BajaNomad

Canyons headed up toward Mesa Colorada

Arthur - 1-22-2005 at 09:45 PM

There's a dirt road that heads up from Highway 1 north of the Bay of LA junction. It's mostly on page 18 of the Baja Almanac (L4, 5, 6). It eventually connects up to a better road going NE from Highway 1 to Bahia Calamajue.

Anyway, before it joins that road it passes several seasonal watercourses that come out of canyons headed up toward Mesa Colorada. The flows seem to join together and flow out toward Calamajue. Has anyone checked out those canyons? It looks like there might be some flat, sandy ground before you can get up into them. From the map, they look interesting, though.

El Crucero

Mike Humfreville - 1-23-2005 at 06:34 PM

Where that road leaves Hwy 1 there used to be a ranch. It's called El Crucero. That road is an alternate route to Gonzaga Bay etc. I've always thought of that road as the the most interesting in all the parts of Baja I have been to. It's about 18 miles to the junction with the Calamajue spur off the Laguna Chapala road to Gonzaga. after it leaves the highway it winds through some interesting cactus fields and eventually drops into a canyon with a stream that pretty much runs down the same route as the road. The stream ends at the old Cajamajue mission ruins (on a small elevated mesa to the east side of the road). From there it's about 7 miles to the junction of the road between Coco's and Calamajue (the fishing village) and then a few more miles to the Chapala - Gonzaga road. It a 4WD road and you'd be best to take at least two vehicles. On the other hand the Chapala - Gonzaga and the Calamajue village roads are usually fairly passable in 2WD.

I've been to the village of Calamajue, on the coast. It's a small settlement of fisherfolk. I didn't see a store, but I was busy getting tires patched and didn't look around much.

I've never poked around anywhere off the road in that area. I did have a wild experience in a mine up one of the runoffs a few miles north. I've never been able to find it since. I wrote a story about it that you can find at:


http://math.ucr.edu/ftm/bajaPages/Correspondents/MikeHumfrev...



Arthur - 1-23-2005 at 09:16 PM

Jeez, Mike, you whet my appetite and then start talking about 4WD. What am I supposed to do, sell my sweet little Prerunner? It gets such good gas mileage, being a 2WD. But I'm starting to think along those lines.

Anyway, thanks for the info -- and the story. Good stuff.