Neal Johns - 12-9-2006 at 03:05 AM
Dec. 25 Xmas day!
Surrounded by the white sand of the canyon mouth under a palm tree in Baja. Life is good. We hiked up Canyon Alamara a mile to the petroglyphs, water,
palms, and grinding slicks. There is a tinaja (natural bedrock water tank) nearby but it was dry. After the hike, we headed south to Canyon El Mano. I
had never driven up it before and today was the day. No problem getting to the bottom, but then the rocky foothill seemed to take forever to climb.
Finally we came to the "Locked Gate" shown on the AAA Map and ….….. it was an unlocked cable across the road. Clean living, that’s what does it.
Thinking doesn’t count, does it?
Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago, the canyon was used for a SCORE race as evidenced by the painted arrows on the rocks. Other than that, no
one in their right mind would go up it. Did I really say that? A few steep, loose, places made locking differentials nice to have but not absolutely
necessary. That’s easy to say, since we all had them. Ha! The El Mano ranch house is used as a line shack but not lived in. Further on, we came to a
"Y" and thought we had to go right through a very locked gate. Heart failure time turned out to be brain fade time because we determined left was the
correct direction and proceeded with no problems.
At the top, we wandered south through the pine forest until we got to Hwy. 3 west of Heroes de la Independencia. When we got back to the Sea of
Cortez, we camped just after nightfall in the wash a mile or so northwest of the Hwy. 3/5 junction and had Xmas dinner! Roast pork, mashed potatoes,
gravy, cauliflower, almond beans, jello-pineapple salad, flan and apple pie! Life is tough in the wilds of Baja.