Hey WTW members!
Finally got some time to complete my trip report for Baja. Its my first one and feel a little wordy but oh well.
Trip was completed in the beginning of June. I traveled with my coworker Jacq in my 2009 Hawk atop a 2001 Toyota Tundra. Before the trip I had just installed and new Norcold 2 way refer and a flexible 100 watt Renogy solar panel paired with their 30 watt LCD charge controller. Hope you enjoy.
The goal of the trip was to experience a real life adventure in only 6 days! We planned for whatever may have popped up but brought no maps and only a plan to head to the pacific side of Baja where temps are not insanely hot. Before this trip I had done a few trips to the Sea of Cortez side and only passed through Erindira and Ensenada on the pac side.
Left on a Tuesday at noon from good old Redlands CA. Think I made it to the San Ysidro border at about 3 and of course had to go to secondary. Tried to make small talk with the agent but he wasn’t having it. No bother though because I was free to roll in no time at all.
I took off through the maze that exists just after the border and followed signs to Rosarita/etc. My original plan was to find a spot to camp somewhere between Rosarita and Ensenada. I figured there would be at least a small, uninhabited area or cheap campground but failed to see anything from the fancy toll road.
As the evening wore on I started thinking I needed to get off the toll and look a little closer if I wanted to find a camping spot. I got off on a random road and there were no appealing looking spots. I saw a familiar hotel called La Fonda which I remember because my buddy told me had a good stay at this place. Uninterested in wasting money on a hotel I continued on past some random orange signs. I continued down the toll and after about 15 minutes started realizing there were no other cars on the road. I figured it was dead because it was world cup and Mexico was playing Brazil.
After about 15 minutes more I realized I was wrong when I came to a dead end with construction. I saw a construction worker and with my broken Spanish found the road was close due to a huge slide and that the random orange signs said road closed to through traffic. So back I went to the uno libre which was actually quite beautiful and a surprisingly steep grade compared to American standards. After traveling quite some time I found a campground in Santo Thomas and decided this was the stopping point for the night even if it wasn’t my ideal camping on the beach spot.
The campground was $12 and included hot showers and surprisingly clean bathrooms.
My coworker and I thought we hit the jackpot with our camp spot as there was a market just across the street that said it sold fresh meat, beer and cigars. We went inside and inquired about the 3 and only came back with beer. I was also hoping to get some veggies but had no luck at the market. Fortunately there were a couple farmers passing through the campground with some freshly picked leeks. I asked the guys if I could buy some but they wouldn’t let me. Instead they loaded me up for free and wouldn’t even accept a beer.
From this point I knew I was a distance from the ocean and wanted to get coast side with a quickness so I went with what was familiar, I know I went against the greater adventure rules, but then again this is only like my 5th trip to Baja. I went and took the road to Erindira where I have been before but instead of going toward the creepy Coyote Cal’s I headed south right through the town. Last time I was here Coyote Cal told us there were some good off road spots in that direction, but without a map I didn’t know where.
So we are driving through this little town and I just feel like I stick out like a sore thumb looking like a giant ice cream truck. The funny thing is, none of the locals even batted an eye. Most of them waved or nodded their heads or simply paid no attention. Just on the other side of the town I saw an encouraging sign that had arrows in the direction I was heading saying “Playa Malibu.” Being from SoCal I was thinking sweet, Malibu beach here I come.
So we head on our way and finally I get to some darn ocean. This point of the Baja Pacific is pretty interesting. Its all basically farmland for like the first 10 or maybe even 20 miles. Looks pretty much like this on one side
and this on the other
Quite beautiful in my opinion!
Here’s the first pic of my rig
Here’s pretty much what that part of the trail looks like. Super smooth sailing.
So after we pass the farmland the trail started getting good. Along the way we kept seeing signs that said “score” but we didn’t know what they meant. We kept heading on along the coast. There were many forks in the road leading away from the beach but we just kept staying as close as we could. Eventually we came to a place where we could not go any farther. It was a nice little private beach and it looked like a spot for the locals judging by the graffiti. Take a look.
At this point I wasn’t really sure what to do but one of my rules is to avoid whenever possible not going back the way you came. I headed back just a bit to the last fork in the road and headed away from the beach. I followed it shortly and saw another sign that said “score.” My buddy and I decided those were our good luck signs and followed through.
The road got even tougher and was really fun. My co pilot started getting scared because at this point she is starting to realize I have no clue where I am and she has no clue what my rig is capable of. To tell the truth neither did I as I am a pretty big newby. We went through some stuff where I finally couldn’t make it without putting it in low gear but I still had no real need to air down. We crawled for about two hours through ruts, hills, dips, valleys, rocks etc and were starting to wonder when it would end. It had been so long since we had seen any sign of life at all. There was no sign of ocean, houses or anything for miles. All that was there was a crappy dirt road with barbwire fences on the sides.
At about this point I saw a road tee off toward the beach. Eager to get back to the coast we headed down. The road was tight but consistent. Eventually we got to the coast but unfortunately it was cliff and no further trail. The site was beautiful and I probably would have just camped there if it wasn’t so early in the day and if I would have stocked up on beer. Here’s a few pics:
I reached a point where the barbwire fence had fallen over and there was a smoother looking road on the other side. I decided I would try it but no sooner than I got on it we saw an old man with some sign I couldn’t read. He had the meanest expression on his face and was obviously cursing at us and yelling for us to get back on the road. We passed by as he mad dogged us while holding a giant butcher knife. Thankfully we passed right by him with no ill will other than a look that could kill. We drove about 5 miles more and finally reached a closed barbwire fence.
After 2-3 hours driving in the middle of nowhere we had reached a dead end! Not only that, we knew we would have to pass by the crazy old man once again. Hesitantly we turned around and back we went. We saw the old man who was making good time down the trail. Upon closer inspection it looked like the man was posting signs and repairing fence. As we passed this time we waved and gave him a smile. He did neither back but I’m pretty sure he gave a nod. What I still cant understand is where the heck he came from.
Frustrated at this point I haled some serious a&&. What took me 2-3 hours must have taken me 45 minutes. I feel like I really learned a lot about driving off road by do it in a frustrated manner. I got back to the point we had turned on before and took it away from the ocean further. The road really opened up and looked like it was a main road so we just hauled butt some more. We kept driving and driving and finally started to see civilization again. The tight mountain range opened up to beautiful green farmlands as far as the eye could see.
We finally popped back on to the uno libre in San Vicente. At this point I looked at the map in disgust as I realized I pretty much came back to the turn off for Erindira! Oh well, I learned that there were some beautiful spots and had a good time.
My buddy had been telling me about a hostel called Cuatro Casas near Colonet so I decided that would probably be a safe spot to work towards in case I couldn’t find another camp. We headed down the one to Colonet and saw the well-marked signs for the road to Quatro Casas, stocked up on beer and made our way. We arrived at about 3 or so and decided we had enough adventure for the day.
I paid the nice owner $20 in exchange for a safe spot on his private beach, along with a warm shower and unlimited use of the bano. I told him our adventure and he let me know that at the point where we ran into the closed gate we were almost to Cuatro Casas. He then explained that the gate was for cattle and that the sign said to close it after we pass. So I guess I didn’t need to turn back after all. Oh well, lesson learned.
Here are the pics I have from the spot:
There was a brother and sister there looking to surf the great waves that Quatro is known for but they had plenty of time to talk because the waves were not happening. He let me know about what he had heard about good places in baja and let me read his book “The surfer’s almanac.”
The book pretty much explained that Quatro is pretty much the only safe spot in the whole are we were in there and that Baja really starts to get nice and safe once the uno starts making its way away from the coast in El Rosario. After reading this I decided that was where I needed to head.
Woke up early the next day and took a different way out to the highway passed the ShipWreck and popped out in Camalu. Headed straight down to el Rosario which took a good chunk of the day. Got some beer, finally found some meat for my copilot and some veggies for this vegan, topped off the gas tank and made our way to Punta Baja.
The road was wide and nice but completely rutted. I finally decided to air down expecting to be on dirt for the foreseeable future. I headed down the road at like 10 mph and was just tortured by the ruts. After like an hour I finished what I think is a 20 mile jaunt to Punta Baja and went into the small fish town. My copilot was hoping to score some freshly caught fish but it had all gone to town for the day.
We made our way south of the town and ended up running into some gringos in a mini van and a jeep. We both made camp and shared a nice fire and some dinner. Had a great night and were all in absolute awe about meeting others with a common interest in traveling. Here are some pics of the spot.
Edited by Ethergore, 25 July 2014 - 09:23 AM.
