BajaNomad - HY 5 south to Hy 1

HY 5 south to Hy 1

baja Steve - 11-15-2019 at 08:54 AM

Yesterday left El Centro Ca. and made it to San Ignacio in one day very easy. Roads are getting better and no Traffic to speak of.

brucedog - 11-15-2019 at 09:27 AM

To add to this, we crossed at Tecate Monday morning in our very loaded Sprinter with one dog and motorcycle on the back. Customs wanted to see paperwork for the bike and they looked inside but were more interested in petting the dog than doing their job.

We had never taken the toll road from Tecate to Mexicali and it was fabulous...two lanes with divided highway! As mentioned previously, there are numerous detours on highway 5 north of Gonzaga but they are all very well marked. A friend who traveled behind us counted 22 detours. We camped at Papa Fernandez for 100 Pesos and had the place almost to ourselves which was a real treat.

South of Gonzaga was easy and we measured the length of unpaved road was about 2.5 miles...WOOOHOOO! Total time from Papa Fernandez to Highway 1 was about an hour. We made it to Loreto that night and never dodged a single pothole....first time ever.

The rest of the trip to La Ventana was uneventful and free of potholes except for the last 20 miles south of La Paz. There are no detours north of La Paz and the road is in fantastic shape.

We were waved through every checkpoint with a nice smile.

South of Constitucion the desert is alive and very green! There were so many butterflies...I've never seen it like that, such a treat and glad I wasn't there for the storms that made this happen.

David K - 11-15-2019 at 10:39 AM

Thanks for the updated report!

David K - 1-16-2020 at 01:52 PM

Just spoke with a Nomad who just returned for Loreto and used Hwy. 5.
All but about one mile is now paved (south of Gonzaga), no more detour to the old road at the mountain cut, and most of the bridges south of Puertecitos are repaired. Only 4 of the 9 are still detoured. The new highway work north of Puertecitos is nearly done, too.

I have doctored my 2018 map to show the paving done, as it soon will be:

[Edited on 1-16-2020 by David K]

bajafreaks - 1-17-2020 at 07:21 AM

We just did the same drive south on 5 from Mexicali what I noticed the most besides a really nice road was past San Felipe there was simply no traffic I wouldnt see a car/truck for 10 min. at a time. 70 mph no problem and yes green everywhere. Once you hit 1 things change.

DIWR17 - 1-17-2020 at 09:34 AM

How was 1 going into Guerrero Negro?

bajafreaks - 1-17-2020 at 02:54 PM

Quote: Originally posted by DIWR17

How was 1 going into Guerrero Negro?

Not bad at all.

watizname - 1-19-2020 at 08:58 AM

Butterflies------Once, upon returning to the states after enjoying a spectacularly beautiful green desert with tons and tons of beautiful butterflies, my truck started running a little warm. Turns out, the radiator had become almost completely clogged with butterflies. A quick trip to the carwash, the selfclean kind with the wand, and it was running cool as a cucumber again. :cool:

Bob and Susan - 1-19-2020 at 09:26 AM

sometimes LOTS of grasshoppers at Mexicali and just north of the border...I mean swarms

queseyo - 1-19-2020 at 09:59 AM

Just to add, we went through Wed and that last unfinished mile is close to final grade with some oil going down. Won't be long now....
But....at least one of the bypasses can be difficult to negotiate if you're towing as this guy found out.
And it was a beautiful drive, and the road never better.... maybe.

Read on facebook

PaulW - 1-24-2020 at 04:42 PM

Pretty recent with a good bit of detail
Not me - Author unknown
== = ==
Adding my road report to the already lots of talk about Mex 5...we are in a 32’ motorhome towing a car and made it through no problem. All of the 5 is easily doable, we drove the narrower sections at about 60 km/h, the good parts at 80 km/h and the detours at 10-15 km/h. Once we reached MEX 1 we found the narrow roads with no shoulder a little tougher especially when oncoming trucks and busses pass but they are not frequent. Highways are not busy, the 5 much less busy than the 1.
15 Jan: crossed at Mexicali East and drove to San Felipe, normal driving conditions, no problems.
18 Jan: San Felipe to Puertocitos. 1.5 hrs. Rough pavement leaving town but gets better quickly. Two bridge detours between km 60 to 66, each about 1 km long, runs parallel to the road, hard pack gravel with washboard.
19 Jan: Puertecitos to Bahia de Los Angeles. 4.5 hrs with rest stops. Between km 98 to km 110, 4 bridge detours, all short, hard pack gravel with washboard. At km 120 part of northbound lane is gone, southbound lane is used for both directions. All well marked.
Around km 170 is where the newly opened paved section begins. There is a sign still directing you to the detour but the road is OPEN and we did not take the detour. They are still working on this road so you will pass by workers and equipment. Parts of the road are complete with lines, some no lines. After the signed left turn to Coco’s there is about 2-4 km gravel section, good hard packed, no washboard, where they were actively working. Then back to pavement before the junction with MEX 1. 2.5 hrs to get from Puertocitos to MEX 1. IMO the section of MEX 1 was much worse than the construction detours in the 5.

PaulW - 2-2-2020 at 04:10 PM

H5 on 2/1
San Felipe to ~k61 new paving some with stripes. All the dips - vados remain as before.
~k61 – k62 new bridge, K65- k66 new bridge, K70 – k71 new bridge. Matomi turn not affected.
Mostly dirt from ~k61 - k71 – not measured. In the dark the dirt exits are hard to see but slowing down works. Good dirt road bypasses.
No unpaved sections south of the Coco turn all the way to Hwy 1. Some areas are signed and striped. Other areas are newly paved. Did not drive H5 from Km180 to Gonzaga. We were in the dirt to the east for that section.
The new H5 has very few km markers, just south of the Coco turn is signed k180. Big Coco sign.
Approximately 100-200 feet north of Hwy 1 is the Km 201 sign for the new Hwy 5.

David K - 2-2-2020 at 05:37 PM

Is this Coco turnoff the south one, in or by the canyon, or the north one by Las Arrastras? I will guess the north one.

Another Nomad reported the old road fork/ north Coco's road at Km. 179 & La Turquesa Canyon road at Km. 176.

All these seem to be too high unless they reverted the kilometer signs to being 3 kms higher than they were adjusted to in 2018...??

Did you note the one by the Pemex or the one 20 kms south were the pavement ended 2014-2017? It was Km. 167 but for one year, it was Km. 170! Measuring the highway from there to the old road fork/ Coco's north road on satellite images, you get 8 kms.

David K - 2-3-2020 at 09:14 AM

Quote: Originally posted by PaulW

H5 on 2/1
San Felipe to ~k61 new paving some with stripes. All the dips - vados remain as before.
~k61 – k62 new bridge, K65- k66 new bridge, K70 – k71 new bridge. Matomi turn not affected.
Mostly dirt from ~k61 - k71 – not measured. In the dark the dirt exits are hard to see but slowing down works. Good dirt road bypasses.
No unpaved sections south of the Coco turn all the way to Hwy 1. Some areas are signed and striped. Other areas are newly paved. Did not drive H5 from Km180 to Gonzaga. We were in the dirt to the east for that section.
The new H5 has very few km markers, just south of the Coco turn is signed k180. Big Coco sign.
Approximately 100-200 feet north of Hwy 1 is the Km 201 sign for the new Hwy 5.

Funny how the kilometer markers are changed...
Here is the one at the end of Hwy. 5 in August of 2018 (a hundred feet from Hwy. 1)...

The canyon cut was not yet open so they didn't measure on the road itself. I estimated it would go down 2-3 kilometers once it was remeasured! Instead, it went up by one! Ha!! Please (anyone) note the kilometer markers from Gonzaga Bay Pemex (was Km. 147 in 2018, and 150 the year before!) to Hwy. 1.

The former end of pavement was just south of Km. 167 (it was 170 before). Is it still? Paul puts the north Coco's road at Km. 179.5 per his KML file. Is there an access to the south Coco's road, in the canyon?

Thank you!

[Edited on 2-3-2020 by David K]

New H5 to Old H5 N end

PaulW - 2-3-2020 at 10:17 AM

Correct - I just measured the turn for New H5 to Old H5 as km 179.53.
The pic below shows the kml image we are discussing.

Here is an image of the north exit New H5 to Old H5. We were driving northbound when the track was created.

Coco.jpg[/img][/url]

The south exit from New H5 to Old H5 was not marked and no Km markers nearby where the two tracks come together.

Unfortunately did not think quick so I did not get the coords of Km201.

Along H1 I see the old and the new KM markers. The new ones have the hwy on top like your picture.

David K - 2-3-2020 at 10:45 AM

Every 5 kms. has the highway #, and the rest just the km. number.
My new roadguide uses kilometer markers to locate points of interest or side roads, as it is not yet printed, I can get it as up to date as possible with Nomad assistance, in case I cannot get back down before then.
THANK YOU!

Bajazly - 2-3-2020 at 01:12 PM

Update on Mexicali West crossing. I crossed on 2/2 and the new road is open as you exit the gates. It goes left and straight onto Calz. De Los Presidentes which is the parallel road to 5 and is much better to follow to the intersection to 5 traffic wise.

You could follow the left turn on Lazaro Card##as over to 5 but avoid the first right turn you will see on Calz. De Los Presidentes to San Felipe, don't know why that is there but I got sucked in once and it is runs you off into no mans land Mexicali.

Motofshr - 2-4-2020 at 10:23 PM

Bajazly,
Many thanks for posting this update, We plan to cross around the 14th..pulling trailers...looking forward to seeing the sites on MEX 5.

Rossman - 2-5-2020 at 09:29 PM

Drove from Asuncion to Palm Springs today. The infamous 23 miles from Chapala turnoff is now completely paved. Almost looks like they completed it yesterday. No striping on the recently paved mile in the middle and still working on the shoulders but completely paved.

David K - 2-6-2020 at 08:37 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Rossman

Drove from Asuncion to Palm Springs today. The infamous 23 miles from Chapala turnoff is now completely paved. Almost looks like they completed it yesterday. No striping on the recently paved mile in the middle and still working on the shoulders but completely paved.

Thanks for the report.

This Puertecitos to Hwy.1 project began in 2007 and may have been the slowest highway to be completed! 125 kms (76 miles) in 12 years. Compare that to the 300 miles of Highway 1 built in one year, 1973.

I believe there are still a few bridge detours south of Puertecitos from the October 2018 flash flood destruction and some new roadbed construction north of Puertecitos?

PaulW - 2-6-2020 at 09:11 AM

Longest detour is north of Puertecitos where several new bridges are under construction.
South of Puertecitos not so much.

Alan - 2-12-2020 at 03:03 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Rossman

I just came through S/B on Feb 6. Road is paved all the way to Mx1. Just a few detours for bridge construction/repair between Puertocitos and Gonzaga.

I think there were 5 checkpoints to La Paz. As usual because I was southbound got waved through at every one except San Ignacio. They spent about 10 minutes digging though things before sending me on.

RFClark - 2-17-2020 at 10:33 PM

Hi All!

We took the mini-4X4 for a spin today from KM 46 to Km 200 on HWY5. The damn thing’s finally paved all the way!

There are still 2 construction detours north of Puertecitos and 2 more south. There are 2 more mini drive arounds where they’re working on bridges south of Puertecitos but the rest is finally paved.

Both gas stations were open and had gas (regular only)!

South of Gonzaga there are a bunch of wrong mileage signs as well. There are 2 turnoffs for Coco’s Corner, both well marked.

Chapela has water in it! They’re working on HWY1 both North and South of where HWY5 joins and building a bypass north to redo some of HWY1

Looks like there’s going to be a restaurant opening soon there as well!

It took us 1hr 50 min to drive the 155KM at 70-80 KMPH

Lots of wild flowers & 1st time Visitors too!

David K - 2-18-2020 at 09:29 AM

Hi RF, can you elaborate on this:
"South of Gonzaga there are a bunch of wrong mileage signs as well."

Do you have kilometer markers for these?:
"There are 2 turnoffs for Coco’s Corner, both well marked."

Paul W gave us a pretty exact marker for the north Coco's (old road) junction. It was at KM. 179.5.

Now, when I measured the distance on a satellite image with the new road construction shown (ArcGIS, not Google Earth). I come up with it being closer to Km. 175.5. So, I am curious about what you meant.

RFClark - 3-1-2020 at 03:53 PM

Sorry,

Didn’t see this until today.

Since we go that way frequently I don’t pay much attention to the KM signs which are sketchy at best.

The bad KM signs are 2 or 3 duplicates. I think that they all said 34 or 44 KM to the 1/5 junction but the remaining distance was only about 20KM.

The 2 Coco’s Corners signs are within a couple of KMs of each other. They are off the new road to the left prior to that last old detour that went left around the base of the mountain (all this is S.B.)

Sorry I can’t be more specific we were out for a Sunday drive!

redhilltown - 3-20-2020 at 12:52 PM

Drove it the other day...down towards BOLA and back. It's done. All the way from San Felipe to Chapala (two small bridges still being worked on) is paved. Never thought I'd see the day but that day is here.

Howard - 3-20-2020 at 01:00 PM

Were there pot holes yet?

redhilltown - 3-21-2020 at 09:28 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Howard

Were there pot holes yet?

Yes, right in front of the new Starbucks at Five Islands!

freediverbrian - 3-21-2020 at 09:54 AM

I was told by some of my neighbors that Papa's cantina and camping is closed for the next month due to the Corona virus.

LaTijereta - 4-4-2020 at 07:30 AM

So.. there is now a quarantine checkpoint north of SF, stopping all tourist traffic heading towards SF... where is the roadblock “south” of SF (if there is one) for traffic coming from the south?

Bajazly - 4-4-2020 at 07:59 AM

I'm guessing the quarantine checkpoint north of SF is the military checkpoint, true or is it elsewhere?