Baja California Trip Resource

Awesome thread.

 

North of Punta Lobos, BCS during the SCORE Baja Sur 500 off road race (Cabo San Lucas --> Loreto).

 

Such a beautiful beach! We camped in the dunes just south of Punta Lobos... and this young lady posed for me!

 

Who is planning a trip to Baja this Fall or Winter?
My (long anticipated) road guide is still not published...
However, let me share my pre-publication version of the guide (not all updates included)... for the north half of Baja California in a pdf, scroll to the bottom of this page: https://vivabaja.com/baja-bound-road-guide/


Baja is home to the boojum tree ('cirio' in Spanish)... Calling Dr. Seuss!

 

Playa Juncalito, BCS. Looking south on Highway 1 ...



... turn your head and look left:

 

So beautiful! Thanks Jim! can I sare these on my VivaBaja Facebook page?
Have you made one of your Baja 1000 (Google Earth) Race Maps, yet? If or when you have it, please add here:
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=98081
Gracias!!

 

OK to use photos but please credit to: pizzamanagement.com

SCORE will release the GPS files on 10/27, so I should have the embedded map ready by the 28th.

 

Sure will!
You have so many great photos, it deserves it's own web page!

 

@David K - I am starting to think about doing some planning for a trip to Baja sometime this coming winter or spring. The plan would be to mostly camp and explore the more remote areas of Baja for a week or two. Typically, when will the weather the most reasonable for that sort of thing?

 

Good question!
A lot depends on what kind of weather you enjoy and what part of Baja you are interested in exploring.

The peninsula is 1,000+ road miles from end to end and ranges in climates from Pacific coasts and foothills (similar to San Diego County) up to 10,000+ ft. mountains, covered in pines and junipers, to deserts, to many a tropical oasis and palm lined canyons.

Winters are popular with the snowbirds, some southern Baja beaches are filled with Canadians in the winter! The deserts can be very cold at night and perfect in the days. Rain happens in both the winter and the tropical rains in the late summer to Fall (Hurricane Kay hit Baja last month and destroyed many sections of highway and dirt roads. Detours or repairs are made in 1-3 days following them.

Spring may be ideal but for wind in the central gulf coast, like at Bahía de los Angeles. Some will simpley change coasts to find ideal weather... going from the gulf coast to the Pacific coast or the other direction. The Pacific coast tends to have fog and gloom but just 5 miles inland, the sun shines. An exception is the southward facing coast of the Vizcaino peninsula in central Baja. That is the part that sticks out like an arm and capures all the Pacific currents flotsam and jetsam https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/flotsam-jetsam.html
The fishing town of Bahía Asunción and that coast in the area is often exempt from the gloomy weather.

Of course, maybe you are more into exploring inland? Seeing the missions, the ancient rock art sites, old mines, beautiful and exotic desert vegetation. For me, there is almost no bad time to go to Baja... Maybe an exception would be for camping in the winter. It is just too cold for me Dec. to Mar., at night... in the northern half of Baja.

Let me know of specific places or subjects of interest, and I will offer more exact assistance or suggestions. If the missions and history of Baja from Cortez (1535) to Mexican Independence (1821) to the last mission closing (1849) is of interest, you should get my book, Baja California Land of Missions. It is the first one offered on this web page of Baja books I sell: https://oldmissions.com
My website is filled with photos, maps, books, history, links, and more to assist in planning a Baja adventure of your own: https://vivabaja.com

This map from 2004 shows major places and roads in Baja... Many more miles have been paved since then (unfortunately for some but great for others):


Paved since this map was made:
San Felipe to Chapala (Hwy. 5); All the way to San Pedro Mártir observatoy (elev. 9,280'); Vizcaino to Bahía Tortugas and Bahía Asunción; Hwy. 1 to San Francisco de la Sierra (except for last 4 miles); Hwy. 1 to Punta Abreojos and 10 miles past, northwest to La Bocana; San Ignacio to Laguna San Ignacio (except for last 6 miles); Loreto to San Javier; and paved 6 miles from Hwy. 1 towards Agua Verde.

 

Thanks for the very informative response!

I'll be doing a bunch of research in the next few months and will get in contact with you when I have a better sense of what (and when) I will be heading that way.

I definitely want to get a copy of your new Baja Bound guide - do you have a sense of when it will be available for purchase?

 

They (Baja Bound Insurance) say "this year" and I do communicate with the person doing the final publishing work, who is active on it. I do have the PDF of my work, for the north half of the peninsula, you may view. It is linked on the bottom of this page: https://vivabaja.com/baja-bound-road-guide/

 

@David K I ordered the Baja Cali Atlas and was very impressed. I will be looking forward to your book. I will be taking a trip during this years baja 1000. Likely camping out at Cuatro casas.

 

Thank you, Jason.
Working on the 2021 Benchmark Baja Road Atlas was a huge thrill for me!
Because I had recently traveled so many miles of Baja roads, I had a good insight into their condition and existance. The final edit I sent in was for the new location of Coco's Corner. Coco was getting pretty lonely after the new highway was built, 4 miles away, bypassing him.
Coco (with help, of course) moved to the highway in April 2021 and the new Atlas was published and in the mail the first week of May.
We visited with Coco at his new corner on March 30, 2022... He was so happy to see more people... Coco died exactly 5 months later, at age 85.

I took this photo of Coco greeting TW member, 'TMW' (Tom) last March:

More on Coco: https://vivabaja.com/coco/

 

re Cuatro Casas -- I assume near Punta Camalú? If so, you will be ~600 miles into the race. You should see bikes later in the afternoon, but you won't see the four-wheel leaders until around 9pm, then followed by the slower cars the rest of the night.

Also, Highway 1 WILL be a zoo. Allow a ton of extra time to get out of Ensenada and down south; traffic will be especially slow through the mountains south of Santo Tomás.

It won't be hard to find great tacos in Camalú.

 

I think it is between Punta Colonet and Punta San Jacinto...?

 

I stand corrected, I was a little too far south, but the timing predictions still apply as do the great tacos in Camalú.

 

OK Baja loving Tacoma drivers... Something new at VivaBaja.com! An interactive map with photos from all over the peninsula.
This has been a project in gthe works (and I am still working on it) to let you see what a point on the peninsula looks like. I am still adding photos. So far, I have posted phots from my trips of 2015 to 2019, and am now working on my 2022 trip photos.

Go to this link: https://vivabaja.com/explore/baja-photos-map/ and you can zoom in (many more photos, the closer in you look at some locations, such as missions).

Here is an image of the map at the link above to show you the areas of Baja I have photographed the past few years:

 

It is south of Colonet and almost directly west of Heroes de Chapultepec. Camalu is further south but probably not far. Duly noted on Hwy1 traffic. I’ve experienced race traffic before. Not fun but not gonna be rushed to head south from Ensenada in the morning.

 

Playa el Requeson, Bahía Concepción


Sunset near Cataviña featuring Boojum trees, cardón, and palo verde


Northbound through a military checkpoint at San Ignacio