BajaNomad

La Purisima area-worth a trip there when traveling north?

bajamary1952 - 12-19-2018 at 11:52 AM

I'm heading back north from Cabo in January. Is it worth a detour to visit La Purisima as I head towards Loreto? I'm in Rav4 FWD (solo with a dog) so need decent roads. Camping spots or other interesting places. Not interested in missions or fishing; more outdoors & nature. Thanks!

David K - 12-19-2018 at 12:19 PM

La Purísima is beautiful, there are campgrounds and a little motel. The road is paved to there and a couple miles past (San Isidro).

However, the road from San Isidro east to Hwy. 1 was pretty bad last year and very rocky/ slow (in a Tacoma 4x4).

The graded dirt road to Comondú was mostly very good and from Comondú back to Hwy. 53 is paved.

In both cases, you will need to go back south to Insurgentes to get back onto Hwy. 1.

One option may be to take the paved road on to San Juanico and then the graded road on to Laguna San Ignacio where a paved road soon begins to get you to San Ignacio. The graded road was repaired and excellent per Desert Bull following my trip where I took the Salinas road vis El Datil (it was the preferred route then).

Maps from south to north to help visualize the routes:





Mulege Canuck - 12-19-2018 at 06:00 PM

We go there every year. There is a good spot to camp next to the rio off the gravel road just past the town heading east. You know are there when you see the aqua duct right next to the road adjacent to a cliff.

They have a built trail system that goes all around the rio and town. They have cleared paths through the dessert and marked them with painted white rocks. We saw some fresh water turtles there last year. About 2ft in size.

Had some beers with the chief of police (Jesus) at our campsite. Interesting guy. Told us of a vampire that use to live there. I think they call him the “Blackman”. Kind of a local legend. Bring him some Tecate and I bet he will show you his tomb 😎

Bajaboy - 12-19-2018 at 06:05 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Mulege Canuck  
We go there every year. There is a good spot to camp next to the rio off the gravel road just past the town heading east. You know are there when you see the aqua duct right next to the road adjacent to a cliff.

They have a built trail system that goes all around the rio and town. They have cleared paths through the dessert and marked them with painted white rocks. We saw some fresh water turtles there last year. About 2ft in size.

Had some beers with the chief of police (Jesus) at our campsite. Interesting guy. Told us of a vampire that use to live there. I think they call him the “Blackman”. Kind of a local legend. Bring him some Tecate and I bet he will show you his tomb 😎


Any ideas which road is better out of San Ignacio? Chance we'll be there day after Christmas.

Mulege Canuck - 12-19-2018 at 06:41 PM

Last year we did the salt flat road after seeing the whales. Through to San Juanico. It was great. The road from Mex1 to La Purísima seems to be always crappy but I do it because I prefer it to the long way around on the highway.

If you do the salt flat route, do your homework on google earth. Lots of junctions. One year we took the sand route a bit further west. I was surfing my truck and camper for sure, I was very lucky not to get stuck.

Cancamo - 12-19-2018 at 06:51 PM

Took the high road,(La Cuarenta), in June, awesome baja scenery,multiple ecosystems, great camping, saw nobody. Llantera in San Juanico said coast road was impassable at high tide.

La Purisima, "vale la pena". Old Baja up that way, refreshing.

advrider - 12-19-2018 at 07:01 PM

As others have said it is worth the drive, cool place that I hope to camp in one day. The drive up to SI would be fun with good camping a long the way. See Davidk's map.

motoged - 12-20-2018 at 08:06 PM

The San Isidro and Comondu areas are parts of Baja the serious Baja appreciator should see....some old time Baja, and good folks....

See it before it "catches up" :light: