David K - 6-19-2004 at 08:54 PM
BajaCactus, here is the Santa Maria mission... Perhaps you were thinking of the Santa Isabel mission story... which is attached to this, the last
Jesuit mission in Baja.
If you ever have the opportunity to go to Santa Maria, take it! This place is one of the most special in all of Baja. This photo I took at sunrise in
April, 2003. See http://vivabaja.com/403 for the whole story of that trip.
[Edited on 6-27-2004 by David K]
A mile before the mission...
David K - 6-20-2004 at 09:57 AM
After dropping down the 'widowmaker' steep grade, the road soon drops into the arroyo for a short distance, then climbs over one low ridge to enter
the mission valley. This pool is about 13 1/2 miles from Rancho Santa Ynez.
This photo taken by BajaMur when he and I went there in May, 1999.
[Edited on 6-20-2004 by David K]
Beyond the mission...
David K - 6-20-2004 at 10:30 AM
about a half mile. Note the sun reflecting in the stream. Photo by me in Apr., '03
At the end of the 'road' are petroglyphs!
David K - 6-20-2004 at 11:21 AM
1.3 miles past the mission, turn left, out of the arroyo. It was possible to drive only 1/4 mile up this bulldozed road. We hiked about 1/4 mile
further to the top of the ridge, where the road building effort ended. Petroglyphs are here, where the Indian Trail continues east, dropping into the
canyon from the end of the bulldozed road. The El Camino Real comes down the mountain from the north, before reaching this point.
Never been there...
BajaCactus - 6-23-2004 at 03:27 PM
I have never been there... it looks like a wonderful place. Thanks for the photos...!!!
Antonio M.
Neal Johns - 6-23-2004 at 06:13 PM
There has been a discussion of big cats around Mission Santa Maria. Keep your eyes open.
If you see these cats...
academicanarchist - 6-23-2004 at 06:21 PM
If you see these cats run for the hills, but you won't have to run too fast.
Good humor...
BajaCactus - 6-23-2004 at 06:46 PM
You guys are really in a good mood today... have you been to Baja Lately....
About that photo of yours Neal.. I do not know why it reminds me of a girlfriend of mine....just after we split....
Antonio M.
Neal Johns - 6-23-2004 at 07:00 PM
Now, now, Antonio, play nice. :-)
It has been too long since I've been to Baja. I'm in a good mood 'cause my wife is out of town. Hee Hee Hee
I'm dead if anybody squeals!
Unfortunately No
academicanarchist - 6-23-2004 at 08:01 PM
Haven't been to Baja California lately, but I am just in a good mood tonight.
The 'Widowmaker'
David K - 6-24-2004 at 07:56 PM
Now, if the pretty pictures I posted above are inviting, you must know that the 14.5 mile road from Santa Ynez to Santa Maria is one of the toughest
trails (that goes somewhere) in Baja! The short drive takes 3 HOURS and requires high clearance 4WD vehicles (with lockers* or companion vehicle
prefered). * locking rear differential for climbing back up this grade I call the 'widowmaker'. Most park at the top and hike the mile and a half to
the mission.
This is Chicagoross' Jeep, when we all went there in 4/03.
Dangerous!!!
BajaCactus - 6-24-2004 at 08:51 PM
That road sounds very dangerous.... have you been there many times David...???
Antonio M.
David K - 6-24-2004 at 09:35 PM
Only two times Antonio... Dangerous? 'Danger' is my middle name! Just
kidding... no it is not dangerous, just very tough. Low range 4WD (doble tracion) and a locking rear differential (as equiped on the Toyota Tacoma
TRD) is all. ChicagoRoss had no problem in his lifted Jeep Wrangler. He and I both had new Futura Dakota tires (made for Pep Boys by Cooper) which
performed great (at nearly 1/3 the cost of BFG All Terrain T/A's). Fishuntr also came with us in his Toyota truck.
The first time there, I was on a quad with BajaMur who rode a motorcycle. We both whiped-out (fell off), and shed blood coming back up that grade in
the photo. That is when I named it 'the widowmaker'! Mur took a fantastic 360? panorama at the mission and posted it on his web site... It is almost
like being there!
Anyway, it was a bit dangerous on the quad and cycle... I felt more comfortable in my Tacoma, four years later!
Hot...!!
BajaCactus - 6-24-2004 at 09:40 PM
Sounds exhilarating..!!! What a great times you must have had in Baja.. no wonder why you love it so much....!!!
What is the webpage of BajaMur Mr. Dangerous......... David Dangerous...
Antonio M.
Baja Mur's Santa Maria Web Site
David K - 6-24-2004 at 09:47 PM
Mur did a great job, specially with the panorama... http://bajamur.homestead.com
From the top of that site you can click on 'Gonzaga to Santa Maria' which is part 2 (how we tried to get to the mission from the east side, and then
flew over it), a couple days later, from Alfonsina's.
[Edited on 6-25-2004 by David K]
Great place...
BajaCactus - 6-24-2004 at 10:14 PM
It looks very beautiful.... looks like you had a very interesting time.
What I find most incredible is that you guys take the time to make and upload all those web pages and pictures just to share to others what you lived
on your trips.
That is really commendable....
Antonio M.
David K - 6-25-2004 at 06:49 PM
Muchas Gracias Antonio!
I find the peninsula totally fascinating, if not magical! I have a need to document my travels so they stay alive in my mind to hold me over until the
next trip south.
Before the Internet, the only way to share my travel reports was to write a book (I wrote 2) or write magazine articles (I wrote several). With the
Internet (in 1999 for me), and these wonderful discussion boards, I can share my travels and the Baja enthusiasts can enjoy them (for free).
The other benefit of writing detailed trip reports is for the reader who may never get to see that place in Baja I write about or may never get to
Baja at all (this is the world wide web, afterall). The reader can have a glimps of what excites us Baja nuts and in a small way, enjoy the experience
as well. Most of those who read my reports fall into that group.
How many of you regular Nomads have been to Mision Santa Maria, El Volcan, or Matomi Canyon since my last trip there? Not even a half dozen, I bet.
Those that do go are not the people who vandalize... but, rather cherish the natural beauty of these sites. Fear not my posting of GPS coordinates!
I look forward to meeting you Antonio... hopefully soon. I think you are an A-1 class individual! Thank you for your excellent service to the Baja
traveler in El Rosario!
David
jrbaja - 6-25-2004 at 06:55 PM
I want to see your books and magazine articles as I'm sure everyone else does to. Donde esta?
David K - 6-25-2004 at 07:18 PM
Remember when Dave (Cielito Lindo) posted my first book here? I was amazed when he came across a copy of 'Baja and the Transpeninsular Highway' c1973
My next book was called Kier's Baja Road Guide and made up 1/2 of the Special Edition of the Baja California Bulletin Magazine Dec.74/Jan.75
(published by Luisa Porter of Santa Monica, soon Luisa Porter-Klink of La Paz).
My articles were in Mexico West, published by Tom and Shirley Miller and later in Discover Baja, published by Hugh and Carol Kramer. Probably about a
dozen in all.
The cover photo needs to be reduced, on the cover that's my mom on the cover photo with Ramon Villalejo of Juncalito and a dorado.
When I got the book want list from Norm Christie (a big Baja book collector in Washington), I was amazed to see my book in his list! I traded a copy
of my book for the El Camino Real notes and maps by Howard Gulick.
To see the cover of the first book as Dave and Juanita found it, just search articles posted by Porky Pig here.
Oh, I was 15 when I wrote and published the first book and 17 when I wrote the second...
[Edited on 10-20-2004 by David K]
Wow...15..17..
BajaCactus - 6-25-2004 at 07:35 PM
15... 17...That is amazing about your books David. You were really... really young when you wrote those. Sure your parents were very proud of you....
wonderful....
Is there anywhere I could buy them??.
The reason I am asking is because in the new reception of BajaCactus Motel, I am planning to put kind of a bookshelf, in wich I want to put Baja
related books for my guests to read. I am also planning in asking Barnie and AA where I can get some of their books.
Antonio M.
David K - 6-25-2004 at 08:00 PM
They were time limited guides. The first was of the Baja highway before constrution was completed (July, '73). Pavement ended near El Progreso and
started in sections near Punta Prieta, solid pavement began near Villa Jesus Maria. Long out of print, sorry!
Bernie has four books on his site you can order for your lobby: http://www.caballeropublishing.com
Have a copy of the Baja Almanac on hand... get one from Kim or at http://www.baja-almanac.com
Have a look at the Baja author's web sites listed in my site. Order any books direct from them.
Mission Santa Maria de Los Angeles
Osprey - 6-27-2004 at 07:16 AM
Hi David, do you (or other members) know what year Earl Stanley Gardner made his trip to the mission? I don't have the book and I can't seem to find
info on the web. 35 years ago I flew over the mission with a guy who said he visited the place more than a year before Gardner "discovered" it. He
said it was 11 years before our flight/fishing trip to what is now Los Barriles. I think my trip was in 1969 but I'm not real sure. What I do
remember is our hosts, the Verdugo family, remembered the pilot, Jim Patterson, remembered taking him up there from Gonzaga.
David K - 6-27-2004 at 02:04 PM
Now, you can see aerial photos of the trip from Alfonsina'a airstrip to the Mision Santa Maria valley in part 2 of BajaMur's web site report: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/cove/6849/santamaria1.ht...
This was the same weekend when we rode to the mission from Santa Ynez. Afterward, we went to Gonzaga and stayed at Doug Bowles place ('Dooglas'). That
ride over the canyon and mission was in Doug's Cessna 206.
As for Erle Stanley Gardner, he never claimed to have discoverd Sant Maria as it was never lost. Arthur North stayed a few days there during his
expedition in 1905-06 ('Camp and Camino in Lower California'). There are photos at the mission in Erle's 1961 'Hovering Over Baja' pg. 172 and I have
some from Choral Pepper that shows some of Erle's dune buggies at the mission in the early Sixties.
Erle's expeditions did 'discover' that the residents of San Francisco de la Sierra claimed the stone walls there are the remains of Mision Dolores de
Norte (a lost mission) It always was shown on maps at the ruins of the Visita de San Pablo some 12 miles northwest and down the canyon from San
Francisco (note: Dr. Jackson's research shows that Dolores del Norte existed only on paper and the name was changed to Santa Gertrudis when it was
finally established, further north... see Jackson's paper on http://TimsBaja.com ). The ruins at San Francisco were a visiting station, and perhaps an early consideration for the next mission north of San
Ignacio. None-the-less, the people of the tiny mountain village believed that they lived at Dolores' site.
Gardner's group did find ruins south of L.A. Bay in 1966 that Choral Pepper believed could be the proposed mission site of Santa Maria Magdalena. See
http://community-2.webtv.net/baja4me/1757
Leaving Santa Maria, up the Widowmaker!
David K - 6-27-2004 at 10:17 PM
Here I am in the mighty Toyota... ChicagoRoss gave me directions from the top for tire placement because at such a steep pitch one cannot see the
ground you are trying to drive over. Halfway up I bumped into a one foot tall step and had to park and make a ramp with rocks... awesome!
