I'd been wanting to do a solo Baja Trip for some time. I've been down the peninsula a dozen time for mostly off-road races, offering my support for teams attempting the SCORE races. This trip was just about me, girlfriend, dog, and finding epic beaches to camp on.
MAP: We trailered my 1986 'built' Ford Bronco to San Felipe and had 13 days to figure out a route. We stayed mostly on the Sea of Cortez side, enjoying the warmer/calmer waters.
From San Felipe we went south along Hwy 5, which was rougher and bumpier than most of the dirt roads we encountered. Our first stop ended up being Gonzaga Bay. There was a PEMEX gas station and a restaurant called Alfonsina's just off the pavement. We camped a few miles away on a pristine beach halfway around the bay with excellent views of the bay (halfway between Campo Beluga & Punta Final).
Gonzaga Bay was special because it was our first stop and unless you had a good 4WD or quad, you weren't getting near us. We ended up kayaking all over the bay and interacted with a seal and large whale shark. The sand & shells we encountered were very different at each beach we visited.
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| Someone's sailboat back in a cove |
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Water was like glass and was almost as smooth as Tecate.
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I used a canvas tarp to hide from the sun during the middle of the day & slept on my Paco Pad at night.
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2 seat kayak we used and some shells we found.
From Gonzaga Bay we headed south towards Coco's Corner. Many of the roads were in rough shape from the hurricanes and most of the arroyo's were just washed out so you had to bypass them or road crews were fixing them. We got to Coco's and had a beer with the Baja Legend himself. I asked him for some advice on a route and beaches. Coco didn't travel south much and didn't have much advice on 'good beaches', since he preferred the San Felipe lifestyle if he ever did travel out of his corner (small huts and campers in the middle of nowhere). He told me to follow the 'race-course' because it would be a fun adventure.
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| My dog 'Berto' enjoyed chasing Coco's Cats (aka; gatos) |
I took Coco's advice and took the less popular much rougher route that followed the SCORE Race Course. This was much tougher than I thought in our loaded down 4x4. The races over these small roads have made for lots of whoops and holes to navigate. The Bronco was loaded down with all our camping gear, 32 gallons of fuel, a week of bottled water, clothes, food, tools, spare tire, and a tandem kayak. Navigating the truck via the SCORE route was interesting! My engine, transmission, and shock temperatures got very hot and it took all my focus to get us through without a mechanical.
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| 'Good Road' before hitting Coco's |
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| Got to this landmark and noticed I lost the cooler off the back....OOPS! Had to back-track some nasty terrain. |
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| Found my cooler 45 minutes later back up the SCORE race course route. All our ice was melted and we had to throw away half our food. It was a sad moment. :( |
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| Calamajue Arroyo/Wash was long and 'interesting'. |
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| Dusty, dirty, and ready to get off this race course that was punishing us and the Bronco on 32" tires. |
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| Pancho loves American's and said 'Tell everyone on the internet to come see me and check out my beach'. lol |
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Nice soft white sand and plenty of shells to collect at San Rafael
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| South of Pancho's was this awesome view. Great for lobster hunting! We only found crabs during the day. |
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Cool view from S.R. with the mountains, cacti, and ocean inlet.
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Colorful Crab
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| S.R. had the coolest shells. |
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| Pancho was drying out some of his fish. |
Spent a couple days and meals with Pancho swapping stories and swimming around his property. He has a perfect spot to live and kept telling us he doesn't need money to be happy, all he needs is his Baja Property! We said our goodbyes and headed south towards the next epic beach. So far we had seen three great beaches and every one of them was very different! The next beach we ended up hitting was San Francisquito. We noticed on the map they had a small airstrip, a restaurant, and plenty of beach front property. We continued south another 55 miles of dirt/sandy roads that were barely allowing my Ford V8 to get a whopping 7mpg. San Francisquito was more established than the last few spots, they had a dozen homes, small restaurant, and gasoline in a 50gal drum for $8/gallon. The palapas/gringo camp spots along the beach were all gone or damaged from the recent hurricanes. 70% of the roofs were just ripped off and gone. The beach had great sand and the water had a nice little current from the rising and lowering of the tides. We enjoyed swimming down the mile-long beach and fought to swim back up. Later that day we noticed a caravan of military soldiers had arrived. They left us alone and were scouting out the surrounding area for any suspicious activity. Walking down the beach that evening(we had the entire place to ourselves), I made sure the restaurant was open and mentioned we will be back for dinner in 30 minutes. When we returned the husband/wife restaurant crew had a little table set up for us overlooking the ocean. A dozen soldiers were also there on the patio cooking dinner and enjoying the views. The soldiers were super polite, quiet, and stayed to themselves. We never looked at a menu and just ordered two plates of fish tacos and a couple drinks. During our delicious meal we witness the sun going down and the dolphins swimming 5' off the beach. It was epic! After we got done eating I went inside to pay the bill. The check came to $60 U.S. Dollars, which was three times higher than we paid anywhere else! I tried to argue that the fish taco plates were not worth $25 a piece, but since I was the only 'Gringo' on the beach and I had never asked for a price before ordering, I just swallowed my pride and paid the bill.
Chalk that up to a lesson learned in Baja. Or maybe she was charging us more for the dolphin show....who knows!
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| Beach at San Francisquito |
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Found some whale bones on S.F. Beach
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| Dinner and Dolphins @ S.F. Restaurant |
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San Francisquito had the best sunrise during our trip.
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The next morning driving out of San Francisquito, we ran across part of the military crew broke down 20 miles out of town. Their 'Hummer' vehicle stopped working because the starter went out or jammed up. They asked me to tow them back to S.F. or go get help at a local casa up the road. I tried to explain that my rig was over-loaded and I can barely get my Bronco up this sandy hill! I had no space to even offer one of them a ride, we were at max capacity! I offered to send help back to them by going up the road and finding that casa. Well, I found several old ranch homes and nobody was home. In fact, we didn't see a sole for the next hundred miles of treacherous Baja terrain! We eventually made it into San Ignacio and told the soldiers there about the situation. They didn't seem to care much, so neither did I. ;) We settled into a place for the evening called Rice & Beans, a favorite stop of the off-road racer crowds and gringo Americans. Rice & Beans has awesome food, full bar, and clean rooms with running water. We splurged that night, spending $80 on a bar tab, dinner, and a room with A/C.
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Driving on Baja roads include 2-mile wide washes, deep sand, and lots of dust from the tires. My dash shows the dirt.
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| Stopped to look at a map in El Arco at old military fort. Burt meets a friend below with cool eyes! |
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| Rice & Beans was so good! Tacos, Beer, and Salsa will not disappoint. |
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| La Laguna going into downtown San Ignacio. The is ocean water that flows many miles inland and surrounded by palms. |
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| Must stop at the Mission in San Ignacio |
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| Thought I might burn up when I walked through the doors, but the Lord accepts all types! |
From San Ignacio, we drove south and back towards the beaches. We needed more 'beachlife' after 300 miles of off-roading. We searched the beaches between Santa Rosalia and Mulege' and finally found one worth reporting about; Santa Ines Beach just north of Mulege'. Playa Santa Ines was our favorite of the trip with its super soft white sand that felt like running on a large gym mat in grade school. The beach wasn't too flat or slopey, it was just right! We ended up staying a couple days and enjoying ourselves with cold Tecates with lime and fresh ice from stocking up supplies in Santa Rosalia.
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I was getting disappointed in my route finding skills, so I pulled over to clear the mind and let the girlfriend look at map.
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| My dream beach; Santa Ines |
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| Berto even like the beach! Lots of sand crabs and sticks to chase. |
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| How many places in America let you drive a 4x4 all over the beach? |
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| built ourselves a sand castle and thanked the Chevy Gods for getting me to Mexico. |
Leaving Santa Ines was hard, but we managed to load up and head the 20 miles south into Mulege'. The town of Mulege' was hit hard from the hurricanes, I barely recognized it. We drove out to the lighthouses at the far east end of town and was amazed at all the damages to homes along the beach and inlet. We filled up on Pemex gasoline and topped off our supplies and headed south. The drive from Mulege' to the Bay of Conception is probably one of the prettiest routes on their highway. The pavement is good, the views of the water and gringo camps are amazing, and there is several places to stop and get a taco. We stopped at Ana's Restaurant in Playa Santispac. Friendly owner and great food/beer. Water in this area is even warmer and very clear. For 100 pecos a night, you can camp with the other gringos and their 1-ton trucks towing 5th wheels and loud generators. I voted for private secluded camping, so we kept heading south! We followed Hwy 1 to the 'arm-pit' of the Bay of Conception and turned east on a small dirt road, cut though a small cattle farm, and scoped out the entire beaches along the south end of Conception. The beaches weren't that great since it was mostly small pebble rock and very little sand. Didn't see anyone in a 50 mile square radius except the cattle rancher. There was a dry 'lakebed' that was super fun to drive on and slide the Bronco around on the clay-mud-like-soil. You should be able to see my tire track brodies from Google Earth for several years. We ended up back-tracking to a beach we saw off the Hwy that was much better than anything we found at BofC. Our route back to San Felipe was taking the highway back north, crossing over into Coco's corner again, and then north back to the tow rig left at the Cortez Hotel in S.F.
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Driving the Hwy 1 along Bay of Conception
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| Gringo Camps and nice beaches/water |
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| farthest south end of Bay of Conception |
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| Final Beach Campsite was 50yds off Hwy. Playa Armenta had tons of small sea shells. |
Authors Note: I don't recommend a solo trip for everyone. We went prepared, and had good tools and equipment, back-up Mexican phones, maps, batteries, and a gps. We also carried an air compressor, hi-lift jack, tire plugs, and plenty of bottled water. I would also urge people to carry a SAT phone and/or SPOT Tracker. We had no problems with the locals, military, or police on our 2-week trip. The 4WD Bronco had new 32" Goodyear M/T tires, a built motor/trans, trans cooler, spool, 5.38 gears, and oversized alloy radiator and fans. Custom shocks and suspension helped us get places where stock 4x4's could not. Special Thanks to Driven4x4 Parts (specializes in Bronco Parts), Matt Bailey of BlackNBlue Racing (phone/Rigid lights/first aid kit), Chris Krediet of Lost Industries (tranny builder/fab help), and friends of the AZ Undertaker Off-Road Club.
