In Search of….#1 - El Camino Real Santa Ursula

In Search of….#1 - El Camino Real place name Santa Ursula

This trip was a “Loose ends trip” to do some of the roads and places that Nomad John M and I have passed up before. Our first objective was: Santa Ursula.

Santa Ursula was/is a waterhole/camping spot on the ECR between Mission San Fernando and Mission El Rosario. It has long intrigued me because it seemed to be far into the boonies and not very well known these days. Using Harry Crosby’s maps and the Baja Almanac and Google Earth I found some evidence of habitation sites within a few miles of where Harry’s rather course map indicated. However, David K found a road log of the premier guidebook writer Howard Gulick’s early trip to Santa Ursula. This showed that it was only a few miles south of Hwy. 1 about 20 miles south of El Rosario. A drive to the area by David missed one turn and he challenged me to find it. A challenge! The nerve of that young whippersnapper!

I assembled a crack support team to help make sure my aging body could make it there and back and we were off for ten days of Baja Exploration. It just doesn’t get better than that!

The guilty party consisted of myself and co-leader Nomad John M, history buff, author, and ultra-marathon runner and his wife, Barbara the cookie lady; Skip, a veteran Baja traveler; Bob, likewise; Bill the Rokon Guy form Texas, Dale, a newbie to Baja with a Jeep towing a small off-road trailer; and of course, my current wife, Marian who first Jeeped Baja in the ‘60s.

We camped near the border by Tecate in the Potreo County Park and it is a beautiful place, even if the wind was howling. The next morning we crossed and headed south. That first night we took over the parking lot of the BajaCactus Motel in El Rosario and felt we were finally in Baja! This was my first stay in Antonio’s motel and it exceeded all my standards! Wow, what a great place for $35. No charge for the wife or dog, either!

The next day we drove down Hwy. 1 about 20 miles to where the road south is marked Rancho Los Martires and followed David K’s map to Santa Ursula. Simple. Sure, I missed the right turn off of the main track shortly after passing a large plowed field and ranch (Rancho Los Martires?) at point B on David’s map, but being smarter and more handsome than DK, I turned around in a few hundred yards, returned to near the ranch and went southwest on a faint, at first gravely, track. In about three miles, we were at Gulick’s Santa Ursula. 29deg 59min 115deg 22.5min. Datum WGS84 (for Google Earth users) There were two abandoned shacks, two palm trees, a rock corral, and a fair amount of flowing water in Arroyo La Burro where Santa Ursula was located. There was little sign of where the adobe that Gulick found was located. There was also no one sighted on this leg of our trip to ask questions of. However, the route matched Gulick’s mileage so we are confident that We Found It, DK!

David K's marked up map is below:

[Edited on 3-17-2007 by Neal Johns]

Gulick's Santa Ursula

Yes Neal I have a few photos.

Problem is that the files were so big that when I reduced them to the kb necessary for posting they came up pretty small. I'll post 'em anyway. (They are around a 4 mb file each initially!) - I previewed this post an my gosh the photos are tiny!

This first is a stone corral very near the lower ranch buildings, just above the start of the flowing stream.

John M

[Edited on 3-15-2007 by John M]

[Edited on 3-16-2007 by John M]

Santa Urusla photo # 2

This shows the stream below the stone corral, looking upstream, back toward the ranch buildings. We found no sign of petrogylphs. Neal and Bill walked a ways downstream, encountering a couple of palms.

[Edited on 3-15-2007 by John M]

[Edited on 3-15-2007 by John M]

[Edited on 3-16-2007 by John M]

Ranch area, Santa Ursula

This photo shows the group as we were preparing to continue on to San Juan de Dios.

At this place we found it to be interesting and worth investigating further.

There was evidence of a stone dam along the water course and we saw the remnants of a shallow well, both matching Gulick's notes of what he had found here in the 50s.

Also, helping to try to figure out if this was the Santa Ursula of Fr. Palou's journey north, we have portions from his diary in which Fr. Zephyrin Englehardt reports: "Fr. Palou left San Fernando Velicata at about one o’clock in the afternoon of July 21, 1773.The whole party camped for the night at a place called Santa Ursula."

Taking GoogleEarth and measuring distance along what may be parts of the ECR, I found the distance from San Fernando to this spot to be about 9 miles - a doable distance for a half-day's journey - plus this appears to be the first significant water along the route.

John M

[Edited on 3-16-2007 by John M]

Howard Gulick's El Camino Real maps are viewable at http://vivabaja.com/ECR/page12.html

Here is the northern area, with Santa Ursula shown (between San Fernando and El Rosario):




[Edited on 12-28-2019 by David K]

Here's Harry Crosby's El Camino Real map of the Santa Ursula area...




[Edited on 12-28-2019 by David K]

Here's the map from my 406 web page, with Neal & John's location of Santa Ursula indicated...

Cattle trail into Santa Ursula

Here is a photo of a cattle trail leading directly to the water from the south. This trail is alongside the westernmost line shack buildings.

I tried to post a map but it was rejected, I'll try later.

John M

Screen shot image

attached is a google earth image of this area. The cattle trail in the previous post is marked, and leads directly south from the westernmost line shack.

To the right, a path or faint roadway follows a water course also leading from the south into the Santa Ursula complex. This "road" can be followed, mostly, directly to San Fernando Mission with only a couple of areas not visable. Could this have been the ECR?


Tomorrow I will attempt to make this image clearer.

John M

[Edited on 3-16-2007 by John M]

[Edited on 3-16-2007 by John M]

Okay, here are the satellite photos for the points on the map...

A (Hwy. 1 by El Arenoso ruins): A

B (Fork with other road from Hwy. 1 near Los Martires road Cafe): B

C (cross road, to Santa Ursula, turn west): C

D (Faint fork for Points E or F): D

E (End of road by arroyo): E

F (End of road at rock mine above Cañon San Fernando): F

G (near end of road at base of hill): G

H (Road jcn. from mines): H

I (Hwy. 1 near Los Martires & San Juan de Dios road cafe): I

Santa Ursula: Santa Ursula

After 'flying over' the roads I drove last year, and seeing the region better, I see that my 'Point C' (on the map) should be about 1/2-3/4 mile further east, on the shown road to 'Point G', just to the east on the south to east bend.

[Edited on 3-16-2007 by David K]

OK, time out from all this dull history jazz, lets have some fun!

What do we do with Baja Newbies like Dale? A super nice guy but what are Newbies for if they are not stuck? I made a wrong decision (I know, I know, Real Aridologists do not make mistakes) and took an old route to San Juan de Dios via the sand wash of Arroyo San Juan de Dios.

I was doing fine in my Tacoma Pop-top camper and saw no reason to mention that I was running marshmellows on 15 inch rims. Technically they are known as BFG All Terrain 33x12:50x15 and fill up the wheelwells to overflowing.

Below is a picture of Poor Old Dale (POD) in his Heep. Are you watching, Ken Cooke?

Google Earth Pix

Using the coordinates Neal gave, does this look like the location. It looks like Palm trees to the left.

Pix 2

Pix 3

Pix 4

TW - yes it does

The row of tamarisk trees is the line across the arroyo in the left side of this pic downstream and of course are a rancher addition as they were not around in the ECR days.