Barranca de Cobre - Copper Canyon: Part I

From Las Glorias I took Mex 15 back to Las Mochis, stocked up on food and beer for my fridge and drove up to El Fuerte, where I camped at Hotel Bugambillas on the North-West side of town. Coordinates N26°24.611’  W108°37.593’. Very nice and safe place to camp either in an RV or with a tent. It is a large grassy area with power on some sites, actually hanging from some trees, and it also has hotel rooms in a Motel kind of style. There are no dedicated showers for the campers but the Señora let me use one of the unoccupied Hotel rooms to have a shower in the morning. Everything very nice and clean and with a price of 150 Pesos/night more than reasonable. Should you desire to take the very popular train vs. driving yourself that would be the perfect place to leave your vehicle for the three or so days.

To head into the Canyon and down to Urique

Next morning I left El Fuerte towards the North East still on Sinaloa State Highway 23, a nice paved road heading into Choix, drove thru Choix all on the same road, outside of the City it turned out to be a really nice brand new road, to head into the Canyon area I was bound to take a turn off to the East at the village of Tasajera. Thanks to the map that my friend John, who had done it with his motorbike had prepared for me and printed in large scale out of google map I could figure out pretty good where it was supposed to be. The first road that surprisingly even had a sign for Tasajera was blocked off with huge rocks, so I continued on the paved road, exactly in the curve when it turned slightly to the left and I would have had a heading of straight up North if I was to continue, it has a little steep turn off down to the left. At the time it was marked with a temporary orange “Desviaciòn” (Detour) sign, I trusted that it was the detour from the road that I was to take but was blocked off with those rocks. Turn off to the right, respectively East, at N26°47.000' W108°15.211'. 

In Part II I will add a whole series of GPS coordinates (of about every 15 to 20 minutes) since those roads are not any map I had (with the exception of John's) that will lead you down to Urique should you want to follow my tracks. 

I will also tell you a little about Marihuana trafic and some drug war down in the Canyon and why I decided to change my original route plans.

La Paz - Topolobampo

In La Paz I have camped at Campestre Maranatha, a large campground with nice facilities including a washing machine, Wi-Fi, nice clean showers and bathrooms. You will find the campground on the west side when coming into La Paz from the North. The price is reasonable for what the park offers, USD 15/night. Coordinates are: N24°35.988’  W110°23.227

This is also where I met Ulla & Kari with their Mercedes Sprinter, what an interesting story they shared, having driven from Switzerland through countries like Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Australia and eventually are on the Panamericana route as well. We spent a couple of nice nights and meals together and I could not get enough of listening to them and the amazing stories about their trip.

Watch out in La Paz, you want to go really slow and stop at every stop sign despite the fact that locals will run by you left and right. The cops are all about making some money on tourists for overrunning an “Alto” sign or an orange light.

It is easy to find the ferry terminal, follow the road to Pichilingue, it is well signed. For cars and motorcycles it is best to drive thru town while there is marked truck route for larger rigs. I have taken the ferry from La Paz to Topolobampo, which is leaving every day at 15:00 and is scheduled to arrive at 21:00, but expect about another two hours until you are really out of the ferry in Topolobampo. I paid 1’928 Pesos for the car, less than 5.2 meters long, and one passenger, that includes a numbered seat and one meal. During this time of the year no reservation is necessary but you want to be at the ferry terminal at least two hours before the scheduled departure.

leaving La Paz

Arriving in Topolobampo

Since the ferry arrived at night I did not want to continue on driving and due to the lack of a campground in Topolobampo I checked in at Hotel Marina in Topolobampo: N25°35.988’ W109°03.149

In the morning I left and decided to spend some more time at the beach before heading in to the copper canyon area. And I camped in Las Glorias, directly at the beach at Mr. Moros Resort. Hotel and RV park. The RV park and campground area could do with some TLC but it was o.k. for just a couple of nights before heading up towards the copper canyon area. 

N25°17.779’  W108.31.518’

Camping at Mr Moros

Ever seen a 17 wheeler? - Check out this picture!

A few brave men

This is actually a two way traffic road! 

- 

Which by the way just curves to the right in front of those trucks.

Faked Licence

In Mexico occasionally the police is checking you for no reason, once you hand them your paperwork, which for sure they will ask for, you will not get it back unless you pay for it. In case that would happen to me, and since I have no interest in buying my own driving license, I made up some copies that I keep and would hand to the cops if asked for it. So if things get ugly you could still leave them those and continue your journey with the originals in your pocket.

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.

Cadillac hecho en Mexico

Only in Mexico, dually Cadillac