Baja 2400. Utah -> Baja Norte and back.

dfinn

Adventurer
I remember starting to plan this trip as I drove my land cruiser home from the previous owners house the night I bought it. That was about 8 months ago. A couple years back I had headed into Baja for a surf trip with some friends. We only went down about 90k south on the pacific side and it was only for a few days but it was enough to know that I really wanted to spend more time down there and do some exploring. Slowly over the summer I've been getting things ready on the truck for extended camping trips. I added a roof top tent, drawers, fridge, awning and various other things that all made camping out of it pretty convenient on our trip. I had tested it on many shorter trips throughout Utah and the Pacific Northwest over the summer and was pretty confident in the setup.

One thing that I might suggest to other people thinking about traveling into Baja : don't spend too much time reading online and don't believe everything you read. Sure, some of it might be true but I was so worried that I almost pulled the plug on this trip just days before leaving. According to the internet the chances were high that a semi would run us off the road, we would run out of gas because there aren't that many gas stations and they are always out of gas, corrupt cops would harass us and take all our cash, the roads would be so bad that our tires would be shredded and parts would be rattling off the truck and lastly that we would be robbed, mugged, beaten and have our vehicle stolen.

Nothing like that happened. In fact nothing bad at all happened and we had an amazing trip! The people were extremely friendly and helpful. The food was delicous. We camped on the most beautiful, remote beaches and we had them for the most part to ourselves.

Our general route was : Down the Sea of Cortez side (Mexicali -> San Felipe -> Bahia de Gonzaga -> Bahia de Los Angeles), cross over to the Pacific side (Ejido Erendira -> San Quintin -> Playa Saldamando) then head to Valle de Guadalupe and cross back into the US via Tecate.

Our first stop was at Kikis in San Felipe. This was a good way to ease into the trip. A nice campground right on the beach with hot showers and a short walk into town.
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this would probably be the busiest beach we camped at and it was still mostly empty. it would also be the most expensive camping at $35. Other spots would be free or between $5 and $15.
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One of the highlights of our stop on San Felipe was meeting "Baja Bruce". Bruce is from Canada but it sounds like he's been spending his winters in Baja forever. He was a wealth of info about other places to go and things to see. He also invited us along to do a little 4 wheeling and some beach driving. I had never driven in sand before and was a little nervous about it so I was all over the chance to go with some other people who knew what they were doing.

After taking some back roads north of town we ended up in a tight wash or canyon with banked sides.
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It eventually led to the sea and an empty beach.
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The next stop was Bahia de Gonzaga. Our favorite camp spot of the trip. The first night we were there we shared this huge beach with a couple other fishermen and some people from the US in an RV. The 2nd night we had it entirely to ourselves. I'd guess that you're over 100 miles from any other town, with no moon and no light pollution the stars were amazing. The water on the Sea of Cortez side was the perfect temp for swimming. The snorkeling was really good, crystal clear water and tons of fish. Some of which I managed to catch while fly fishing (all were released).

Camp is setup
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and the views aren't bad
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looking back at the beach we were camped on
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If we had more time I definitely could have stayed at Gonzaga for a few days. Unfortunately we had to keep moving and it was onto Bahia de Los Angeles.

We hit the end of pavement
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and stopped in to say hi to Coco
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on the way to Bay of LA you drive through this valley that is full of millions of cactus for as far as you can see
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Up and over a couple of rough hills we found a free spot on a pebbly beach on the north end of Bay of LA
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had a couple of baja fogs and a small bbq
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Unfortunately the wind was horrendous all through the night. I really thought the Tepui tent was going to have some serious damage in the morning but it handled it like a champ. We would have liked to spend another night here but we had no interest in dealing with the wind anymore and it didn't seem like it was going to let up so we packed up and headed to the Pacific.

No pics but we made a quick stop at Mama Espinoza's in El Rosario for the best lobster burritos that I've ever had.

Another hour of driving got us to Fidels in Play El Pabellon. We got there just in time for a sunset drive on the beach.


heading north from there we made our way to a small town named Ejido Erendira. The Baja 1000 is about to come through here shortly and I can only imagine how crazy things get then but it was just a sleepy little fishing town when we were there.

sand dunes and more empty beaches
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on the way out of here we drove part of the Baja 1000 course as it headed north to Santo Tomas. The course had just opened for pre running a few days ago. Maybe a little bit dangerous to be heading the opposite direction as racers practicing but it was really cool to see trophy trucks and buggies flying down these rough roads.

we stopped for lunch along a smooth spot of the course
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filling up next to some guys about to head out to practice in Santo Tomas
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our last night of camping on the coast would be at Playa Saldamando. I had camped here before on my previous trip and new that it was a nice spot just north of Ensenada.

breakfast is ready
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for our last night in baja we made a game time decision to head to Valle de Guadalupe. This is Baja's wine region, also known as the "Napa" of Baja. Neither the wife or myself are that into wine but we had a really fun time here. It's a beautiful area in the mountains and there are a bunch of wineries and restaurants. We had a great time touring around, checking out vineyards and sampling different types of wine.

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from there we crossed in Tecate, took some back roads through SoCal to avoid the LA area and spent one last night camping in southern Utah
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All in all, it was an awesome trip and it now has me itching to take more time and go further south.
 
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Wow, fantastic report, really is good to hear this is a viable option for light camping / off-roading! What did you use to pick campsites and were they all pay sites or you just pulled off the road and set up? Any specific resources to note, books, videos or such that helped to decide where to go?
 

dfinn

Adventurer
I spent way too much time researching spots on the internet. In general I don't like to do much planning for my trips but because of all the negative things you read about Baja I wanted to make sure I had options for places to stay if we got down there and things were as sketchy as the internet would make you believe. Turns out they weren't and we felt pretty comfortable camping wherever for the most part. We did a mix of actual campgrounds with facilities, sort of "campgrounds" where you basically pay to access someones land but there are no facilities, and free beach camping. Once we got closer to the border on the Pacific side we were more inclined to stay at campsites but in the more remote areas and especially on the Sea of Cortez side we felt pretty comfortable setting up camp on random beaches.

Almost all of my info came from other peoples trip reports posted here and at various other sites. Google is your friend and there's a ton of info about Baja camping if you poke around. You can even find posts with very specific GPS coordinates, which I had saved just in case.

I don't have much yet in the way of navigation setup in the truck. We kept it fairly simple. I primarily used google maps on an iphone with saved offline maps of all of Baja. We also had a printed AAA map but that rarely got pulled out.
 

umpqua

Observer
Nice report and I'm glad you guys had fun. I've done two trips to the Baja from Portland. Once all the way to Cabo....no real need to do that other than to say you've done it. The other was just South of Loreto which is far enough to get you to the good stuff.

Personally, I think the reports of violence in Mexico in general and the Baja in particular are "way" overblown. I'm sure that if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and your number comes up it comes up. Much like in any US city; Chicago, Memphis, LA, etc. Use your wits, don't flash cash and be respectful of people and you should be ok. I also think that not speaking Spanish deters some people from going. Believe me, most of the folks in the Baja speak much better English than my Spanish. Just trying to speak the language goes a long way. They will bail you out.

Not sure how I got off on that but if you have a chance to go to Baja do it. A great trip and you won't regret it....just wish is was closer....or maybe I'm lucky it's not.

Thanks for the pics dfinn........sure wish I was there right now.
 

yabanja

Explorer
Nice trip!

Looks like a good time! I was on the verge of going down there for winter but decided to get a ski pass instead. It has actually snowed this year so not regretting it thus far!

Take care,

Allan
 

Regcabguy

Oil eater.
I've always found the greater the distance from the border,the nicer and more helpful the people are.
There's some pretty upset citizens down there right now due to a 20% rise in fuel prices. Along with the weakening peso it's tough on folks. They'll persevere as they always do and welcome people who respect their culture.
 

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