FREAKY FOURTH 2011 in BAJA CALIFORNIA

sub'd! i love baja. my dad used to take me down there all the time when i was kid. we did ALOT of trips to San Quintin. he owns land down in Muluge, but unfotunately im not allowed to go down being that the military thinks its to hostile.

 

Safer than Afghanistan, does the military not want you to go there either? LOL

Seriously, when you are out... give Baja a try... once bitten by the Baja bug, you never want to leave!

 

Just a look back and thinking about this summer's Baja trip(s)!

 

hey nice trip, i remember asking you questions about baja (back in 2004ish) on another site but forget what it was...

question.. you mentioned you aren't allowed to go to Mulege? is it unsafe? i haven't driven down in a while (2007), and im always trying to get down there...

anyways, good to see you're still going!

 

Hello! The Baja site was probably Baja Nomad at www.bajanomad.com and I am still there. I was in Mulege last July so there was a misunderstanding I guess. I feel as safe or safer traveling and camping in Baja as in the U.S.. Baja California is far more fun and interesting to visit as well. I have been going to Baja since 1965 and still cannot get enough of the place or ever had a criminal problem there.

 

you know i reread the thread and i noticed it was someone else who mentioned Mulege..

anyways, the last time we went in 2007 we drove my girlfriend's 5 lugger and we had her diff resting on the beach at Punta Chivato. it was cold that Xmas and will probably just stick to spring and fall.

i always bring up baja to my friends but we never follow thru anymore... some day.

 

here's a pic i found of one of the many cool sites in baja

 

That is a picture of Highway One, looking north, just south of the boulder mountain, El Pedregoso. In the arroyo at the bottom of your photo is a road that heads east to an old mine road switchback down the mountain. This has been a popular off road motorcycle shortcut to the gulf coast road (dirt Hwy. 5) , near Gonzaga Bay. The mine was turquoise in the canyon below, very near the gulf road.

Here is more on the trail, as we drove to the top of the grade in 2007:



Between Km. 213 and 214, south of the El Pedregoso boulder
hill, this rocky track heads east.
GPS: 29°31.143', 114°29.986' (NAD27).
This is 97 miles south of El Rosario and 12 1/2 miles north of Laguna Chapala.



The rocky track in the arroyo changes to a smoother road
after a half mile or so... It is 4.6 miles from Hwy. 1
to the viewpoint at the top of the grade... the peninsular divide.



The elevation here is 2,816' and you can see all the way
to the granite boulders where Hwy. 5 is located. The turquoise mine is on the center side of the canyon.



Expecting to find just a trail down the mountain passable
only to motorcycles,
I was surprised to see this constructed grade heading down into the canyon!
Appears to be an old mine road?



Just in case there is no place to turn around if necessary,
Elizabeth and I hike down the grade to check it out.



Hwy. 1 to Hwy. 5 is about 11 miles. We now know what the west 6 miles look like.
On the east end, a road comes about 3 miles from Highway
5, passes the green pools and ends at the turquoise mine. See http://vivabaja.com/wayno and http://vivabaja.com/1102/page2.html for photos and GPS.

The above is one of the many trip pages on my web site http://vivabaja.com

 

What is MULEGE (pronounced MOO LA HAY) you ask?

An oasis created by a river in the Baja desert, gulf coast about 2/3 down the east coast of the Baja peninsula. The Spanish padres founded the fourth California mission there in 1705... Now it is a town and resort with hotels, restaurants, trailer parks...

Some of my photos at Mulege,...

Mulege 2007:













Mulege 2009:








Our camp south of Mulege on Bahia Concepcion, La Perla

Mulege 2012:











Bahia Concepcion, south of Mulege:





Just a tiny look at the fantastic Baja California peninsula!

 

ahhh, i need to go back...

 

Indeed!

 

I think I gotta case of the Baja blues, so that's why I'm rereading your trip here. It sounds like a great trip! Our road trips to Baja are mostly camping, but I'm now thinking of staying at some of these places! That Baja Cactus looks amazing. I might have to suggest this same trip to my friends. Or maybe just the girlfriend.

How's the weather in Baja Norte in June and July?

(recent pic Oct 2015 in Punta Chivato)

 

Haha...my folks have a house in Chivato! I've been all over Camp Beach

 

Weather is always better in Baja! Heck, anything is always better in Baja!! Most of our longest trips are in July if you follow my reports here or over on BajaNomad.com forums. We went down to Bahia Concepcion again last July. It was actually less warm than before (Global Cooling)!

Since this trip (this thread's topic) was in 2011, the big update is the extention of the new paved highway south of Puertecitos. It now reaches and continues 12 more miles south from Gonzaga Bay (or 10 miles north from Coco's Corner if you are driving north on Hwy. 5 from Laguna Chapala. They are working rapidly to complete the final 20 some miles. The Baja 1000 race is going to be using the new pavement in 15 more days, as there is no other parallel dirt road in that area around Gonzaga and Puertecitos.