Baja California's New Museum

I just returned from a wonderful week camped in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park with Pili my little corgi, worthy successor to Penny and Pedro who accompanied me on my summer 2001 stay in the park. Their photos of course adorned the cover of my book, Nearer My Dog to Thee.


Endemic Mearn's squirrel

Pili had lots of fun being teased by the squirrels and growling at coyotes while she followed master hiking through forest and meadow and up and down granite boulders.









Normally we like to visit the San Pedro Martir a little earlier in the year when it’s not too hot and there’s maybe a few patches of snow still on the ground, but we gave it a try for early August hoping to avoid dramatic rain and hail from monsoonal storms that affect the area in high summer.



It rained on us most days, but mostly lightly and predictably between 2 to 5 PM. Otherwise the gathering thunderheads just provided welcome midday shade, cooling breezes and a fantastic energy in the forest. Certainly my brave corgi didn’t seem too bothered by all the booms and rumblings as other areas of the mountains were getting hammered by lightning strikes and torrential rain.

The rangers and staff of the “Parque Nacional de San Pedro Mártir” were as friendly and helpful as ever. They informed me that the Visitor’s Center which has been sitting empty and in need of a little TLC for ten years was finally going to open August 9. Nearly all the park staff would be in attendance and many dignitaries would be there along with reporters from Baja newspapers and television crews - possibly even the governor of BC himself!


Friendly park ranger keeping an eye on me


Even though the governor couldn’t make it, it turned out to be quite an event. Helicopters came and went, there were academic and political dignitaries from Mexicali, La Paz and Mexico City. Speeches about the importance of conservation from Benito Bermudez regional director of CONANP, Juan Rafael Elvira Quezada, Secretary of SEMARNAT, and Efraín Nieblas Ortiz, the Secretary for the Protection of the Environment of BC, which has direct responsibility for the park.



The blue ribbon was cut, the doors were open and we all poured inside to appreciate the work and investment that has been put into making this Museum well worth a visit.

Galleries and rooms told of the region’s geological and natural history, its peoples, the early explorations by missionaries, soldiers, scientific expeditions, and the work being conducted at the Observatory and the California condor project.






It starts to rain just as the final group shot is taken



For such an out of the way location, the quality of the Museum testifies to the vision that strives to conserve the San Pedro Mártir for future generations… and bring as many as 10,000 more visitors to the park each year!

I have mixed feelings about that of course… but after twenty years of being enthralled and delighted by this very special piece of protected Baja real estate, I’ll be content knowing there will be a quiet spot for me and my dog to explore next year.

To get to the museum follow the road through the park towards the Observatory and you’ll find it on your left past the Tasajera turn, just before you reach Vallecitos.

It’s described as the Centro de Cultura para la Conservacion on the park map given to visitors. However, the sign outside declares Museo de Cultura e Historia Natural.

Maybe the Musem is like the Park its always open unless it snows
The building looks like the old welcome center.
That park should be near the top of everyones to do list.
It's one of our favorite places.

David Los Manzanos has a huge big gate now, cause people kept coming and stealing pine nuts and left a mess garbage wise for the owners to pick up.
See we're not the only ones who had to put up gates

Just got an e-mail saying the museum will be closed until they find new staff to man the place

That's amazing. After all the great work put into the museum and the highly publicized inauguration... sure hope they get it staffed and running soon.

Well, still lots to do in the park. The permitted campgrounds are all around the entrance. there are quite a few of them, some right off the highway and others a little more remote.







But they all have pretty decent "primitive" camping facilities, if not hookups. And when I was there the staff were pretty regularly cleaning up and hauling trash.





Unless you want to camp with dozens of families, church and scout groups and the like... avoid weekends. I arrived on a Friday evening and most sites were packed with tents and vans. By Sunday night I was virtually alone with four rangers!

My dog was tolerated because she is very quiet and well behaved... a larger, louder, less sociable dog would definitely be frowned upon.

Motorbikes are not allowed in the park.

There are so many places to disappear into the park... fantastic wilderness experience no matter how many folks are camping together.

And there are few better places in North America to see the night sky... would love to do a little telescope watching.

In the park it's no hookups and if you are thinking of taking a R.V. up it's a pretty good pull you go from sea level to about 96 hundred feet in around 50 miles. The road is a real good paved road with a lot of switchbacks, some are pretty tight + you have to slow down and when you come out of the turn you are looking at a hard pull. Having said that it's worth it after you get there.

I hiked up the road to Mirador al Altar where the priest was reported to have disappeared.




You can see there's a gate across the road so you have to walk. It's really steep for almost a mile.




Challenging but great views over the Vallecitos meadow and back across the forested plateau.




When I got back a ranger I spoke to thought the priest was safe and had apparently somehow made his own way down and out of the park. And it was all a miscommunication... I sure hope he is alive and well. Maybe someone can confirm that? It's pretty wild and lonely country if you go far from the trail.

And when you reach the viewpoint the whole San Pedro Martir just drops thousands of feet into the chasm of Canyon Diablo.

The Queen and her doggedly loyal subjects...








That's a strange story about the priest. I recall there were over 100 people and two helicopters searching for him for several days.

And that is wild and dangerous country up there on the edge of Canyon Diablo... very easy for any rescuers to be injured or killed themselves.




The edge of Canyon Diablo near Mirador al Altar. Photo from "Nearer My Dog to Thee"

Sorry, I am not English- which on is the queen?

The one being escorted to the Olympics by James Bond...

Good one!

While I agree that after such an extensive search the priest would almost certainly have been found... there is a very small chance that he might not have been, especially as he wasn't far from where the San Pedro Martir literally falls sheer, hundreds and thousands of feet at a time to the desert canyons beneath.



View from the Mirador area looking back to the Observatory.


I recall when I was camped and exploring up there for 4 months in the summer of 2001 a drunk construction worker fell from a second story window of the Observatory. There was blood on the ground beneath the window and a trail of it leading off into the forest.

A similar search was organized with helicopters, the military, and mountain rescue folks, and he was not found... at least not until...

And I quote from the Postscript of "Nearer My Dog to Thee":

"The search for the man missing from the observatory was
called off after ten days. A month later, a biologist conducting research in the park spotted the remains of the man’s legs sticking out from a rocky extrusion on top of a hill overlooking the road to the observatory. It looked like he had crawled into a crevice in the rocks to sleep or find shelter. One of his arms was broken, presumably due to the fall from the window, and animals had eaten much of that arm and parts of his legs."


I keep an open mind. However, it the priest did contrive his own disappearance, there has to be a better way than involving so many folks on such a hazardous search. The slopes along that ridge are treacherous with slippery pine needles and decomposed granite and in many places a fall would be fatal.

On my wanderings with my two dogs more than once we caught the stench of a large dead animal - probably a buried deer or big horn mountain lion kill - and I was glad I didn't have to climb down to investigate.

Thanks for the update Mike... good to know they will arrange special tours for groups.

As I'm one of the few tourists to have seen the interesting and informative displays, here are a few more pics to show what's inside...




























The museum car park

Hi Mulegena,

I don't think you'll be disappointed by a trip to the San Pedro Martir... on average the trees are bigger and older than their counterparts in the California Sierra and the forest is generally more open and healthy and devoid of brush and understory -- thanks to a virtual absence of effective fire suppression.

And like Mike said, all the endemic creatures make it extra interesting.

Absolutely, there are stands of manzanita throughout the park... I took these pics on my last visit.


That's manzanita beneath those sugar pines





And as Mike mentions with the cattle situation.... they are still brought up there to graze in the summer. And they are not exactly hiding... I spotted these in Vallecitos right beneath the observatory.




And interestingly, some of the ranch families that have used these mountains for their cattle, the Arces, Martorells, and Espinozas, can trace their roots back to missionary times and to the Spanish cowboy soldiers that accompanied the missionaries to places like the San Pedro Martir mission. These families are mentioned and celebrated in the museum...

BIG TREES

GRAHAM,nice pic's !!

" on average the trees are bigger and older than their counterparts in the California Sierra" your quote ... but, I DONT THINK SO!! I asume I'm missing the joke here ?? K&T

[Edited on 8-24-2012 by captkw]

Capt,

No, no kidding, comparing trees of same species... and it's surprising to folks more familair with the Baja desert, there's a real hidden gem of an old growth forest in Baja's highest mountain range.


Here's a pic of my wife at the base of a Jeffrey or Ponderosa a bit over a mile from the observatory...





And I hate to quote my own book about the Sierra San Pedro Martir - Nearer My Dog to Thee - but I discuss this in the early chapters, including the University of California research backing it up.




One of the UCLA studies found that in the SPM the oldest Jeffrey pines were 448 years old, whereas at comparable sites in the Sierras they were about 300 years old!

HOLA GRAHAM

OOPS

ME BAD..YOU SAID JEFFRY PINE..MY MISTAKE AS THE COAST REDWOODS GET OVER 2000 YRS OLD...MY BAD READING ,,SORRY.....K&T DAMN I'M WORKING WAYYY TOO MUCH !! I CANT EVEN READ MY OWN BURRO !! LOL

[Edited on 8-25-2012 by captkw]

graham

wow..you have a sharpe mind !! yes, lynn and murray !! I rememeber you as a baja hero..I need to go back up there (mikes skyranch) and go further in and spend some time !! great pics.. most folks asume baja is all desert....not the case as you well know..also you can be in cabo san lucas and less than 35 klicks away can be snow !!! K&T ps loved your first book " into a desert place" if memory serves right...now I have get the other one thats on this post...thanks for all your insperation over the years !!!!

[Edited on 8-25-2012 by captkw]

[Edited on 8-25-2012 by captkw]

Great report Graham! Looks like a lot of people spent a lot of effort and time and dinero for those beautiful displays.
And you can tell they have a professional staff, that keeps their eyes on possible troublemakers!!

Be sure and get a few decals for your car when you visit ...



[Edited on 2012-9-25 by bryanmckenzie]

Hi Mulegena,

Me too. As much as I love the beach and desert, I love big ol' pine cones and forest. In April I took about a dozen big ones back north with me to give away to friends. Ironically, the border agent didn't much care about "importing" a bunch of big ol' seeds from SPM.



[Edited on 2012-9-25 by bryanmckenzie]

For the archives ... July 2010 view

For the archives ... July 2010 view



[Edited on 2012-9-25 by bryanmckenzie]