BajaNomad

Canyon La Esperanza report

jide - 11-28-2005 at 11:22 AM

After spending thursday and friday relaxing on a beach near Puertecitos, I went exploring canyon la esperanza and los burros(north side of San Pedro Martir) saturday & sunday. My girlfriend Emily, my polish friends Tadjo and Christopher were part of this excursion.
La Esperanza had plenty of water and a couple pools, but the climb over the first gigantic boulder was blocking the progression, since it required ropes which we didn't have. On the small mesa to the north side of the canyon mouth, we found signs of indian occupation (morteros, broken shells+some cut like arrowheads, some pottery and one faded petroglyphs)
Los burros(next one north) was dry, but looked like it has a lot of potential waterfalls when the water is present.
If I remember well, Bajalou had mentioned that he once went exploring one of the northenmost canyon of the range and found palms and running water.
Bajalou, what canyon were you referring to?
We tried to ask Moses at the ranch close by, but he said in the 30 something years he's been around, he has never seen any palms around there.

[Edited on 11-28-2005 by jide]

Jide------

Barry A. - 11-30-2005 at 02:54 PM

were you able to drive to the mouths of these two canyons, or did you have to hike quite a ways?? and if you had to hike, how close were you able to drive to them??

I have always been curious about those northern canyons, but never taken the time to explore----glad you posted here about them.

Neal Johns...

Mike Humfreville - 11-30-2005 at 05:02 PM

Is very familiar with that part of the peninsula.

Neal Johns - 11-30-2005 at 05:14 PM

Good road to Canyon La Esperanza, I think you have to hike to Los Burros, did not go there. There are grinding slicks and mortar holes in the rock pile on your right on the way to Esperanza.

jide - 11-30-2005 at 10:19 PM

Neal,
do you know of any palm canyon in that area?

burro bob - 12-1-2005 at 09:14 AM

Jide
The northern most palms that I have found are in Canyon Cajon, right above the first cascade. None of the other canyons north to Canyon Diablo have any. Further north of that I have no personal experience (from the bottom) but I have never heard anyone say they've found any in that area.
burro bob

Burro Bob------------

Barry A. - 12-1-2005 at 02:17 PM

There are no palms in La Providencia????? That surprises me. I always thought there were, but have not hiked up far enough to confirm. Almost all the major canyons south of el Cajon have palms by the thousands-----Interesting that the bigger canyons further north don't have them!!!

jide - 12-1-2005 at 07:58 PM

Barry, to answer you previous question, the road ends 50yards from esperanza canyon entrance, then, it's a 5-10 mn hike to the water. Canyon los burros requires about a half hour hike from the esperanza parking.
I'd like to check out canyon El Cajon on my next trip.

Burro bob, have you hiked El Carrizo? (in sierra san pedro martir)
when I went with David K 2 years ago, we drove in it but didn't have enough time to hike up , does it have palms too?

[Edited on 12-2-2005 by jide]

Neal Johns - 12-1-2005 at 10:00 PM

Jide, Esperanza is the only canyon I have checked out in that area.

Many of the canyons north of Guadalupe in the San Pedro Martir have palms (saw them washed down) but I didn't know what canyon I was looking at most of the time. :(

Jide-----even tho your not asking me------

Barry A. - 12-1-2005 at 10:01 PM

-----I can tell you that El Carrizo has thousands of palms, but many of them were destroyed many years ago by a humongous flash flood, or two. As you hike up, there is a small off-shoot to the south that in itself has hundreds of palms, including Blue Palms. Carrizo is a rough canyon, and you cannot drive up it, but you can drive fairly close to the mouth on an access road on the south side of the wash. The road takes off from the main Valle Chico road at a small rancho---(Carricitos on the Map).

Then there is El Barrendo (next one south) which also has litterally thousands of palms, not only in the canyon bottom, but all over the sides, on both sides of the canyon----there is a major fault that passes through this country and spring-feeds the palms on both sides of Barrendo-------it is truly beautiful, and the fantastic sandy bottom is ideal for camping-----you can drive right to some of the palms with big tires and 4x4 rigs----sand is granitic, and really soft and deep when dry. When wet, or moist, you could drive a 2 wheel drive veh. right to some of the palms.

jide - 12-1-2005 at 10:27 PM

thanks for the info, Barry. I've been to Berendo and the palm"hills", little water to be found there, but I would love to explore El Carrizo in SPM.
Next time you're thinking to hike one of those palm oasis, let me know, I'm always up for the adventure. I've been talking to Don Jorge about a coast to coast trip thru canyon santa maria sometimes this spring, if you're up for it.

David K - 12-1-2005 at 10:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Barry A.
-----I can tell you that El Carrizo has thousands of palms, but many of them were destroyed many years ago by a humongous flash flood, or two. As you hike up, there is a small off-shoot to the south that in itself has hundreds of palms, including Blue Palms. Carrizo is a rough canyon, and you cannot drive up it, but you can drive fairly close to the mouth on an access road on the south side of the wash. The road takes off from the main Valle Chico road at a small rancho---(Carricitos on the Map).

Then there is El Barrendo (next one south) which also has litterally thousands of palms, not only in the canyon bottom, but all over the sides, on both sides of the canyon----there is a major fault that passes through this country and spring-feeds the palms on both sides of Barrendo-------it is truly beautiful, and the fantastic sandy bottom is ideal for camping-----you can drive right to some of the palms with big tires and 4x4 rigs----sand is granitic, and really soft and deep when dry. When wet, or moist, you could drive a 2 wheel drive veh. right to some of the palms.


Barry (and others), have a hook at: http://vivabaja.com/404 and you will see Jide and I with some nice pics of Parral, Berrendo, Agua Caliente, and El Cajon canyons. We also went to the 'end' of the road for Carrizo (barbed wire fence)... and hiked a half mile up it to one pewney palm. We wanted to get into Agua Caliente canyon to make camp before dark, so we didn't explore any further up Carrizo that day.

Here's a map (below) with the roads we used (and some others I have driven on before)... The road to Carrizo indeed goes west from just past 'Carricitos' (a corral and abandoned ranch).

Great country... That giant boulder in Berrendo is absolutely wild... I couldn't fit all of it in one photo... Jide is standing next to it for size comparrison... do you see him?! BAJA IS AWESOME!!


TMW - 12-2-2005 at 07:58 AM

David on your map is the place at the top where the east valley road meets the line pointed to San Felipe Morelia jct?

Barry A. - 12-2-2005 at 08:44 AM

TW----the place in the picture is near the end of the road up el Berrendo canyon------you cannot drive any further due to a barb wire drift fence with no gate in it (that we could find)-----el Berrendo canyon is near the bottom of David's map.

Barry A. - 12-2-2005 at 08:51 AM

TW----the intersection of the road to San Felipe to the east, and the road south to Morelia is a major intersection------the road south is a wide graded road------but I don't know if it is called "Morelia Junction", or not. I have always thought that "Morelia junction" was right at Morelia, just east of Algodon. (not sure what you are asking)

David K - 12-2-2005 at 09:01 AM

TW, perhaps ... but the name 'Morelia Jcn.' has been applied to various points over the years by SCORE.

The jcn. at the top of the east valley road is the very predominent wye in the road.. If you were coming out from San Felipe, the graded road turns and becomes the 'east valley' graded road there. It is shown in the AAA map, only they incorrectly have part of the road back towards SF from that jcn. shown as a poor road... and it has always been a fast graded road. The part from that jcn. to the dry lake is the really poor section... all chewed up from racers, etc.

Barry, there was no barbed wire fence across Berrendo when we went there. You cannot drive to that giant boulder pond area in the photo... About a half mile short, rocks stop autos in the canyon (where the blue palms are so magnificently growing out of the rocks all over the canyon walls)... Fantastic... It was a cloudy day and my cheap camera didn't capture the sceen well. Here's where we began to hike... Jide and I were with Bajalou and his friends...

David------

Barry A. - 12-2-2005 at 11:21 AM

On the drift-fence in Berrendo:------------that is very interesting-----the fence must have washed out???? It was a very well made barb-wire fence that stretched across the wide wash at right angles, right where you first come to the Palms up on either side of the canyon, and about a 1/2 mile down wash from where the rocks prevent you from driving any further up-canyon. There was also a very well made corral up on a bench to the left, right at the fence, maybe 20 feet above the wash-bottom. There are some huge rocks on the left right there where the fence was, and I mistakely thought that was where you took your picture. Sorry about that.

burro bob - 12-2-2005 at 11:32 AM

Jide
When you and David hiked into Cajon last time you passed the palms there. They are just past the first cascade. The trail moves up onto a bench there to bypass the rock face of the cascade. You either have to scramble up the rock face of backtrack back down the stream once the trail takes you back to it.
Plan on spending at least a whole day in Canyon Cajon. I believe it is the longest canyon with the biggest watershed of all the canyons in the eastern escarpment. If you want to go to the very end of the canyon plan on an overnight hike.
No I have never hiked into Canyon Carrizo.
TW
Mostly when people are refering to Morelia Junction they are talking about that first intersection. I usually call the road east of that point Saltito road or Zoo road. The road that goes south at the "Y" I call east valley road. However as Barry A stated sometimes people are talking about the intersection just before Morelia. This is probably done on purpose just to confuse the gringos.
A couple of my friends keep telling me they have cattle in la pigeonera ( pigeon coop?) south of me. I still haven't figured out which canyon they are talking about, Barroso, Novillo, or El Rubi.
Barry A
No palms in Canyon Providencia that I know of. There won't be any up canyon.
Hard to say why there are not any palms in this section. Posibilities include, too cold and/or not enough sunlight. The canyons around Cerro de la Encantada are all very steep and rocky. South of Cajon things start to mellow out a little bit. When David and Jide checked out the Canyons North of Parral they commented about how big of a change there was when they got to Cajon.
Neal
Is there a Canyon Guadalupe in the Sierra San Pedro Martir?
I am only familiar with the one in the Sierra Juarez.
burro bob

Neal Johns - 12-2-2005 at 06:09 PM

Burro Bob,
Ha, screwed up again - I was thinking the Sierra San Pedro Martir was the range alongside the Laguna Salada! Old guys get that way. So, NO.

Don't tell anyone else on the board about my condition. :rolleyes:

jide - 12-3-2005 at 05:44 PM

Hey Burro bob,
In canyon El cajon(at the rancho where we met you), I only remember hiking up to a small concrete dam, and the only palm tree we saw above the water fall, was a date palm, nothing like the washington palm or mexican blue palm you see in other canyons.