Vizcaino shortcut idea?

I know it wouldn't actually save me any time, but does anyone know if the public is allowed to drive through salt areas south of Guerrero Negro? I'm looking for a "shortcut" to the Bahia Tortugas road -- to bypass having to drive all the way to the Vizcaino intersection on Hwy 1, and then go back east. My idea is to drive south to the whale campground on Estero Norte, and then try continuing south like this:


(Google Maps link)

The Baja Almanac says the salt areas just southwest of Guerrero Negro town are private/no access, but doesn't say anything about the "salinos" southeast of town and east of Laguna Ojo de Liebre.

-- Geoff

In the past (before paved roads), one would go to the salt company office and request permission to cross over/ short cut to get out to Malarrimo Beach or Bahia Tortugas.

Edit: Just a little longer, but go around via the historic water hole 'Ojo de Liebre' that the Mexicans renamed Scammon's Lagoon after. That spring was the only source of water for many many miles back in the day!

I did a thread on it with photos and maps... and a Nomad found it and added photos.

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=43742




[Edited on 1-26-2016 by David K]

Quote: Originally posted by motoged

Geoffffffffffffff, I have ridden a motorcycle (dirtbike) on a north-south route that didn't go through the water (like it looks like your route would)...this was east of your route and was a good sand hardpack road for the majority of the way.... I started at the Asuncion-Vizcaino highway where there appears to be a pumping station and a large radio type tower (20-30 kms west of Vizcaino)....and rode north....came out about 10 miles or so south of Guerrero Negro (south of road from Hwy 1 to whale watching area)

Use Google Earth... Here is a cut across via Ojo de Liebre spring and Rancho El Huizache. There are many parallel routes perhaps dating back to the 1950s when Pemex was exploring for oil in this desert...

The route I traced here leaves Highway One 4.0 miles beyond the paved Whale Watch turnoff... At Mile 10 take the right fork... At Mile 15.9 arrive Ojo de Liebre spring (take photos please)... At Mile 16.4 arrive Rancho El Huizache (may be abandoned, it is on the almanac)... At Mile 16.7 road heads east for 1.1 miles to... Mile 17.8 crossroad, turn south... At Mile 30.1 reach Vizcaino-Tortugas Highway.



Obviously, use your own choice of roads and best judgement. What is seen from space a few years ago may no longer be driveable. Have fun... use a Spot or DeLorme InReach device and keep us alerted.

[Edited on 1-26-2016 by David K]

Quote: Originally posted by Udo

Better judgement and wisdom should prevail. You'll spend more time getting out of the short cut than you would by driving to Vizcaino and to Bahia Tortugas.

Adventure entails a certain degree of risk.....stay east of the wet stuff

Quote: Originally posted by motoged

There are a series of interconnecting roads....easy to get lost for some....a fun drive....real flat desert....not much vegetation....some cows....no gate at south end.....ranch gate not locked at north end... [Edited on 1-26-2016 by motoged]

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

David, that road going through Ojo de Liebre has what importance? It's not the Old Baja Road it's connecting what with what?

While the main Baja road went through El Arco, north of San Ignacio, after Guerrero Negro was created around 1957, truck traffic between it and San Ignacio would take the shorter route.

Here is the 1962 Gulick Map showing the roads in the Vizcaíno at that time:





Mike Humfreville wrote about traveling with a supply trucker across the Vizcaíno in 1967. They took the road seen in the map via San Esteban. They would have passed Ojo de Liebre or a parallel road very near it.

Here is the second map above, with modern roads drawn in:

strong resemblance

first Las Bombas - the place with a mission



and here a Jesuit mission of 1706 in Paraguay



what gives Las Bombas away as not a mission is the fact that all building angles are 90 degrees - no mission provides that

does anyone know why?

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by David   While the main Baja road went through El Arco, north of San Ignacio, after Guerrero Negro was created around 1957, truck traffic between it and San Ignacio would take the shorter route. David, did you ever take that road through El Arco to San Ignacio before they put the highway in? I'm curious how developed El Arco was at that time.

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

strong resemblance first Las Bombas - the place with a mission ... what gives Las Bombas away as not a mission is the fact that all building angles are 90 degrees - no mission provides that does anyone know why?

In addition to Las Bombas, another cantina was just north in the pre-pavement days...

The history of the place name 'La Espinita' is a tad colorful...

Originally located a few miles north of Guerrero Negro...

(from 1962 Lower California Guidebook):

"La Espina (La Espinita), a solitary group of shacks serving as a saloon for salt works employees."

Mike Humfreville had a good story about another brothel that served Guerrero Negro, a few miles east of town!


Here you go Harald, from a good friend of all us on Nomad, Mike Humfreville:

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

W-h-o-r-e Town ( Posted February 12, 2003 )





Nothing very extraordinary happened during our week-long and accidental stay at Black Warrior in 1974. Our Land Cruiser, La Tortuga, was busted and in repair. Without a vehicle we had lots of time to kill, walking around town and sitting in small restaurants talking or reading over coffee. I had always kept a log and that filled my time. Mary Ann read romance novels. I was jealous.

One day, out of boredom, I decided it would be nice to have a bottle of red wine. I had no idea where to find one or even if there was a liquor store in the town. I left Mary Ann in our room, reading her book, and walked down the side streets to the main thoroughfare into and out of the town, a wide dirt road. In the center of town was a single, dust covered taxi. I asked the driver if he knew of a store that sold wine and liquor. He certainly did and immediately gestured for me to get into the cab. I told him I was fine to walk. He said it was too far to walk. He was animated and quick and insistent that I sit in his cab and be escorted to this store. Seeing no simple alternative, I climbed into the front passenger seat and we took off, east.

We passed through the salt company part of town and continued through the eastern part and we drove through the dump and straight out of town, under my constant questioning and his strong assurances that he knew exactly what I needed. We drove to the junction of the transpeninsular highway and, where the road forked for the northern and southern routes, we went straight, right up the middle.

We intersected the transpeninsular highway at 90 degrees and still we continued east into the desert. We drove several kilometers into an apparent nothingness. I would have been concerned, but my host was so carefree and casual. After a number of kilometers from the highway I could see a cluster of buildings in the distance. We entered the odd assemblage of fifteen or twenty one- and two-story structures spread across both sides of the road. There were men and women crossing the dusty street and coming from and going into the buildings. Many of the buildings had large signs advertising the availability of beer, music and dancing.

The driver stopped in front of one of these and jumped out and opened my door and with a bow and outstretched arm ushered me inside a dingy cantina. I'm thinking maybe they sell wines and liquors to go also. No such luck.

We entered a dark, large and windowless room with a bar and number of tables, a scattering of chairs. A number of men and two women stood at the bar, drinks scattered around. More men and women were sitting around the tables, some playing cards and dice. Rowdy recorded Mexican Mariachi music radiated from a dusty, battered record player in a corner of the room. Several couples were dancing. Many of the men were drunk. A sign on the wall told me that I could buy a dance for a peso, about a dime. I could judge from the scene that I could buy more than a dance for more than a peso. A scene out of the early American west, dark and dank, smoky, smelly, sleazy. I realized then that this actually was the early American west. It was just on another side of a border.

The place was a grimy dive and I was stuck with my friendly driver whose feelings I didn't want to hurt. But I had mixed emotions with the sorry sight of this roomful of dusty cowboys and oily overweight prostitutes. We went to the bar and I ordered two beers, one for my driver and one for me. I told him that my mediocre Spanish had perhaps conveyed the wrong message and that I really did just want a bottle of wine. I said that we should enjoy our beer and get back to town because people would be worried about me.

We watched the women, loudly mouthed and dressed, sidling with their men around the dance floor, their bodies close and suggestive and rocking with the music. I assumed that the second floors of the buildings were bedrooms. I was happy that this town existed for these people. But I had been ready to leave before we entered.

We finished our beers and I convinced a red-eyed semi-conscious fellow beside us that I really couldn't, at the moment, enjoy the services they had to offer, whatever they were and that I didn't know how to dance, thank you. We left, got back into the car and returned to Black Warrior, with my apologies to the driver.

I looked at our various maps of Baja occasionally over the many years since my experience with the friendly drunks and hoars and have not found this town identified. Until today. As I finished reviewing this before posting I opened my Baja Almanac and turned to N-29. There I spot it. It's just the right distance from Guerrero Negro, out in the forlorn desert. And it does have a name, after all. It's Las Bombas. The Pumps. How appropriate.

Here's the 1962 map showing both Las Bombas and La Espina



Close up, on the 2003 Baja Almanac:

Quote: Originally posted by David K

It's on the two maps just above... La Espina in 1962.

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Harald, how about you post the satellite views of La Espina (Espinita)?

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

Quote: Originally posted by David K   Harald, how about you post the satellite views of La Espina (Espinita)? too ugly

Thanks everyone! I realize taking the paved road is faster, but exploring the dikes would be fun. The route I showed was generated with the help of Google Maps' "directions" route generation (they have all the dikes mapped as possible routes). I checked the whole route to make sure there were no gaps (water). Some of the older dikes seem to have these gaps.

Anyway I'd love to explore this route. But if there are explicit "no entry" signs, I would most likely not go in there.

Using Google Earth, I do see evidence of some kind of signs at the north end of the dikes where the route (magenta line) leaves the north-south public-access road (cyan lines) to the whale campground here and starts going east: 27.761113 N 113.999016 W



I did try cutting the corner farther east on one of the dirt roads a few years ago, but I gave up a few miles in. It was slow, bumpy, and tedious. I'm up for slow & bumpy if it's interesting!

-- Geoff

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Tourists are stealing salt mining equipment while on a vacation? Where do they put it in their campers? I can imagine locals stealing for metal recycling maybe, but why are foreigners believed to be stealing from the salt operation... bizarro?

Quote: Originally posted by shari

I guess you didnt understand where I said you need special permission and the salt works isnt giving out easily...especially not to foreigners as they have had problems with things getting stolen. It is also very confusing with all the roads and heavy equipment working. There are manned gates at the accesses.

Thanks, shari & DianaT. I guess I was holding out hope that this might only apply to the area just southwest of Guerrero Negro, which is marked as no access on my Baja Almanac, and not the areas southeast and farther south. But I am convinced now and will let it be

I was tempted because Google Earth shows some Panaramio photos of users who have gone this route I was considering, and taken some geotagged photos in there. But I guess these people got permission to go in, or work there etc.

Google Earth is how I plan my Baja exploration ideas these days -- looking for those geotagged photos it shows in interesting places.

-- Geoff

Quote: Originally posted by David K

I look forward to your discoveries... Your trip reports are always great!