Pacific Coast South Baja

Old and new light house on the pacific coast

watch your step

From Cabo San Lucas I was heading up at the Pacific Coast on very small roads, the off-road driving was great fun but the coast itself is not all that impressive. There are many more roads than I could find on any map. I navigated mainly with the Compass and the picture on the Garmin GPS and just always took the tracks closest to the shore. Very beautiful beaches in the South the first maybe 30 or 40 kilometers after Todos Santos, I did not find too many possibilities to free camp though. In Todos Santos I stayed on Campo Litro, a small Campground, unfortunately they had just gone through a terrible fire and there were no Palapas and hardly any Palm trees left. Lots of black ashes all over. However, toilets and hot showers were o.k. and the price of USD 16 for dry camping too. It is on a small road in the west of town, you will have to ask for directions once you are in Todos Santos or follow the discretion in the Church & Church Camping guide word by word.

I was not that impressed by Todos Santos, I heard some stories that it was a nice kind of arty town. Honestly I thought it was more “Gringo wanna be arty” than much of real art, plus the usual blanket, sombrero, souvenir BS. And the Hotel California, which is promoted as the place where the Eagle’s wrote their song, which I learned is not even true. The bars were standard with the US-American faces carved by the daily consumption of Vodkas and Cervezas and a little bit of too much smoking of all sorts of things.  

fun, fun, fun

dead end

The road to the track along the coast is not that easy to find. The best is to leave Todos Santos north on the main highway, passing through the town, taking a left into a sandy road passing down by a little school, a couple of 90° left, right, left, right and you will eventually find the road out of town. You’ll see some Gringo-Mansions on your left along the beaches, just keep on going north. At the beginning there are some nice beaches and few opportunities to free camp in some arroyos. Later on you get slightly over the top on rocky surface and a rocky road and have some nice views over the beaches and the waves thundering against the sandy beach. Most of this road you will not find on any map. I navigated with the compass, a map and just the picture on the GPS, so it kept me as close to the shore as possible. Later it will get a little greener and there are small mangroves along the shore, stones or rocks and no sandy beaches anymore. Occasionally some semi permanent camp structures of locals and their small boats for fishing. Not really nice spots anymore to free camp. Eventually I took a turn east and caught up with Mex 1 just a few kilometers South of Ciudad Constitucion. I spent another night at the Mision Campground before heading down to La Paz.


Here are the coordinates for the two nights I spent free camping at the beach:


Near Punto Bentonito (road not on the map or Garmin GPS Mexico Database): N22°53.809'  W110°48.135'


South of El Cayuco: N24°34.627  W111°40.457'

alone

From Cabo San Lucas I was heading up at the Pacific Coast on very small roads, the off-road driving was great fun but the coast itself is not all that impressive. There are many more roads than I could find on any map. I navigated mainly with the Compass and the picture on the Garmin GPS and just always took the tracks closest to the shore. Very beautiful beaches in the South the first maybe 30 or 40 kilometers after Todos Santos, I did not find too many possibilities to free camp though. In Todos Santos I stayed on Campo Litro, a small Campground, unfortunately they had just gone through a terrible fire and there were no Palapas and hardly any Palm trees left. Lots of black ashes all over. However, toilets and hot showers were o.k. and the price of USD 16 for dry camping too. It is on a small road in the west of town, you will have to ask for directions once you are in Todos Santos or follow the discretion in the Church & Church Camping guide word by word.

I was not that impressed by Todos Santos, I heard some stories that it was a nice kind of arty town. Honestly I thought it was more “Gringo wanna be arty” than much of real art, plus the usual blanket, sombrero, souvenir BS. And the Hotel California, which is promoted as the place where the Eagle’s wrote their song, which I learned is not even true. The bars were standard with the US-American faces carved by the daily consumption of Vodkas and Cervezas and a little bit of too much smoking of all sorts of things.  

The road to the track along the coast is not that easy to find. The best is to leave Todos Santos north on the main highway, passing through the town, taking a left into a sandy road passing down by a little school, a couple of 90° left, right, left, right and you will eventually find the road out of town. You’ll see some Gringo-Mansions on your left along the beaches, just keep on going north. At the beginning there are some nice beaches and few opportunities to free camp in some arroyos. Later on you get slightly over the top on rocky surface and a rocky road and have some nice views over the beaches and the waves thundering against the sandy beach. Most of this road you will not find on any map. I navigated with the compass, a map and just the picture on the GPS, so it kept me as close to the shore as possible. Later it will get a little greener and there are small mangroves along the shore, stones or rocks and no sandy beaches anymore. Occasionally some semi permanent camp structures of locals and their small boats for fishing. Not really nice spots anymore to free camp. Eventually I took a turn east and caught up with Mex 1 just a few kilometers South of Ciudad Constitucion. I spent another night at the Mision Campground before heading down to La Paz.

you might have some company at the campground in Ciudad Constitucion

Over all that southern part of the Pacific site is not all that impressive, if you are pressed on time, I would say it is not really worth spending it exploring that part. Spend your time on the beautiful road going along the Sea of Cortez side North and South of La Paz, not Mex 1 but the small little off-road track described earlier. That is really breathtaking scenery. I heard that further up North the Pacific side of the Baja is very pretty with nice spots directly at the beach. I did not want to make it up that many kilometers further north since I was headed for the ferry in La Paz in a couple of days. There was some nice 4 wheeling though on those small roads along the Pacific coast as well as some Baja Race Tracks you could have your own little race on. Unless you have a beach-buggy you will require 4x4 and high clearance, to have a shovel a board can’t hurt either if not rough tire hurting rocks it is sandy most of the time. With extremely high tides or a rare rain it may not be possible to pass some of the areas as they may be flooded.

Over all that southern part of the Pacific site is not all that impressive, if you are pressed on time, I would say it is not really worth spending it exploring that part. Spend your time on the beautiful road going along the Sea of Cortez side North and South of La Paz, not Mex 1 but the small little off-road track described earlier. That is really breathtaking scenery. I heard that further up North the Pacific side of the Baja is very pretty with nice spots directly at the beach. I did not want to make it up that many kilometers further north since I was headed for the ferry in La Paz in a couple of days. There was some nice 4 wheeling though on those small roads along the Pacific coast as well as some Baja Race Tracks you could have your own little race on. Unless you have a beach-buggy you will require 4x4 and high clearance, to have a shovel a board can’t hurt either if not rough tire hurting rocks it is sandy most of the time. With extremely high tides or a rare rain it may not be possible to pass some of the areas as they may be flooded.

Stay tuned, I will report from the ferry trip to the mainland and the fantastic Copper Canyon area, where I had to change my route due to drug traffic, with my next blot posts.