bajabum - 5-12-2008 at 04:00 PM
How far (time wise) is San Fransisquito from BOLA and How far to Hwy 1 from San Fransisquito (time wise). Anyone have a recent road report for this
route (BOLA-SF-Hwy 1)
thebajarunner - 5-12-2008 at 05:46 PM
We drove down and back, LABay to SF, in Feb.
Took my F-150 and an elderly Suburban.
Moderate pace, the Burb is not an off-road rocket.
I believe we left SF about 2:30 and were back to LAB before dark, like around 5 p.m.
Figure 2.5 to 3 hours, moderate pace, no lengthy stops. (each way)
The desert was in full bloom and we stopped a lot on the way down for photos, etc.
SF was very quiet, now I read it is in shutdown mode.
Still a great place to visit, and a really good dirt road both ways.
TMW - 5-12-2008 at 06:14 PM
It's appromimately 88 miles from BOLA to San Fransisquito. It's approx. 77 miles from San Fransisquito to hwy 1 going thru El Arco. 41 miles from BOLA
to hwy 1.
David K - 5-12-2008 at 06:17 PM
There are two routes to Hwy. 1 from San Francisquito... the newer one goes closer to Mision Santa Gertrudis (12 miles east) for an interesting side
trip and reaches Hwy. 1 about 7 miles north of Vizcaino.
You can see part of the new road on the far right, heading north from Ejido Guillermo Prieto... and all of it on tghe Google Satellite images... It
branches south from the El Arco/ San Francisquito road at Arroyo Purificacion and follow it to the Santa Gertrudis road, just west of Rancho
Miraflores.
I have the GPS waypoints for that route in my web site's GPS page.
[Edited on 5-13-2008 by David K]
wilderone - 5-13-2008 at 09:20 AM
If there is truth to the story, the "new" road that goes to El Arco was planned by the mining company that bought El Arco, and will be paved in
conjunction with their gold/copper mining exploits. When we passed through El Arco last week (en route to Mision Sta Gertrudis), the town was empty
for the most part, but there was some work going on rehabbing older structures for the 1,200 people expected to work on the mines. It was told that
thousands of dollars were paid to the five families that were living in El Arco at the time to re-locate. According to news about the mining
operation published a few years ago, they expect to be in full operation in 2012. As the story went, they were first going to mine for gold, then the
copper.
David K - 5-13-2008 at 06:00 PM
Here is a close up of the Guillermo Prieto shortcut with the north section drawn in (12.3 miles)... Not sure why the auto club didn't map it when they
added the south section... they were both there. I drove it in Dec. 2001...
It joins the El Arco/ San Francisquito road just west of the Arroyo Purificacion crossing... and had a sign for Mision Santa Gertrudis at the
junction. It meets the El Arco/ Santa Gertrudis road 0.6 mile west of Miraflores, 5.4 miles west of Guadalupe, and 11.3 miles west of Santa Gertrudis.
Where it crosses the state border was a small sign indicating Mountain Time Zone (that's all)...
David K - 5-13-2008 at 06:11 PM
Here is a zoom in, for more detail...
From Arroyo Purificacion crossing to Hwy. 1 via El Arco is approx. 42 miles... via Guillermo Prieto it is 41.7 miles... the same.
Back in Dec. '01, the Guillermo Prieto shortcut was very smooth and easy 2WD road... one hill is climbed, otherwise a flat road.
I haven't been on the El Arco highway since 1983, 10 years after is was built and paved... But, even then it was a broken mess and a miserable drive.
[Edited on 5-14-2008 by David K]
TMW - 5-14-2008 at 05:41 PM
On hwy 18 to El Arco most people drive on the sand road next to it as much as possible. It's smoother most of the time. The paved hwy is pretty rough
the last time I was on it in Nov 05.
Roberto - 5-14-2008 at 06:02 PM
And in '06, large sections were GONE! And HUGE sinkholes all over the place. Had a few OH-chit moments, going down that road at speed, going over a
crest, to find that 50 yards ahead, there was no road. 
All part of the fun of dirt roads in Baja!