BajaNomad - Bahia Concepcion East Side

Bahia Concepcion East Side

HeyMulegeScott - 4-13-2021 at 05:30 PM

A friend went to the East side of Bahia Concepcion last week. He's not on the forum here but appreciated the info I sent him from Geoff and David K's reports. You can see more of his photos and videos here - https://www.instagram.com/mxdrones/

StuckSucks - 4-13-2021 at 05:31 PM

Sweet, will have to check out his stuff. Fun trip.

motoged - 4-13-2021 at 06:37 PM

It's a great peninsula to explore...great double track all along west side and a rancho or two in the hills along the way. My first of four trips there was by moto....camped along the shoreline and was woken up each morning by a hunting pod of dolphins....interesting to watch them corral the fish.

A drive over to San Sebastion and San Nicolas is a must once there.... but I wouldn't camp at the south end of Concepcion in the old trailer park area....bad juju.

[Edited on 4-14-2021 by motoged]

JZ - 4-13-2021 at 06:43 PM

Sweet foto. Thanks for sharing.

BigBearRider - 4-13-2021 at 10:10 PM

Nice pics!

Why bad juju?

David K - 4-13-2021 at 10:32 PM

It had been a criminal activity location, taking advantage of being so distant from towns and other campos.

chuckie - 4-14-2021 at 04:54 AM

The last four times we went to the eastside our vehicles were broken into and looted. If you go DONT leave your rig unattended even for a short time......

JZ - 4-14-2021 at 06:34 AM

Quote: Originally posted by chuckie

The last four times we went to the eastside our vehicles were broken into and looted. If you go DONT leave your rig unattended even for a short time......

You had your vehicle broken into 4 times in a row?

AKgringo - 4-14-2021 at 07:24 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K

It had been a criminal activity location, taking advantage of being so distant from towns and other campos.

While breaking into cars is certainly criminal activity, I wonder if it is also a territorial thing. Is there someone out there that is trying to punish anyone who dares to enter their space?

Last year there was a squatter on one of the rivers here in Nevada County that used the same tactics.

On a happier note...

David K - 4-14-2021 at 07:42 AM

In 2016 (September), a week after a chubasco hit the region, we attempted to reach the north tip of the Concepción Peninsula, camp at the one sand beach, explore the WWII manganese mine... but the road was cut off with a deep gully about 8 miles short of the goal. It was around midnight when we finally reached that place as the road was badly overgrown (my truck still has the scratches).

We drove back south a few miles where there was a clearing to camp. The next morning, we tried to get to Las Pintadas rock art canyon and were on the right track but others in our caravan saw signs of a road branching off and that took us to Tres Marías canyon with a running stream and abandoned ranch site. It was all very beautiful and fun, just not the canyon I had hoped to see.

Other than a little of the interview with the FJ Cruiser owner (Ham of Space X), this 4-minute video is all over at the Concepción peninsula, shows the road along the bay, going through the overgrown road in the dark, the end of the road for us, and Tres Marías canyon:

Video from Pat Malone, my passenger.

The full-trip video from Ham includes a lot of the Concepción Peninsula and a GPS map showing our traveled route over there:

Here is the 7 minute video from Ham (you will see Shari at Bahía Asunción in it):

https://youtu.be/eM4NlmqPi8U

[Edited on 7-6-2021 by David K]

David K - 4-14-2021 at 07:53 AM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

Quote: Originally posted by David K

It had been a criminal activity location, taking advantage of being so distant from towns and other campos.

There is one rancho over on that side, we passed the rancher in his truck... and a fish camp at the north point (see geoffff's trip report) but they only travel by panga to town. No territory thing on a pretty desolate part of Baja. Erle Stanley Gardner (in 1966) was so intrigued by the lack of any data, he explored it with his large caravan and Capt. Muñoz even landed over there when Gardner's people created a runway. That was about where we camped.

del mar - 4-14-2021 at 07:55 AM

rattlesnakes out there!

David K - 4-14-2021 at 08:11 AM

You bet, scorpions, too! One was in my truck... I think it got in while we were driving through that brush. My passenger had to have his window open, ugh!

Here is from an earlier post:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The new newsletter has just gone out and features an article about our adventure over on the Concepcion peninsula, last month:

https://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajatravel/bahia_co...

One of the photos in the article is from the 1967 book by Erle Stanley Gardner who wrote about their exploring the Concepcion peninsula in 1966...

Not realizing it at the time, but I got a photo from nearly the same spot, only 50 years later!:

Here is our GPS track of the drive up Arroyo los Pintados then crossing over to Arroyo Tres Marias and back out:

That short left fork track was in the correct arroyo for the painted cliff... but we didn't know it at the time, and turned around and ended up going over to the next arroyo... which still was fascinating!

More photos in my Sept. 2016 trip report! http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=84056

bajarich - 4-14-2021 at 10:06 AM

Haven't been out on the Pennisula for many years now. The last time was 2002 after it had been ripped up by a chubasco. At that time we camped near the old air strip and there was a fisherman snorkeling for scallops who told us to not leave our camp unattended. He said there were ladrones in pangas who would steal our stuff. Sorry to hear that it's still going on.

We did make it to the manganese mine on a different trip, it may have been the year before because the road was much more passable.

shari - 4-14-2021 at 03:21 PM

Wow...look at all those whales on the cave painting photo!!!!

mtgoat666 - 4-14-2021 at 07:36 PM

Quote: Originally posted by bajarich

a fisherman snorkeling for scallops who told us to not leave our camp unattended. He said there were ladrones in pangas who would steal our stuff. Sorry to hear that it's still going on.

Need to put pepper-spray booby traps in your trucks. Add a hidden camera too to capture video of reaction to booby traps, might make for viral humor...

motoged - 4-15-2021 at 12:04 AM

Rube Goldberg .... :biggrin:

Allwaters - 4-20-2021 at 06:47 AM

Quote: Originally posted by chuckie

The last four times we went to the eastside our vehicles were broken into and looted. If you go DONT leave your rig unattended even for a short time......

Really? Are we speaking of the east side of Bahia Concepcion? West facing shores? That has always had a very remote feel to me. Every time I have driven back there have never seen one vehicle of anyone at all back there at all for days other than the fish camp near the south end... maybe you are referring the the west side of the bay (east facing shores) where the tourists campers line every available beach? I could see there could be numerous break ins there due to the quantity of
available prey...