Wild Baja -- Part Four Las Animas rock walls

Wow!

Trip started off with a discussion on how animals seem to know people, then Ron mentions the "Wolf Spirit' thing, then I see my first Baja deer, then my first Baja Badger and unknown to me at this point is that there is more to come but first on with the trip.

I planned today to walk around the rock walls up on the hill first reported by Erle Stanley Gardner and again on Baja Nomads by someone using google earth. I am sure the locals are aware of them and have been all along.

i have been up there before so this wasn't my first time.

This year though I was unable to drive all the way to the base of the hill due to the thick brush.

I did notice that the 2 walls on the north point which seem odd up close might make more sense if viewed from a little distance.

They appear to form a diamond shape that if some of the brush was cleared out could be seen from a distance. I wonder it was some sort of reference point or sign?

I ended up walking a little over 2.5 miles around the top of the hill and other than walls and 'sleeping circles' at the top I did not see any other structures.

There was a standing stone by the shorter wall though, which may be fairly recent.

The walls just seem odd where they are. On a saddle part way up, why?

After coming down I walked around the 'dam' site, too bad it is really overgrown over the last couple of years though.

I then headed back to the bay but instead of going westward towards my camp I went eastward to see if I could get to the beach.

I parked in some dunes and made my way to the beach which was kind of a let down. No cool shells or treasures on this beach.

There was two cool things though. Before getting to the beach you have to go though some sand dunes and on the landward side of these dunes I did find several old sand dollars. They were pitted and very fragile.

Also while I was on the beach I saw a coyote foraging a little ways down from me and across a small inlet.

There was a large piece of driftwood that I was able to sit against so that he could not see me. As I watched he swam across the inlet towards me and started wandering the beach in front of me.

I waited till he was going past me when I called out to him. With the driftwood stump behind me he could not tell what I was. Also the wind was blowing towards me so he was unable to smell me either.

So being a coyote, and therefore clever, I watched as he trotted around behind me from about a 100 feet a way until he could pick up my scent.

As soon as he picked it up he turned around and hightailed it for the dunes. It was interesting watching it all play out.

Back to the jeep, through the dunes, where I had some lunch before heading back to camp.

At camp I got another animal experience to enjoy.

A large pod of dolphins were passing by in front a camp and one of them stayed in one spot for a couple seconds with his tail out of the water and then proceeded to slap the water with his tail 4 or 5 times.

https://www.facebook.com/john.smallwood.121/videos/vb.100001...

I do have video of it I posted on my facebook page but I do not know I can post it on here.

I did one more thing before calling it a night. I flattened down the sand 3 feet out from the jeep where I was sleeping to see I would have any visitors during the night







PART ONE
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=83137

PART TWO
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=83138

PART THREE
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=83141


[Edited on 5-21-2016 by Fatboy]

[Edited on 5-22-2016 by Fatboy]

[Edited on 5-22-2016 by Fatboy]

The Facebook link should post here... or where ever the video is hosted (YouTube?)

I am not seeing familiar territory on your image of the walls hike?

Choral Pepper in her Desert Magazine wrote about finding the walls (on the Gardner expedition of Feb. 1966). She told me about the day in person, back in 2001 when I visited with her on many occasions before her death. She wanted very badly to go back and even tried but forgot where they were at. I also called the surviving members of the Gardner expedition (Ricardo Castillo in Mulegé, J.W. Black, and Bruce Berger [who is in Choral's photos there]) and none remembered exactly where the walls were.

It was important to Choral because in her 1966 Desert article and here 1973 book on the missions, she concluded the ruins must have been the proposed mission project of Santa María Magdalena, as shown as being "started" on the 1757 Jesuit map.

The dam and palm tree and ground level walls are more convincing of Jesuit work than the hillside walls, but the hillside walls are what we notice the most... wondering what was their purpose.

In late 2008, a Baja Nomad (Sharksbaja) contacted me with a Google Earth image of the walls, knowing I have been seeking them for the past 7 years. We couldn't tell from Google if it was the same site as Choral Pepper's, but my wife and I left at the first opportunity (New Years 2009).

Here are the two images from Desert Magazine (July 1966 edition) of the February 1966 discovery:





Now here it is in 2009:



With a enlarged 1966 photo:



Up close to the wall:





Sleeping circles at the top:





The long wall with Bahía las Animas in the distance:



The second, lower wall:



Here is the 1966 sleeping circles photo and my 2009 photo with letters matching the same rocks, 43 years apart:



Amazing how slow cactus grows!

[Edited on 5-21-2016 by David K]

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

I have seen several deer over the years, most recently five or ten miles south of the turnoff to Agua Verde, I came across a very nice buck. It appeared to me to be a mule deer, rather than the black tails I usually see in CA, but I could be wrong.

Yes, the one I saw also appeared more like a mule deer too.

See, that is the problem, some of us have never seen one in Baja, while others such as yourself have seen several.

It would seem there are only so many "sightings" and folks like you are hogging them all to themselves instead of sharing, so come on, SHARE!!

in gerhard and gulick's 'lower california guidebook" they claim there were so many deer everywhere that they were a nuisance to farmers. "if you weren't up to walking they were easily shot from your car".
things were different back in the 50's!

Quote: Originally posted by willardguy

in gerhard and gulick's 'lower california guidebook" they claim there were so many deer everywhere that they were a nuisance to farmers. "if you weren't up to walking they were easily shot from your car". things were different back in the 50's!

Look, I already wish I could have seen Baja back then!

Go ahead, rub it in, sure use some salt too!

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

I was a hunter for years, and we see things a little differently than most 'sight seer's! It is like when an attractive woman walks by, and the woman you are with says something like"Weren't those cute shoes?" Whaaaat, she was wearing shoes?

Interesting you mention that. My daughter mentioned a few weeks backs after I pointed out some animal somewhere that there might be some science behind it.

Evolutionarily males were more of the hunters, so they developed the traits that find animals and other things further out.

While the women were more of the gatherers and small food source person and would pay more attention to the immediate surroundings.

Therefore I will always see more animals and features out on the horizons while she will always find more cool rocks and arrowheads.

Least that is her take on it.

Quote: Originally posted by Fatboy

Quote: Originally posted by willardguy   in gerhard and gulick's 'lower california guidebook" they claim there were so many deer everywhere that they were a nuisance to farmers. "if you weren't up to walking they were easily shot from your car". things were different back in the 50's! Look, I already wish I could have seen Baja back then! Go ahead, rub it in, sure use some salt too!

Have you seen the great YouTube video of Baja in the 1950's by the guys in this book?:

Quote: Originally posted by Fatboy

I added the video link to the dolphins, hopefully it works. It is in the body of the text and here.... https://www.facebook.com/john.smallwood.121/videos/vb.100001... [Edited on 5-22-2016 by Fatboy]

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Quote: Originally posted by Fatboy   Quote: Originally posted by willardguy   in gerhard and gulick's 'lower california guidebook" they claim there were so many deer everywhere that they were a nuisance to farmers. "if you weren't up to walking they were easily shot from your car". things were different back in the 50's! Look, I already wish I could have seen Baja back then! Go ahead, rub it in, sure use some salt too! Have you seen the great YouTube video of Baja in the 1950's by the guys in this book?:

Quote: Originally posted by wilderone

"several old sand dollars. They were pitted and very fragile" Could only have come from Pacific Ocean side. I would bet the early inhabitants brought them.

Seriously? There are no sand dollars in the gulf? I wish I would have known it then, would have changed my whole outlook. I just figured they came from the gulf and didn't really pay attention.

One had a bunch of holes in it and I just thought it was weathering, now....

Deer?

I see some on every trip. And I find racks all over.

This one was stuck in a Cardon. High up (7 feet). Maybe it had moved up with the growth of the Cardon.

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

Deer? I see some on every trip. And I find racks all over. This one was stuck in a Cardon. High up (7 feet). Maybe it had moved up with the growth of the Cardon.

Quote: Originally posted by wilderone

"several old sand dollars. They were pitted and very fragile" Could only have come from Pacific Ocean side. I would bet the early inhabitants brought them.

The gulf is full of sand dollars... ? I see far more sand dollars in the upper gulf than I ever have on the Pacific. Mostly the keyhole/ arrowhead variety, but I have found round ones, too (usually with narrow slits).

Here is a few we picked up on Shell Island (20 miles south of San Felipe) last summer, with other typical Shell Island shells:

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

Deer? I see some on every trip. And I find racks all over. This one was stuck in a Cardon. High up (7 feet). Maybe it had moved up with the growth of the Cardon.

That's pretty funny from a guy that just said this:

"Gears and lockers?
Well, if you don't have that from the start, you picked the wrong truck."
And I thought you had no sense of humor.

Quote: Originally posted by Fatboy

Quote: Originally posted by wilderone   "several old sand dollars. They were pitted and very fragile" Could only have come from Pacific Ocean side. I would bet the early inhabitants brought them. Seriously? There are no sand dollars in the gulf? I wish I would have known it then, would have changed my whole outlook. I just figured they came from the gulf and didn't really pay attention. One had a bunch of holes in it and I just thought it was weathering, now....

Quote: Originally posted by msteve1014

That's pretty funny from a guy that just said this: "Gears and lockers? Well, if you don't have that from the start, you picked the wrong truck." And I thought you had no sense of humor.

Quote: Originally posted by David K

A-TRAC is amazing for traction. Harald and the good German engineers at Bosch are to thank, I hear!?

Quote: Originally posted by msteve1014

The truth is out there, but you need lockers to reach it.