30 +/- years ago

First trip to observatory, October, 1972

I loved my dad for bringing me to Baja just to see where the dirt road goes! No surf fishing up here at 8,000'.



Diablo mountain is next to my head... I am 15 years old here.

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

July, 1973... Baja Highway under construction at Laguna Chapala... My dad's Ford LTD wagon plows through the Chapala dust at the detour route at the base of the new road bed (where I am standing to take the photo).

On the new Baja Highway in the Chapala Valley!

I am congratulating my dad for making it through the Chapala dust! I am wearing a Dick Cepek 'Baja Proven' tee shirt, with art work by Dave Deal (who I will meet 30 years later!)...

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

GREAT PHOTOS, DAVID-----

Fun stuff!!!! Look at that hair-----------and waist line---------

Mom at the view point... We wouldn't reach any pavement until Punta Prieta, and then it was in sections, with miles awaiting asphalt until about Villa Jesus Maria... then solid pavement the rest of the way. There was no new roadbed between Agua Dulce and Laguna Chapala that trip, so we drove on the old Baja main road for many miles, in the Country Squire station wagon! That was when FORD was built tough! Well, at least my mom and dad was!

This is El Portezuelo on the '62 map, below...

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

Ramon always could find the dorado! Mom caught a beauty!



Ramon Villalejo and his dad, at Juncalito near Puerto Escondido... A shark fisherman we hired to take us sport fishing.

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

Sunrise at Juncalito made a beautiful rainbow...

David-----

----it is good to see you finally giving FORDs their due.

Easter Vacation, 1974 was my first trip without parents... I was 16 and this was my dune buggy on the Gonzaga Grades south of Puertecitos...

Mision San Fernando, in '74 is where my friend and I camped the first night on that trip.

Agua de Mezquitito in 1974

Located between El Huerfanito and Gonzaga Bay...

My second tour of Baja for Easter of 1975 was with two other vehicles who heard about me over the CB radio (what we did before the Internet) and asked to follow along...

We went to Mision San Fernando, El Marmol, Calamajue Canyon, Gonzaga Bay, Nuevo Mazatlan over that week...

The yellow 4WD Ford you see in this photo had the front wheel/tire come completely off coming out of El Marmol, on the little used south road.

The guys in the Baja Bug drove all the way back to San Diego for replacement parts and 2 days later the truck was moving again...

Mision San Fernando in 1975.

My buggy next to an older buggy... on the south road out of El Marmol...

1975 & 1976

In 1975, I retired my dune buggy when dad surprised me with a new Jeep Cherokee Chief (early graduation present)...

Here it is going between Diablo Dry Lake and San Felipe, during the Baja 1000...



After my high school graduation, my girlfriend and I along with my parents went to Puerto Escondido and L.A. Bay...

We used two cars, my parents in their wagon and my girlfriend and I in my Jeep. We also went up to Mision San Javier...

Here's the roof of San Javier and mom...


[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

another... looking the other direction and my girlfriend posing.

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

At L.A. Bay on that '76 trip... My girfriend Lynne, shaggy hair me, and mom, watching the fishermen cleaning their catch.

Lynne and my mom at El Marmol graveyard

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

One more from '76 with me in the picture ...

June, 1978

Now, 20 years old... after watching the SCORE Baja Internacional (500) near Mike's Sky Rancho, my friend Jon and I drove up to the Observatory. I replaced my 10 mpg Jeep Cherokee Chief with a 25 mpg Subaru 4wd Wagon!

Nov., 1979

Here's My Subaru in Calamajue Canyon...

Near El Crucero... the end of my first section to drive, which was to begin in San Matias Pass...

1979 Baja 1000

This was the first year SCORE would run the race to La Paz, also the first La Paz run since 1973... I was really excited to be a part of it!

Here I am (22 years old) warming up the tires a couple days before the race...

Yes, there was a road from Laguna Chapala north to Las Arrastras (near today's Coco's Corner), but was so poor, almost nobody used it... Just the old NORRA Baja 500 racers! The main traffic went via Calamajue Canyon and rejoined the old main Baja road at El Crucero.

After Hwy. 1 was built, the government bulldozed the road from Chapala to Puerto Calamajue about 1983, so the Calamajue Canyon route was no longer the main road to Gonzaga from Hwy. 1.

Here's a 1962 map of the area... note Calamajue mission. Where the road past the mission meets the main road to la Paz, that is El Crucero.

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

Oh Oh OH David---- You were quite the MAN.....Thanks so much for sharing. Such great old days those were then in Baja! Those old Meyer's Manx's were tough puppys.

Melted walls from the short lived mission of 1766...



The gold ore mill ruins on the cliff near the road before it drops into the canyon (where I have photos in 1967)... a mineralized year round stream... chewed up road in the stream from the Baja 1000... stuff like that.

Laguna Manuela (actually 'Variety Beach' north of Manuela) about 1983/84... Dad has a Tecate and I have a 7 Up (I'm driving, eh?).

This was one of the last Baja fishing trips with Dad... We had a blast, caught all we wanted ... Lot's of good eating for weeks after...

I sure did love that man, he was the best...

Dad passed away about 5 years after that trip...

[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]

1982 Rancho Santa Ynez

A lunch stop on our way to Laguna Manuela...

It was Tom Miller (The Baja Book and Western Outdoor News Baja article author) who turned us onto Laguna Manuela...

Ford WAS built tough?

Still is.

Your mom and dad were too.

Thanks for sharing your photos and story. I liked the pic of the station wagon with only your dad's side, the driver's side of the windshield is wiped clean!

Baja Fever FOREVER!

Quote:

Originally posted by David K Baja Fever FOREVER!

Thank you for saying so wesson... I always come back wishing I took more photos... well, with the new digital camera, maybe I take enough now!?

I am very lucky to have the parents I did... they inspired me to write and map our trips when I showed an interst in doing that, before I was 16 and started going on my own.

Fishing was the original purpose of buying the Wagoneer and going to Baja back in 1965... The place was so enchanting to us, we couldn't get enough! Any excuse to go, any 3 or more day vacation... and we were off to Baja. It was great to see the place BEFORE the pavement came, too.

Here's a couple more, I don't think I posted above...




Age 8, south of El Rosario... on our way to the tip in 1966 by Jeep Wagoneer.




My mom in our broken Jeep (wouldn't start, tide coming in)... we went to investigate the newly washed up Shrimp boat following the 1967 chubasco that wrecked San Felipe... This is the back bay/ lagoon that seperates Shell Island from Bahia Santa Maria (as it would be called later). I walked to get help from the Lemke family who were camping just south of Nuevo Mazatlan (where it is today's El Sahuaro). The problem was 'gear-lock', which was solved by rocking the Jeep back and forth.

Getting stuck makes for better stories... always remember that!

repairs

Quote:

Originally posted by David K Thank you for saying so wesson... I always come back wishing I took more photos... well, with the new digital camera, maybe I take enough now!? I am very lucky to have the parents I did... they inspired me to write and map our trips when I showed an interst in doing that, before I was 16 and started going on my own. Fishing was the original purpose of buying the Wagoneer and going to Baja back in 1965... The place was so enchanting to us, we couldn't get enough! Any excuse to go, any 3 or more day vacation... and we were off to Baja. It was great to see the place BEFORE the pavement came, too. Here's a couple more, I don't think I posted above... Age 8, south of El Rosario... on our way to the tip in 1966 by Jeep Wagoneer. My mom in our broken Jeep (wouldn't start, tide coming in)... we went to investigate the newly washed up Shrimp boat following the 1967 chubasco that wrecked San Felipe... This is the back bay/ lagoon that seperates Shell Island from Bahia Santa Maria (as it would be called later). I walked to get help from the Lemke family who were camping just south of Nuevo Mazatlan (where it is today's El Sahuaro). The problem was 'gear-lock', which was solved by rocking the Jeep back and forth. Getting stuck makes for better stories... always remember that!

Remember a trip in 1956, a friend of the family had a "new" 56 Nomad station wagon, yeah.. Just thought of it... he would not slow down on the road (it was not paved), we were South of San Vicente, my Dad kept telling him to go slower... but no.. Finally he hit a rock and punched a hole in the oil pan. We were trying to tow him, but it was proving most difficult. My Dad was driving a 1951 Pontiac Station wagon..After a couple of days some guys came by in an old Army 4 x 4 and they towed us down to the next village.. Where by some magic, some old guy there was able to put a "patch” on the oil pan, and between my Dad's backup oil and what they could find from draining a few quarts for some old wrecks we were back on our way south, albeit much slower from then on.. Was an art traveling down in the Baja in the 50's and 60's you had to come prepared, and with the mind set, hell I'm just stay here till someone shows up... we don't have surf or the beach, but we had food, water, beer, tent and some cards for a few games of "nosy poker"

Thanks Dave, you bring back a lot of what I was able to get from my Dad along time ago...

Sad about your Dad passing so soon, but like you I have some GREAT memories that my Dad gave me of Mexico too. The picture in 1967 is four years before he died, young at 54

Also, Dave.. Been wanting to ask.. What kind of Camera are you shooting with now.. Been thinking of getting a new camera.. I only have a Sony point and shoot, have just added in a large SD card.. But starting to see such great photo work here by soooooooo many folks I've gotten bitten by the upgrade bug

[Edited on 9-28-2009 by wessongroup]

[Edited on 9-28-2009 by wessongroup]

[Edited on 9-28-2009 by wessongroup]

Quote: Originally posted by BajaTed

Didn't you get hassled like everyone else for your long hair @ the border or while in country in the 70's ??

Not at all. Maybe because my hair was shorter than the typical 'hippies' who were hassled by local police, given hair cuts, and followed that with a lecture on masculinity!

Quote: Originally posted by David K

On the new Baja Highway in the Chapala Valley! July 1973

In 2019, nearly the same place: