surfer jim
Super Nomad
Posts: 1891
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: high desert
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The old road....
Was wondering how /where the old road went through the boulder fields near Catavina...looks like a hard area to cross ....
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Here is a post on the subject, Jim...
Where is that old Baja road, you ask?
I am refering to the pre-December, 1973 Baja main road. Everything changed after December 1973 as far as Baja travel and number of visitors.
I was just a kid when my folks and I drove to the tip in 1966 in our Jeep Wagoneer. But, I was already infected with Baja Fever and my favorite book
was Gerhard & Guilick's LOWER CALIFORNIA GUIDEBOOK (The Baja Bible). We went to Gonzaga the year before and to L.A. Bay the following year. The next
trip down Baja (to Loreto) was in July, 1973. The highway was under construction and I took many notes and milages as to its location compared with
the old road. That July, pavement ended near Mision San Fernando (near El Progreso) and didn't start again until near Punta Prieta (in sections) with
solid pavement starting about Villa Jesus Maria. We were on the old road from Agua Dulce (10 miles beyond San Agustin) to almost Laguna Chapala.
The old road locator:
Just past where the highway crosses Arroyo El Rosario is where the old road left the valley using a side canyon, that the new road stays above, just
west.
The old road crosses the new and parallels it to the south, Rancho Aguajito and the turquoise mines are along it.
El Progreso was moved north a half mile to the highway from the old road.
The road left to Rancho Penjamo is along the old road, as is Aguila and Guayaquil.
The abandoned Pemex and trailer park 'San Agustin' is a half mile south of the original San Agustin, on the old road, as is Cafe Sonora a couple miles
ahead.
Agua Dulce is off the old road, a couple miles to the left of Km. 157. The old road stays about 1-2 miles east/left of the highway in the La Virgen
boulder area. The old road rejoins the highway just before the palapa by the rock art cave, 2 miles before Catavina.
The highway is next to the old road past San Martin and over to the first little dry lake. At the Pedregroso boulder mountain, the old road went
around the west side, whereas the new highway goes around the east side.
At the first sight of the Laguna Chapala valley, the old road continued straight towards the old ranch site, along a little hill just north of the dry
lake bed. This section before the ranch was perhaps the worst in all of the Baja road... deep, fine powder Baja dust that would cover your vehicle
completely. You would drive blind after fixing onto the trees by Rancho Chapala and hoping for the best! Then, after the ranch, you got to open it up
and drive 60 mph on the dry lake to blow a lot of that dust off. That best of the old road only lasted a couple miles, however. That Chapala dust
would stay with the Jeep for many car washes over the following years!
The new highway stays to the right of the dust field, along the hill, and to the right (west) of the dry lake. Rancho Chapala moved to the highway and
was renamed Nuevo Chapala. The new Chapala to Puerto Calamajue, then on to Gonzaga and San Felipe road was built from from about 1982-87. Coco started
his corner after that first section was built.
Both old and new roads come together where you leave the Chapala valley and see that beautiful view of the desert and mountains to the south.
Beyond El Crucero (where the road turns from southeast to south at the base of a hill) both roads are together. In a few miles the old road goes off
to the right (west) of the new and parallels it to Punta Prieta.
At Rosarito, the new highway swings west down the arroyo a couple miles then turns south to Guerrero Negro. The old main road went straight south from
Rosarito and eventually went to the center of the peninsula at El Arco. Some truckers running supplies to the new town of Guerrero Negro went along
the 'coast route', then took desert trails on to San Ignacio. The new highway does the same, passing near Guerrero Negro then swinging to the
southeast for San Ignacio. The old road coming south from El Arco joins the new near Vizcaino (a new town since the highway was built).
Vizcaino to San Ignacio finds both routes near each other. San Ignacio to Mulege, the same.
Along Bahia Concepcion, the old road can be seen in the cliff, right above the water in many places. This was built and maintained by the prisioners
of the old territorial prison in Mulege (closed after the highway was built ending the isolation).
Just south of Bahia Concepcion, the old main road went inland via Comondu where today's highway goes south through Loreto. Both rejoin at Insurgentes.
Travelers to Loreto could get to La Paz by driving to San Javier and then on to Santo Domingo on the main road. The road south of Loreto ended at
Ligui.
Pavement in '66 began about 100 miles north of La Paz and ended again, about 10 miles south of La Paz. They were building the new road and we drove on
it (unpaved) until past San Bartolo. It was just a two track jeep trail from there to Cabo San Lucas! The new highway stays to the east of Santiago
and Miraflores, where the old road naturally went right through these pretty villages...
I hope some of you find this a bit interesting... thank you for allowing me to share from my childhood memories and later observations!
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Jim, here is a map of the area that shows the relation between Highway One and the old trans-peninsular main road. The best place to access it for the
section through boulder land ('Flintstone Country') is the road to Agua Dulce (the southern one) then after visitig the historic spring on the Camino
Real, take the old road to where it joins Hwy. 1 just north of the palapa where you park to see the cave art (the first arroyo crossing, north of
Catavina). I have GPS for many of the points on the map.
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