Guadalupe Canyon 9-15 to 17, 2006

To celebrate our engagement and my birthday, Baja Angel and I went to Guadalupe Canyon Hot Springs for the weekend... as it is one of the really special places in Baja we enjoy.

Hotscott (Steve) and his wife Val would be camping there as well in a nearby site, La Paloma. We reserved La Jolla B as we stayed there last year, and loved it http://vivabaja.com/405

These private camp sites (and others) are all part of ARTURO'S CAMPO #1 featured at http://www.guadalupe-canyon.com That web site has photos of most of Arturo's camps, a camp map and is where you make reservations to insure you get a site or the one you want. Important for weekend stays...

CAMPO 2 or 3 do not have the privacy of CAMPO 1. The entire canyon is the property of the Loya Family, divided between three brothers. Canyonman Rob married Arturo's daughter, Isabel, and runs the reservation business from California. Arturo has a cell phone to get daily reservation updates.

Now, I first visited the canyon just 5 years ago when I checked it out with 'M' and BHL for M's BBBB #2 party. It was the suggestion of Hotschott, who has been camping there for over 20 years, to check it out! Canyonman Rob and Isabel were guests at my Viva Baja #2 event and showed a video of the canyon, a few months earlier that year. It looked great!

Okay, fast forward to this past weekend... Guadalupe Canyon is incredibly romantic, and with the recent engagement of Baja Angel and I, we couldn't think of a better place to go. That, along with Hotschott's invite to be there when they were was all it took to convince us.

View at the entrance to the canyon... the granite pinnacle to the left of the towering peak, above the canyon, resembles Mexico's Virgen of Guadalupe... thus the name.

We arrived at the canyon at 6 pm Friday, with plenty of daylight to set up camp and kick back. We needed that because the usual dry lake bed was WET in the center... about 10 miles in... the mud lasted for about 4 miles, then dry again for the remainder of the 25 miles on the lake bed.

4WD was engaged and we had no problems, other than the heavy, salty mud clinging to the bottom of the truck and the weight tearing of 3 of my 4 mud flaps!

Hotschott would be leaving San Diego about 2 hours after us, but arrived 4 1/2 hours after! He came to the mud, in the dark, and made a U turn back to Hwy. 2 then over to the graded road. He had enough bad experience in the laguna's mud before to know not to get into it!

Don't worry about my Tacoma friends, Sunday I got all of the mud off using a high pressure sprayer!

In this map you can see both the dry lake route and the parallel graded road...

We had a great evening, the wind was blowing a little when we were setting up the tent, but no problem with team work!

After dinner, a great soak in the wonderful hot spring water filled tub.

We crashed before hearing Hotschott and Val arriving... Saturday morning we would compare notes.

Photo shows the tub (note fire place facing tub), and our palapa. A second palapa is on the site which makes a great kitchen and dining area.

Here's the peak and the Virgen above the canyon...

Close up of our hot tub... All the tubs are made from the boulders and rocks of the canyon. The source spring is above Arturo's office in Angel's camp area and PVC piped to the various camp sites. A garden hose goes from the pipe to each tub with a flow control valve on the end to regulate the tub's temperature. Spraying the hot water a few feet over the tub cools the water greatly.

[Edited on 9-21-2006 by David K]

Our tent set up inside the main palapa... Shade in the desert makes all the difference in the world! The temperatures were awesome this weekend... mid to low 90's in the midday and low 70's at night.

We brought 4 citronella candle buckets to light at night, but only used one for when we were hot tubbing or by the tent doorway to ward off any mosquitos.

This is the other palapa at La Jolla B... where we cooked and ate... Except for our great meal at Hotschott's camp, Saturday night... Thanks Steve and Val!

A squirrel and his friends visited Hotschott's camp when we were visiting... I tried to get a zoom, then crop the photo for posting... not sure how it will look...

Another...

He runs up to a boulder...

Laguna Salada mud... it ain't nice!

Those Cooper STT tires worked great... in the mud!

Just after sunset, I walked around to practice with this new camera Baja Angel got me...

The sun just set behind the mountains...

Using the zoom, on the Virgen...

Last picture Saturday, before dinner... Looking from Camp site La Paloma, up the canyon... That's campsite El Dorado on the right.

Here's my first attempt at an arm's length photo of Elizabeth (Baja Angel) and I...

Hey, that turned out pretty good!

Okay, we left Guadalupe Canyon at 10:45 Sunday morning and used the graded road back to Hwy. 2... It was just slightly longer than the dry lake road (35 vs. 33 miles), but NO MUD!!!

Also, the washboard road was no problema for my Toyota... did avg. 50 mph on it. Some asphalt was layed for a half mile south from Hwy. 2 and it has some pot holes to dodge... kinda like near Puertecitos!

Here is one set of signs at the canyon entrance...

The other set of signs at the canyon entrance...

Having had bad experiences lately using Tecate to cross north, we took the toll road (Mex. 2-D) all the way to the end and went across at Otay Mesa... 1 hour, 15 minutes beginning at 1:40pm... much better than the nearly 3 hours last time at Tecate!

Have a great Baja experience amigos... it is there for you to find!

Congrats on your engagement Dk

Good 4 you and Baja Angel..
Your right G-canyon is the perfect spot to be with your special one.(Baja Angel)..
On another note, my last trip to the canyon coming back we where sorprise by a thunderstorm about half way on the Salada., thats the worse mud that a have enccounter on all my trips specially with stock tires..It took the guy that clean my undercarriage about 45 minutes with a high preassure gun to remove the Sticky Salada mud, but it was all worth it..

[Edited on 9-21-2006 by BAJACAT]

My first visit to Guadelupe Canyon------

----was in about 1961, and at that time nobody was there, no living quarters, but the hot tubs and a big swimming lagoon behind a dam were there, and it was our favorite place to retreat too. Hardly anybody (gringos) knew about it, and we almost always had it too ourselves, camping about 50 feet from where the hot springs sprang out of the ground and under the palms. What a great place!!!-----and nobody was there to complain about our loud music. or the fact that we ran around in our birthday suits.

It apparently is a bit more "structured" now.

Audrey will love it, too!

More photos at http://vivabaja.com/405 of our April '05 visit

Here's one of the road outside the canyon taken the time before last, when we were there in November '05...

New camera

These are the sharpest pictures you've posted so far, DK. Glad you got that new camera.