Canon Del Diablo?

Looking for some more ideas to explore around San Felipe. Friday I went out to what I think was Canon Del Diablo based on some old maps in The Baja Adventure book. I accessed from a newly paved road south of El Dorado Ranch off Hwy 5.

The entrance to this canyon was at 31°02'38.3"N 115°16'30.7"W

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I didn't hike up very far but according to the book, there's a waterfall up here.

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Some awesome cardon cactus on the side.

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I went back across the dry lake bed and on part of the course for the San Felipe 250 marked by signs. The wrong way sign is green.



[Edited on 3-25-2018 by Three2tango]

Beautiful photos!
There are more canyons to the south you can explore (El Cajon, Agua Caliente, El Berrendo, El Parral, and Matomí).
Let me know if you need directions, photos, etc.!



[Can you set your flickr upload size to 800 pixels maximum, so Doug won't have to resize them to fit the Nomad width limit?]

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Beautiful photos! There are more canyons to the south you can explore (El Cajon, Agua Caliente, El Berrendo, El Parral, and Matomí). Let me know if you need directions, photos, etc.! [Can you set your flickr upload size to 800 pixels maximum, so Doug won't have to resize them to fit the Nomad width limit?]

Awesome job with the photos!
I am heading out the door for a family event, but will get you more data later... for now, here is a section of my new Road Guide from that area....

San Felipe (Km. 181) to Rancho Matomí via Valle Chico, 61 miles

The eastside canyons of the San Pedro Mártir mountain range offer excellent hiking and camping locations, most with flowing water, some with the endemic Baja California blue palm trees, Indian petroglyphs, and even hot springs. Flash floods come in the summer and fall and can change or even destroy roads. Off-Road racing is popular in Baja California and many roads get heavy use from race traffic. Arrows and ribbons mark the race course routes. Do not disturb or remove these markers.

0.0 Miles: Highway 5 at Km. 181, north of San Felipe at the Colonia Morelia road. There are some kilometer posts are along this road.
4.3 (Km. 7+) El Dorado Ranch resident road (from Km. 178.5) junction. This was once known as the ‘Zoo Road’ as it began where a curio store sold carved-wood animals on Highway 5, a ‘zoo’ of animals.
5.1 (Km. 8.5) Join the original Ensenada-San Felipe road (from or to Km. 189+).
12.5 Cattle guard.
12.8 (Km. 20.5+) Fork. Right (west) to Diablo Dry Lake (original road to Ensenada, signed ‘Colonia San Pedro Mártir’). Log continues, using the left fork, south to Matomí.
19.5 (Km. 31.5) Fork. Right (west) to Rancho El Cajon. Continue going south taking the left fork for Valle Chico and Matomí.
Baja California’s highest peak, Picacho del Diablo can be seen throughout the region.
24.6 Junction. Continue straight/south. The road to the east from here is often used for racing going back to San Felipe.
25.9 Cattle guard.
26.0 (Km. 42) Road right (west) goes to Arco del Triunfo, a drug rehab center.
29.6 Cattle guard.
31.5 Crossroad. Ahead (west) for Rancho Algodón and the old road north along the base of the mountain. Turn left (south) for Agua Caliente, El Berrendo, and Matomí.
36.4 (Km. 58.5) Abandoned farm on east side.
39.4 Enter abandoned farm town, shown on maps as Plan Nacional Agrario or Agua Caliente. Perhaps part of the Colonia Morelia vineyard project. An active ranch is just ahead at a major fork in the road.
39.6 Major fork: South is the left fork, left side of ranch house for going to El Berrendo and Matomí. Continue below, at Mile 0.0.

For Agua Caliente Canyon, take the right fork (west) here, toward the mountains, keeping left at the next fork, just beyond.
0.1-0.6 miles drive on the former farm airstrip, since ditched as with many rural airstrips to prevent use by drug runners.
2.0 Enter Agua Caliente canyon.
2.2 Pass steel water tank.
2.4 Closed gate. Petroglyphs are high up the cliff on the south side of the canyon.
2.6 Road washed out here. A track to the left may be passable to extreme 4WD vehicles. Hot springs alongside of a cool mountain stream are located 3.2 miles further up the canyon, on the right side.

0.0 Miles At the major fork, 39.6 mi from San Felipe, reset your trip odometer to continue south.
1.7 Fence road to left (east), stay on the right fork.
5.4 Fork. Matomí left (east), El Berrendo and El Parral Canyon to right (south). Road to El Berrendo described:
0.2 Pass corral of Rancho Carricitos and a road to right to Carrizo Canyon.
1.5 Road west to El Berrendo blue palms, south to El Parral (7.4 miles). Turn west.
3.9 Fence and cable across canyon. Boulders just ahead would prevent driving much further than this point. Blue palms grow high on the mountain and in the arroyo here. https://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajatravel/el_berre...
On the Matomí road, Mile 5.4 above:
8.1 Corner of fenced area, fence road to the left, stay on the right (southern) fork.
8.2 Fork, go left (east) on the well-used track. Right fork road south ends after one mile.
8.5 Junction. Fence line road across Valle Chico to Cañada el Parral (Azufre Wash) and a road through the mountains to Highway 5, via the sulfur mine area
South of the Azufre Wash fence line road (Mile 8.5 above) the road to Matomí canyon is slow going for over 4 miles with numerous moguls or cross grain terrain.
13.0 Cattle guard and a new fence.
16.2 Top of a steep grade down into Arroyo Matomí. 4WD required to return up this grade.
16.5 Bottom of the grade, Arroyo Matomí. The normally passable route to Highway 5 (27 miles) was blocked by large rocks, 2.8 miles to the east of here in March 2017 to all but extreme off-road vehicles and motorcycles. Turn right (west) 5 miles for Rancho Matomí.
21.5 Rancho Matomí, unoccupied. A steep path just east of the house leads down to a waterfall fed pool. Blue palms upstream provide attractive camping possibilities along the year-round running stream.

There is a trail to Rancho Parral, in the next canyon north (approx. 4 mi.). About a half mile north from Rancho Matomí is a small oasis of blue palms.
https://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajatravel/matomi_f...

Diablo East Trail head

Two TH

There are some Google earth images

Reaching Diablo Canyon trail-head

There are maps of the canyons with details in the links at www.vivabaja.com/maps

Edit: Here is the Canyons Map Page (Paul W's work is included): https://vivabaja.com/canyons/

1962 Bud Bernhard map notes (on Howard Gulick's Lower California Guidebook map):



1967 John Robinson Map from 'Camping and Climbing in Baja':



2021 'geoffff's' canyon listed map on the Baja Almanac map:



*The 2023 Baja Atlas from Benchmark has additional and corrected canyon names, thanks to PaulW


[Edited on 1-22-2024 by David K]