What are the canyons 2-3 hours (and more) outside Loreto like? Is there a lot of opportunity to explore them without treading on private property? Do
they have water in them some of the time?
I know the ones in Valle Chico outside San Felipe a bit, and they're probably longer because the mountains are so high, but we're going down to Loreto
in July (!) and I didn't have a car last time I was there, so I want to get back up toward the mission and anywhere else that will lets us do some
exploring. We hit one canyon just outside of town last time, and it was great -- real rocky, and had some water. We were on some power company's land,
though.TMW - 5-21-2005 at 08:44 PM
Just remember that in July it gets real warm, like hot on that side of Baja. Carry plenty of water.bajajudy - 5-22-2005 at 06:36 AM
Make one of your trips to Primer Agua....not much in the way of adventure but a welcomed relief from the heat. Ask around because you used to have to
buy a permit to enter but it is a beautiful oasis.
[Edited on 5-22-2005 by bajajudy]Bruce R Leech - 5-22-2005 at 07:00 AM
three hours in which direction and traveling on foot or car or what? the grand canyon is nice and it is about 2 or 3 hours North by plane.Skipjack Joe - 5-22-2005 at 02:31 PM
Here is one that's good for a day hike. It goes into the Sierra Giganta from the highway.
At the crossroad of Highway 1 and the road to Pt Escondido there is a dirt road that goes west towards the mountain range. You can't miss it. Just
follow the road and it becomes a dry wash at the base of the mountains. As you hike up you will pass stagnant pools of water. Keep hiking up and you
come to clear cold running water. The pools get larger and cooler as you continue. The walls get narrower and narrower until you have to scale around
giant boulders to keep going.
The whole thing is very pleasant and refreshing. A nice change of pace from the heat of the desert. Hang out in the shade and take a plunge now and
then. It's no bigee - a do it yourself affair. The sort of thing I prefer.
I've been there in December. Like others, I wouldn't recommend it in the summer. The heat radiating from the canyon walls could fry you.
A couple of pics from the area:Skipjack Joe - 5-22-2005 at 02:35 PM
Another picture of one of the big pools. Alex is the small figure in bottom left. You dive off the big rock into the pool below. Coudl be different in
summer.Phil S - 5-22-2005 at 05:44 PM
Dkipjack. If I remember right, at that junction to Pt. E. if you go west, you have a building right there that is fenced, and you can't get you car
any further. So you have to park just a ways off the road. Is this the one your referring to? I've been up a ways, but with your pictures, I guess I
better spend some more time, hiking further on!!!!!! Thanks for the pic's.Arthur - 5-22-2005 at 07:26 PM
Thanks, Joe. That's just the kind of thing I'm looking for. They don't show any road in the Almanac, but I will check it out when I'm down there. If
that's available, there's bound to be more.
Arthur
Skipjack Joe - 5-23-2005 at 03:00 PM
As you work your way up, the canyon 'P-nches' in places and then opens up again. You have to do some climbing to get around these restrictions.
I never did go past the above spot, being afraid of rolling off into the pool below. However, I've seen these rubber-like slippers climbers wear to
help them grab a rocky surface better. I bet, with something like that you could get much further than I did with my hiking boots.
But you probably know that already.Arthur - 5-23-2005 at 03:13 PM
I stick with hiking boots myself. My buddy used to climb a lot, and he usually finds some way to keep going, but his hairball days are behind him so
we might not get beyond the spot that stopped you.
What sounds good to me, though -- beyond the water and the rocks in your pictures -- is that you could just head up a dirt road and get to a decent
canyon. If there's that one, there must be more, right?Skipjack Joe - 5-23-2005 at 04:15 PM
Well that 5,000 foot range comes up right to the highway there. It's hard to look up at those green peaks and not start imagining all sorts of
explorations. They look so wild and inviting. There are a few other openings in that area I saw from the highway that looked promising.
The only other area I hiked was along the road leading up to St Javier. The road drops to the bottom of the canyon and then starts rising. I just got
out at the bottom and started bushwacking up the canyon. There was water running there also. That canyon has a very different quality to it. Much
drier. With cactuses perched strategically on the cliffs. A wider canyon whose walls are fairly easy to scale.
Oh, Oh... I gotta tell you about this episode during my explorations in that canyon. I'm hiking along and I hear this Pffffffft, Pffffffft, Pfffffffft
sound. It was really puzzling for a while. Eventually I come across a small ranch in an opening of the canyon and it was these goats farting. Man, do
those things have gas. It was endless. And they don't sound anything like ours.
[Edited on 5-23-2005 by Skipjack Joe]
[Edited on 5-23-2005 by Skipjack Joe]
fig trees
Skipjack Joe - 5-24-2005 at 12:12 AM
One of my favorite things in the canyon to St Javier were the fig trees. When you look up at the canyon walls everything will seem to be in yellows,
browns, oranges, and reds. But occasionally there will be a blotch of bright green.
I used to love to scale the walls to look at their root systems. They are truly amazing plants. Their massive white roots don't seems to dig into the
soil at all. They just embrace the rocks like some gigantic fingers. The entire weight of these trees standing parallel to the canyon walls is
supported by these roots that hold on like tentacles.
But the whole tree is strange in that sense. Unlike most desert plants that have small, stubby, wax like leaves this tree has the broad thin leaves
you would expect in a wet environment. You look at the structure of those leaves and you wonder why they don't shrivel up and die in that intense
heat.
So you've got a plant that grows high above the water table, with roots that don't seem to bother searching for any water below the surface, and
leaves that structurally don't seem to be capable of reducing evaporative water loss.
What is thing doing in the desert of all places?Arthur - 5-24-2005 at 07:30 AM
Good stuff. Do these plants really produce figs, or are they "climbing fig" or "ornamental fig"? -- which I think may not produce fruit. Fig trees
seem to need a lot of water (and I don't think they mind minerals, since I've seen them around a few hot springs) so I don't know how they could
produce fruit with their roots just hanging in the air.
I think climbing fig is the stuff that gets onto old temples and other structures in the jungle and slowly tears them apart. Or maybe that's creeping
fig . . . Got to take a look at the Sunset Garden Book.
Are there side canyons worth exploring on the way up to mission Javier?Skipjack Joe - 5-24-2005 at 10:13 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by ArthurI think climbing fig is the stuff that gets onto old temples and other structures in the jungle and slowly tears
them apart.mission Javier?
Yes, that's it exactly. The roots look like those I saw wrapped around the buildings of Tikal, Guatemala.synch - 5-26-2005 at 02:24 PM
Head to the 2nd oldest mission, San Javier, just West of Loreto ~ 20 Kms and accessible by car most of the yearArthur - 5-26-2005 at 02:28 PM
Fer sure, but what are the canyons like up that way? Any with water? Can you get away from the road?jide - 5-26-2005 at 06:32 PM
Check out the canyon west of ligui, less than a mile past the turn off for Ligui, there is a dirt road going west towards the mountains, follow that
wash, staying to the left for 2-3 miles, it's a dead end, you'll need a rope for the first waterfall, the rest is easy hiking and very spectacular,
there's a side canyon that will make you feel like you're in sandstone country somewhere in southern utah...
here's a pic, and the link to my last big trip: http://www.jidevisual.com/baja_oct04/index.htm
another pic
jide - 5-26-2005 at 06:33 PM
Arthur - 5-26-2005 at 08:17 PM
Pretty nice. That right side of the canyon mouth in your first shot looks like part of some temple. Thanks, Jide -- now I'm gonna go read your trip
report.
great photos jide
Skipjack Joe - 5-26-2005 at 10:20 PM
I had a great time exploring your website. Great images. I even found my ficus tree (I thought they were fig trees).
I am definitely going to make a hike into the canyon you show above. It's just down the road from the one I hiked.
I was curious about San Basilio. Looks like a great place. Can you tell me where it is and how to get there?
Thanks,
skipjack
-- never mind about San Basilio. I found it in the baja atlas. Looks like a bad road going in, though. The pictures of it look really great, however,
so I might just chance it with my 2WD truck.
[Edited on 5-27-2005 by Skipjack Joe]David K - 5-26-2005 at 11:28 PM
All of the figs are classed under Ficus. As the Sunset Garden Book says, that includes the commercial edible fig, the small-leafed climbing fig, the
banyan tree and the potted rubber plant -- they're all classed together because they all bear figs of some size.
Sunset describes a bunch of them, including Creeping Fig, which has extremely invasive roots. It notes that some Rustyleaf Figs (I'm citing all
common names here) can develop "hanging aerial roots that characterize many of the evergreen figs in tropical environments," but doesn't seem to
specifically describe the trees you guys have seen. Someone must have a book on Baja ficus. I bet they're in Roadside Biology. Got to pick me up one
of those.
Zalate
jrbaja - 5-27-2005 at 09:39 AM
or Higuera is what they are called down here. They do produce figs and they are in a number of areas.
The canyon leading to San Javier has a great pool just down from the mission and you will be hiking a most interesting part of Baja history. If
you happen to go there, Francisca, the mission caretaker loves flower seeds.Arthur - 5-27-2005 at 11:59 AM
Thanks, JR. What kind of seeds are most appropriate for Baja?
Higuera
Skipjack Joe - 5-27-2005 at 01:40 PM
Yeah, I found it in the 'Baja California Plant Field Guide'.
Apparently it has some great medicinal purposes:
"Tea from the leaves and branchlets is used on mules and cattle as an antidote for rattlesnake bite. A wash is used to treat cuts and infections...."
It survives the dryness by (1) storing water in it's massive trunk (like the torote) (2) dropping it's leaves during drought.
Still, it must get to be over 120 on those cliffs in St Javier canyon at times. It's amazing any deciduous tree can handle that.Arthur - 5-27-2005 at 01:52 PM
All of those plants are amazing. You sure it's deciduous, though? I don't think dropping its leaves when it's parched counts. And Sunset made that
reference to evergreen ficus.Sharksbaja - 5-27-2005 at 02:50 PM
If you zoom in and follow that dirt road you see leading west it seems to connect with the Comondu' road is this possible?
[Edited on 5-27-2005 by Sharksbaja]richard nauman - 5-27-2005 at 03:21 PM
Yes you can get over the top. I didn't think the road was to bad when I went over it last summer. But it kind of depends on what you like. It was
rocky and bumpy with one steep set of switchbacks that was particularly rough. Slow going the whole way but my truck has very stiff suspension. I
never came close to needing 4 wheel drive.Sharksbaja - 5-27-2005 at 03:24 PM
