Neal Johns - 12-9-2006 at 03:06 AM
Dec. 26-27
After eating Xmas dinner the night before, we struggled up by 8:00 a.m. and got underway to the nearby gas station at El Chinero. After I was 2/3
full, the attendant started wiggling the hose. "No mas!" he said. I gave the other people a smug smile and said I sure hoped they had gas for them in
San Felipe. They were not amused. Gassed up in San Felipe and headed out to Agua Caliente Canyon. I had been by the ejido several times but never to
the canyon. After lunch, in the mouth of the canyon, we drove to the end of the road (about two miles) and as usual, decided not to hike the two miles
further to the hot springs.
On the way out, we met two nicely dressed "agricultural workers" walking in, exchanged friendly waves and "Buenos tardes", and soon saw their two
wheel Ford pickup parked at the canyon mouth. At that time we were not aware of the, ah, "bean field", that Baja friends David and Lorenzo had found
further up.
We went back to San Felipe and joined up with Jimmy James and Bill Chapman who had stayed home for Xmas. Had dinner at George’s (recommended) and
drove north to camp near El Chinero junction again. The next morning, we went to the Jose Saldaña/Tres Pozos road and took it and the racecourse route
west. A couple of miles from the pavement we stopped to rescue the Mexican army. Two of the young soldiers had taken mountain bikes out and one had a
flat. Dave M. pumped the tire up and everyone went away smiling.
We proceeded to Canyon Isabel and checked out the abandoned hunting lodge on the edge of the cliff overlooking the canyon. If anyone has the real
story on this, let me know. I have heard two stories: This million-dollar establishment was built by a drug lord or was built by a crooked politician.
It has large diesel generators, a guesthouse, beautiful swimming pool, and all the trimmings. It has been dead for a decade but used to have Keep Out,
National Park signs on the roads leading in.
We had lunch near a former Indian encampment and went north to Canyon Palomar. After taking pictures of the circular corral made of palm logs at the
mouth, we continued up canyon via a 4WD road to Rancho Palomar. No one home as usual. There were dozens of palm trees and many grinding slicks in the
large rocks in the streambed (no water – except for a trickle keeping the palms alive).
We worked on the road past the ranch for a few minutes and continued up canyon a mile or so to the hot springs. There were long unused structures up
on the bank and several pools. The water was lukewarm and the pools would require a lot of time and effort to clean. The lower concrete pool by the
parking lot/end of the road needed another one or two hundred feet of hose to fill it with warm water so we camped there overnight unwashed.
David K - 12-9-2006 at 09:48 AM
Here is the 'bean field' that Lorenzo and I found between the road end and the hot springs in Agua Caliente Canyon:
Water from the fresh water stream was siphoned into a poly drip hose from up the canyon and then fed into rows of drip tape (seen here) to irrigate
the 'beans' (we called this future cash crop 'cilantro'). More photos of our Dec. 31, 2000 trip at http://vivabaja.com/baja_2001
When I returned here in 2004, the drip lines had been all hacked into pieces (by the army?) http://vivabaja.com/404
[Edited on 12-9-2006 by David K]