LA to Bahia Tortugas/Punta Eugenia Loop: 2/7 - 2/13/26

I just completed a solo trip to Bahia Tortugas and back, and figured I'd start my account on this forum with a writeup. Never enough time, as always. I spent a lot of the trip doing nature photography and looking for wildlife (especially birds) so I was very curious to see how many wildflowers are up down there - Socal has gotten a lot of rain so far this winter but rainfall totals are tough to come by for Mexico.

My general impression is that Hwy 1 is WAY better than when I passed through last April. WAY less potholes, I was generally able to travel faster and had very few close encounters with missing chunks of the road.

Saturday 2/7: Departed LA early and headed straight to Calexico, crossing at Mexicali West. Took about 45 minutes in unexpected traffic to get through, but the customs station where you get the FMM was really quick and easy. I made a few bird stops in the Mexicali valley but for the most part went straight down to San Felipe. Not many flowers on this stretch but a beautiful drive. Tragically, Tacos Adriana (which I've wanted to try on this second visit to San Felipe after passing through briefly in December) was unexpectedly closed, so I'll have to try that again someday.

Sunday 2/8: Woke up early, departed without breakfast and headed south. Right south of town there's a huge bloom of desert lilies, and then huge carpets of pink desert sand verbenas south of Punta Estrella - spent more time than expected taking photos here. I ended up skipping Puertocitos since I didn't want to pay for access just to look around for 10 minutes. I was disappointed to see that you apparently can't get to the shoreline at San Luis Gonzaga without having a hotel, and there was nobody around to ask - fish taco stand was also closed. Lots of lupines blooming here right now. I didn't spend long and continued onto Chapala where I finally had a meal at Nuevo Chapala (very good). Detoured to Santa Rosaliita where I explored around Playa San Andres and Tres Alejnadros for the first time - road out there was totally fine for my Subaru. Honestly, could have probably been done in low clearance if I had to, but there's a steep hill going to TA and high clearance just saved a ton of time in general. Stopped at El Cactus for always amazing fish tacos before heading back to the highway.

My only other time going south of Chapala was last April on a trip to the cape and back, where I blew a tire south of Punta Prieta and then (probably due to the subsequent 2 hour delay) almost got carjacked a bit past El Rosarito when a white SUV blocked the road, two guys with rifles got out and walked up, then realized we were obvious tourists and let us go (so presumably cartel). Since this was now a solo trip needless to say I was a bit apprehensive about this stretch and got through "carjacking gulch" right on my self-imposed deadline of 3:30pm. As I mentioned, way less potholes - the one that got us in April had been totally fixed. After getting out onto the Vizcaino plain I took a right at Villa Jesus and drove out to the coast - road is totally fine for any vehicle out to the west side of Laguna Manuela, but I wouldn't go up onto the headland beyond with 2wd. The desert along this stretch was pretty green, but unfortunately mostly due to invasive annual iceplant, and few flowers.

I ended up running into an unexplained completely stopped line of traffic miles long ~15km south of Villa Jesus, which didn't clear up until 11pm. I later found out this was because they found a burned out car on the side of the road with somebody in it ... not sure if this was an accident or what, but very sad.


Monday 2/9: Woke up late due to getting into town super late after staying at Alma Viajera in Guerrero Negro (great hotel with good breakfast too). Made a few stops at every birder's favorite spots: sewage ponds, which happily in Mexico don't have all the stupid fences and no trespassing signs we have to deal with at literally every WTP in the US. Lots of wildlife at both the GN and Vizcaino junction sewage ponds. Lots of wildflowers on the fog desert plain just east of GN. Heading south, I first went to Bahia Asuncion - lots of flowers heading west on the plain, but seemed much drier heading south into Bahia Asuncion. In the town itself, lots of verbena in bloom along the west side of town. Road is in great shape all the way here from Vizcaino Junction with very few potholes. This was a really cool town and I wish I had more time here.

After spending a little time in BA, I headed north to Bahia Tortugas for the night. Again, the road was really good - very few potholes. There is currently a big lane-spanning pothole about half an hour from Tortugas, but only on the departing leg. Stayed at Hotel Maria Bonita, which was basic but perfectly fine and the attached Bahia sports bar has great food and really nice owners. They also sell canned seafood, including abalone, from the local fishing collective. No wildflowers here - amazing sparse fog desert ecosystem though, Death Valley levels of rain right on the coast.

Tuesday 2/10: Got up at dawn and headed up to Punta Eugenia, which has a paved road all the way to the village. I gather this is a very recent development? Several patches of dense wildflowers on the drive out along the peninsula. Road is still unpaved past Eugenia but in excellent condition, easily driven in any car. Past Eugenia and just past the fish camp at Punta Falsa, the stark landscape was covered in a blanket of bright yellow suncups in bloom which I spent some time photographing. This is really an amazing place! I'd love to return and try to catch a boat to Isla Natividad someday. Cedros looms large here. Saw a gray whale heading south passing between the point and the island.

I returned to town (stopping in a random ditch to photograph flowers on the way back), ate breakfast at the sports bar, then walked a loop around town and headed out. The bluffs northeast of town have a lot of cool shell fossils - very well preserved scallop, oyster, bivalve shells in general. Incredibly dry there with no flowers. The drive back to Vizcaino Junction and then Guerrero Negro was beautiful but thankfully uneventful, with just that one lane-spanning pothole that I was thankfully ready for after seeing it on the way in.

Wednesday 2/11: Stayed in Guerrero Negro, doing an absolutely amazing whale tour in the morning since it happened to be peak season for that. LOADS of flowers in the fog desert plains on the way to the saltworks gate, as well as north of town along the dirt road that crosses into BC state heading to the airport.

Thursday 2/12: Left Guerrero Negro heading north back into the central desert. Again, the road is much better right now than it was a year ago! Generally not a ton of flowers, but it's sporadic - some places clearly got a lot of rain, others got little. I stopped in Catavina for a quick lunch at La Enramada and walked around the arroyo and desert there a bit. I also finally went out to Mission San Fernando Velicata to the north, which is only a few miles off the highway. The road there is narrow and you definitely want high clearance, mostly because its not well maintained and there are shrubs growing in the middle of the road. About 500m before the mission the palo verde was encroaching on the already narrow road, so I pulled over and walked the rest to avoid scratching up my car. All that's left of the mission are two adobe walls but it's a really fascinating place, and the nearby arroyo had tons of flowing water. Also extremely active bird-wise, I'll need to come back. Pretty green but not a lot of flowers on this stretch.

My last stop before finishing up in San Quintin was a quick trip to the river mouth in El Rosario. The desert hills south of the lagoon are GREEN with lots of stuff in bloom. Not a ton of wildlife at the lagoon this day. I ended up staying at the Old Mill hotel, which was very nice and also super quiet at night.

Friday 2/13: Returning to the USA. I left San Quintin early after walking around the bayshore a bit at dawn and basically headed straight to Ensenada. I ended up crossing at the new west Tijuana Sentri lanes right at sunset (5:30pm). This was a mixed bag - back in December this was a <10min crossing and is also infinitely easier to find than the east lanes (and therefore infinitely easier to not accidentally get into the general lines and get stuck for hours, which I have done more times than I've successfully found the sentri lanes). This time, I still didn't have much issue getting into the lanes, although general lane traffic backed up far from the entrance so I had to go through some random TJ backstreets to go around that. Probably 10 minutes from getting to the Zona Rio turn along the border road to getting into the sentri line. Unfortunately, it then took over an hour and a half to actually get into the US because they had only one gate open (and this was pre-DHS shutdown, so I have no idea why). It's still very nice compared to the east sentri when you're coming from the coastal toll road, but I hope they don't keep it at one lane because it will seriously limit its usefulness.

Overall, a great trip and my first time exploring the Vizcaino peninsula.

Bahia Tortugas


Punta Eugenia


Fossil scallop near Bahia Tortugas


[Edited on 2-16-2026 by FlightTerminationSystem]

[Edited on 2-17-2026 by BajaNomad]

Quote: Originally posted by wilderone

That San Fernando mission site was always a great camping spot (actually just past it, a little turnout, cleared and off the road). Years ago, there was never a problem driving right to the "dam" area where the pictographs are. Must be a sign that travelers aren't using those roads as much.

I camped at Mission San Fernando in '74, '75, and by the petroglyphs in 2017 It's an easy day's drive from San Diego County, where I live.

Sounds like we need to let the new Baja travelers know of these historic monuments of the past?!

From north to south, here are the missions (and visitas) one can visit. Most are along or near a highway and others are a fun adventure away: https://vivabaja.com/mission-site-photos/

Quote: Originally posted by FlightTerminationSystem

Thanks for that link David! Amazing to see what the mission looked like even 50 years ago. Another 50 and there won't be much left, I'm fortunate to have gotten to see it. I wasn't quite sure where the petroglyphs were this time and was on a bit of a time crunch, so I'll definitely need to go back next time I'm passing south. Thanks again, great photos and super interesting to read