1947 AAA Baja Roadtrip report

Fellow baja lover shared this article with me, she said she found it while shuffling through her fathers old papers. Pretty awesome!

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=046798477976050...

Thank you very much defrag4. History only happens once and when you can save it and share it with others, well, it is all that more enjoyable.

Here is a 1941 road map and log with the heavy black line being the main road (not a paved road):











Before 1971, the main road went through Comondú, not Loreto... which was on a dead end road then. Note the many places the word "Unexplored" appears. Here is a close up of a part of the map:

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

David, do you have a scan with better resolution?

That Comondu was simply a zoom in from the upper ones... Here are a few more zoom ins:

Colorado Delta:



Pole Line Rd area:



Valle de Trinidad area:



San Quintín area:



San Felipe South:



El Rosario South:



El Mármol area:



Mission Santa María & Calamajué area:





San Borja area:



Seven Sisters:



Vizcaíno Desert:




Bahía Asunción area:



Santa Rosalía area:



Concepción Bay area:



Comondú area:



Los Cabos:

Wow. That is cool.
Can you imagine...
I would love to know who was flying in Baja then and what kind of planes.
Wow!

It was just a well-worn pair of ruts. If you ever did come upon another vehicle, one would need to pull fully off the road so the other could get by... Hwy. 1, before 1973!

Here are a pair of photos from an old Auto Club book showing Highway 1, 1964 edition.

Here is 'Highway 1', 21 miles south of El Rosario, as it was shown in the 1970 book 'Baja' by Doug Richmond.

The arroyo near (today's) Cataviña, also from Doug's 1970 book:



Cataviña was an abandoned site in the 1960s and early 70s. Rancho San Luis and Santa Ynez were the hot spots nearby. The modern Cataviña was born with the highway constructed through here in the Summer of 1973 as a site for one of the Paradors (rest stops) and El Presidente Hotels... plus an RV camping park, cafeteria, showers, gas station.

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

still trying to make sense of the 1930's road around Rancho Canipolé the remnants on the ground show different than the maps I know the scale is not that accurate, but some vitals are missing

The 1962 maps by Howard Gulick are very accurate and the roads are probably the same as shown on the 1941 map (not as accurate). Canipolé was indeed on the main road to La Paz and the side road to Loreto branched there:




[Edited on 3-21-2019 by David K]

Gulick's map shows the new Old Road
AAA shows the old Old Road

I took the liberty and put the 1930's road into Gulick's map
main point is that the 1930's road does not hit Rancho Canipolé from the north
for the last 3 miles it is coming from the southwest

that 1930's road is one of the coolest in Baja - a little rough for 4x4 (I have done most of it) - easy for bikes

I am proposing that the AAA map was wrong when it comes to Canipolé
correction below - Canipolé needs to be moved to the new intersection
and of course there is no Conbedor Cr.

here is today's layout

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

Gulick's map shows the new Old Road AAA shows the old Old Road I took the liberty and put the 1930's road into Gulick's map main point is that the 1930's road does not hit Rancho Canipolé from the north for the last 3 miles it is coming from the southwest that 1930's road is one of the coolest in Baja - a little rough for 4x4 (I have done most of it) - easy for bikes

tell me more about this 1930 road?

The 1941 map is not accurate as drawn (and you nicely added to the 1962 map). It was actually a "new" route made as a short cut. in the early 1960s, after the 1962 edition of the Lower California Guidebook. They mention it in the revised 1967 guidebook. My parents and I took it in 1966, as well.

See the bottom (Page 152) entry from this 1967 edition of the guidebook: