David K
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Missions, Boojums, Finding Petroglyphs and more Nov. '05! (Part 1)
Baja is just incredible... I have been going there 40 of my 48 years and the place keeps surprising me with new excitement!
After a great Thanksgiving, Baja Angel and I headed south for a weekend of fun around El Rosario... I thought we might try and do the road up into the
high country we missed doing last trip... It was a road used for the 2000 SCORE Baja 2000 race and a couple of earlier Baja races as a way to get from
the San Quintin area to south of El Rosario, without using paved Hwy. 1.
On our way south, decided to see the first site of Mision Santo Tomas, located 3.9 miles west of Hwy. 1, just south of the graded road to Puerto Santo
Tomas...
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David K
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As you can see, almost nothing remains...
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David K
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In the background is a covered activity room, and beyond a beautiful park for camping or picnicing...
GPS (NAD27) at the mission ruin is 31?34.178', 116?28.795' this was a bit different then what one of my mission books gave.
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David K
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A shot of the entrance to the camping area... nobody was there!
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David K
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We returned to Hwy. 1 and pulled off the pavement to walk the short distance to the final location of Mision Santo Tomas... located to the east of the
highway, just north of the El Palomar campground... note tall palms, seen from Mex. 1.
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David K
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GPS (NAD27) at this location is 31?33.497', 116?24.770'
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David K
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It is very sad that nothing more was done to preserve these adobe walls...
Here's the same site in 1926:
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David K
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While we are on the subject of missions, here's a photo I took yesterday of the first site of El Rosario's mission:
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David K
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Here is the second site for El Rosario, located nearer the river and closer to the ocean along the Punta Baja road... The mission at El Rosario was
moved because the spring dried up at the first site after some 26 years.
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David K
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DAY TRIP SATURDAY!
Here is a doctored map that shows the roads we took for our Saturday expedition.
The map is from 1962 and I have added new roads and pavement (solid black line) that didn't exist when Howard Gulick drew this map...
We started in El Rosario, went southbound on Mex. 1, after a great breakfast at Ed Lusck's 'Baja's Best Bed & Breakfast' (Starbucks logo painted
on building) with The Squarecircle and his friends Richard and Jeri, who were going to Punta Blanca.
Before 'El Arenoso', we left Mex. 1 at the Los Martires restaurant (Km. 103+), 28.5 mi. from Baja Cactus Pemex/El Rosario and headed towards Sauzalito
(see map). I asked the restaurant their name, and it is the same as the ranch to the northwest that is on the map... Los Martires.
Note the new, drawn-in road going north past Rancho Los Martires, San Antonio and then the left fork we took over the mountain to the old El Socorro,
El Cipres, Rosarito, El Suerte road... which we took back down the mountain to El Socorro (4WD stuff!).
Go to Part 2 of this trip report for great boojum and other cacti pics... and more!
[Edited on 11-28-2005 by David K]
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David K
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Continued in Part 2 at http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=14277
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