate to Ensenada and south. My advice is avoid all that, enjoy a better road (until south of San Felipe) and be happier on your first day in.

    So, in summary, this trip went as:

    - (conference for work in Pasadena, leave at 3:30am, forget camera and cash in the hotel room safe, lose 2hrs going back and starting to get into LA traffic) cross at Tecate, make it to San Felipe and stay at my normal hotel there, Hotel Riviera Corral- no frills, a bed and shower. Eat some fish tacos, get some vanilla extract and liqueur from my vanilla source next to the main bank, Salvador Place, pick up a case of Corona or Pacifica.

    - MX5 south past Coco's Corner toward MX1. This road is a bit of an adventure but bypasses a lot of people and traffic and some corruption you might get going down the Pacific side.

    - It was dumping rain around San Felipe and I ran into the John and Linda Ericson at the MX1 intersection asking how the road condition was. We spent a half hour or more talking and they are now my heroes having traveled over so much of the planet for many years. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLqX7qbLqbU). I actually ran into them on my last trip at Bahia de Los Angeles on the northern rocky bayshore but didn't stop to chat as it felt like they were having a nice peaceful time hanging out on their own. They've got a sweet Mitsubishi Fuso 4x4 dual axle cab/chassis with a very nice tiny house built onto it.

    - The Ericsons suggested staying at the Guerrero Negro lighthouse, so I did just that. After checking out the old lighthouse, I backtracked a little and wound up in some secluded grass and dunes in what felt like a bird refuge watching a beautiful sunset (which happens a lot in Baja).

    - The next day I checked in with Mario Adventures in town to see if there were any boats I could get in with to see whales. The group of people that may have been going decided they were going to go the next day and the company (coop of companies actually) can't afford to take a single out in a boat. There is another outfit just south out of Guerrero Negro that it might be possible to do so, but I kept driving that day.

    - That night as it was getting late (do not drive at night for a few reasons, but just don't to keep it simple) I wandered down a big river wash and came out at a very small village. A girl walking along said it was ok to sleep on the beach, so I headed out as far away from the village down the beach for a relaxing evening on the Sea of Cortez side after giving her a Tootsie Pop in thanks. I was a ways south of Mulege at this point.

    - My goal was meeting up with a friend in El Sargento to get some more ideas about areas to explore in the south, so I kept putting on the miles, making it through Loreto (which I did a little driving about, enough to determine it is a delightful town!) and La Paz and finally to El Sargento, which has grown up into a kite boarding destination. The boarding season was starting to wind down and a couple was planning to leave so I tagged along for dinner, where I met a host of wonderful people and got a lot of ideas of directions to head.

    - So the next morning I packed up after a free night camping on the beach below the boarders' campground and headed toward San Antonio and a mountain crossing a little south of Santiago. I drove up a canyon at Santiago that was recommended and followed a river (creek) that was still flowing and just enjoyed the afternoon. Coming back out of the canyon, I turned south back onto MX1 toward the turn at La Palma. The pass road started pretty mild but got the right kind of sketchy toward the top. Rough, steep, narrow, all the good stuff. I'd gotten about 15 miles within reach of Cabo San Lucas, which is just the right amount for me.

    - It was getting on in the afternoon so after wandering into some Baja course sections (and seeing how you can end your race pretty quickly), I popped out at Hwy 19 and aimed north toward Todos Santos and what looked like a good exploring track north along the Pacific. Camped a few miles north of town that night, beyond all the houses that had sprung up and into quieter ranch/farming lands. There is beach access for days out there.

    - Lots of great track driving north the next day mostly near the beach. Some of it probably needed 4wd. I usually keep it in 4Hi to keep all the work off the rear axle, but there were a few deeper sandy bits and some rough climbs out of washes that probably would have been a lot of work in RWD. Managed to lose my sand mat along there as I'd stopped to drop the front bumper a bit after it was set too close to my fender, banging it once in a while.

    - I think I popped out toward MX1 somewhere just south of San Carlos and headed north into the great supply town of Cuidad Constitucion. You can probably find anything you need there. I realized I had no fire extinguisher with me, but had Auto Zone and O'Reilly's to choose from to fix that problem.

    - I was still on a mission to find beach tracks to follow and so continued on, getting back toward the ocean somewhere near Adolfo Lopez Mateos and working my way north. Some of the tracks hadn't seen tires in a while, which made me happy but also wondered a few times if I would be able to get through. There were a few graded and wide rock roads put in that looked like they would connect to MX1 so that was probably the reason some of the other tracks weren't as used anymore. I ended up camping that night at an inland tidal bay. All in all the entire route was a little meh, but it was still good adventuring and seeing beautiful country.

    - One of the recommendations I'd gotten was taking the sand road from San Juanico north to San Ignacio. Let me tell you this is no sand road. It is a rough ass rocky road. I had actually driven some of this previously, looking for a place to camp near Laguna San Ignacio on the ocean. The redeeming parts of this road were offshoots that had you cross truly sand roads and some salt pans. The pans you had to be careful reading moisture as if you put a tire wrong you would probably sink. I just followed recent local routes and was fine (I also have a lot of experience in a variety of desert and salty areas and have learned lessons along the way). I ended up camping at the same spot on the ocean as I had my last trip. It is a not easy to get to spot and you have what feels like an entire world to yourself on the beach.

    - The next morning was The Game. I'd known that if you wanted to get on a boat out to where whales might come up to you, you could leave at 9am or 11am. I'd also had a good idea from the previous trip of where tour companies were on Laguna San Ignacio, so I got up early and made my way north to the lagoon. It was foggy, very foggy, which didn't help, but I soon found 3 trucks driven by white people heading a direction and knew I was probably close. Road crisscross all over out there and I'd somehow wound up ahead of them to the Kuyima tour company. Having about 20 minutes before the 9am departures, I'd found they had a seat for me, so I pulled out my life jacket and drybag (brought an inflatable kayak along), and hopped in.

    - Go see whales at the end of March. Do this. It will change you. We had a whale hang out with us for an hour- the captain said a 4 year old. Female because most or all the males have usually left for Alaska. She was like a big puppy dog, hanging out for pets and kisses, rolling over, hovering under the boat, scratching herself on the prop, looking at us. Just go do that. Bring kids. mid-end of March. You can do Guerrero Negro, San Ignacio or what's probably a quick trip out of Loreto over to the Pacific side to Magdalena Bay. We saw other stuff like dolphins and some whales spyhopping, and some boats got mamas nudging babies up to their boats to socialize them with humans, but it doesn't matter.. all of it is good.

    - So that was a day. I'd come down a great track last trip, from Bahia Asuncion to La Bocana (the one north of San Ignacio because there is evidently a La Bocana south as well). I'd met a great family that ran La Casa De Chunky Su Restaurante that invited me back if I was ever in town, and as luck as turned out I was! They have a separate building with two large double rooms and that fit perfectly as I'd been without a shower for probably eight or more days. Their restaurant is basically an eating room extension onto the front of their house, and you will be fed more than you can eat. Good food, wonderful company.

    - The next day was retracing the tracks north along the ocean. It takes some work to get onto the right tracks, but if you're on the edge of cliffs over the ocean, you are doing well. I think after reaching Bahia Asuncion it was back to making miles north on pavement, quick stop at Coco's and then looking for somewhere to camp south of San Felipe before it gets to be camping Ranchos and campgrounds and houses. I do wilderness usually. So dropping into a wash from the highway washing out and breaking a bridge, I turned down the wash toward the Sea of Cortez and picked my way through boulders and debris to nearly reach the water. There was a marshy kind of delta area that prevented me from getting to the shore, but after hiking through some desert to get a look at the shore, it ended up being pretty marshy anyways so I was pretty satisfied where I'd ended up at sunset.

    - The next morning I found tracks not 15 yards away that lead into a massive gravel/sand wash with much easier road access, so I took that and retraced my way through San Felipe and across the border.

    Good trip. Can't wait to go back and maybe get a better taste of inland and mountains and missions, canyons, hot springs, desert. You see the problem with this place...
     
    doublethebass likes this.
  2. Mar 29, 2019 at 6:45 PM
    #2
    xplorn

    xplorn [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Member:
    #168805
    Messages:
    348
    First Name:
    Ken
    Oregon, USA
    Vehicle:
    '10 DCSB OR
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2019
    inesshell likes this.
  3. Mar 29, 2019 at 6:45 PM
    #3
    xplorn

    xplorn [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Member:
    #168805
    Messages:
    348
    First Name:
    Ken
    Oregon, USA
    Vehicle:
    '10 DCSB OR
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2019
    Sweston and inesshell like this.
  4. Mar 29, 2019 at 6:45 PM
    #4
    xplorn

    xplorn [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Member:
    #168805
    Messages:
    348
    First Name:
    Ken
    Oregon, USA
    Vehicle:
    '10 DCSB OR
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2019
    Sweston and inesshell like this.
  5. Mar 29, 2019 at 6:45 PM
    #5
    xplorn

    xplorn [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Member:
    #168805
    Messages:
    348
    First Name:
    Ken
    Oregon, USA
    Vehicle:
    '10 DCSB OR
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2019
  6. Mar 29, 2019 at 6:46 PM
    #6
    xplorn

    xplorn [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Member:
    #168805
    Messages:
    348
    First Name:
    Ken
    Oregon, USA
    Vehicle:
    '10 DCSB OR
    space for driving video
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2019
  7. Mar 29, 2019 at 7:46 PM
    #7
    inesshell

    inesshell blah blah blah

    Joined:
    Aug 2, 2011
    Member:
    #60986
    Messages:
    7,164
    Vehicle:
    All stock Superwhite 10' AC
  8. Apr 1, 2019 at 1:46 PM
    #8
    Y2kbaja

    Y2kbaja Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2013
    Member:
    #106028
    Messages:
    1,179
    Gender:
    Male
    Sacramento
    Vehicle:
    05 Total Chaos Tacoma
    Total Chaos
    You are right about the whales. It's a MUST DO!!

    17424926_1291248500967735_4814879896089437121_n.jpg
     
    xplorn[OP] likes this.

Products Discussed in

To Top