The AARoads Blog

A brief dash down to Baja California last weekend, made even briefer through mechanical difficulties.

Ian B and I were going to drive down to San Quintin, spend the night, and drive back the next day. Since we were ahead of schedule, we decided to drive up to Sierra San Pedro Martir national park, which contains Picacho del Diablo, the highest mountain in Mexico. The mountain is 10157 feet, and the road goes up to 9280 of that, to an observatory.

Alas, halfway up the mountain, the transmission started leaking! So we had to go back down the hill, 80km to the nearest village, and get it repaired. We got it sufficiently patched (it was just the pan gasket, nothing major) to make it back to the US.

at some point, we clearly must make it all the way to the observatory.

and to San Quintin.

About one-third of the way up to the observatory.

And about two-thirds of the way.

And this is about the highest we get before we turn around. Almost at the tree line.

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The second day of our Baja trip. We leave San Felipe and head back to the United States, making stops in San Luis Rio Colorado, and Tecate.

Highway 5, between the 3 turnoff and the desert just south of Mexicali, features this spectacular red-rock canyon.

North of that canyon is another one, in the middle of a salt flat. The entire view is very similar to Death Valley.

The fault. Mike stands astride an old alignment of highway 2 that was torn in half by the April, 2010 Mexicali earthquake.

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A trip that Mike Ballard and I took down to San Felipe, Baja California, in July, 2010. We drove federal route 1 from Tijuana to Ensenada, then 3 to 5 to San Felipe and Puertecitos, before returning the next day along 5 to some Baja California state routes and into Sonora to San Luis Rio Colorado. We then drove 2 all the way back to Tecate, stopping along the way to view the fault line that moved during the April, 2010 Mexicali earthquake.

World-famous Oh Shit Dip on highway 5 between San Felipe and Puertecitos. There are many that are much worse, further south along this road. However, that road was washed out by Hurricane Nora in 1997. The road was in terrible shape until – well, so recently that most US tour books and websites still do not know that it has been resurfaced.

The road is paved, and in great condition, past Puertecitos all the way down to El Huerfanito. It does help to remember, however, that any dip that has the orange and black striped marker beside it (like the Oh Shit Dip here) is best slowed down for.

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why look, some actual content!

These are some photos taken by Lou Corsaro and me on a trip to Baja California, on August 11th of this year. We took federal highway 1 south from Tijuana to Ensenada, and a bit past that to the turnoff to La Bufadora, and then back to Ensenada and up highway 3 to Tecate and back to the United States.

Obligatory teaser picture:

La Bufadora, just south of Ensenada. Waves crash against a rock formation that reflects them straight upwards.

Obligatory teaser picture, highway sign division:

Two old signs to be found here: the green guide sign with the outline shield dates back to the 1960s. The diamond “ruta camiones” (truck route) is similarly old, and is patterned on a 1910s Auto Club of Southern California diamond-shaped sign that very likely hung there for 50 years before getting replaced by a copy that was almost identical, but reflective.

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