San Felipe Questions - First time in Baja

Hi everyone! My husband and I, and our two dogs are spending 1/2 of December and the first part of January in San Felipe. Trying to get an idea of what to bring and what we can rent/buy there.
We are really active and plan on being outside exploring most of the time there.
We have kayaks but would rather not bring them if we can rent cheaply. Can paddle boards or kayaks be rented in San Felipe? Wetsuits? I'm guessing this is a no, but just trying to find out as much as I can.
We bike a lot, mountain and road and are planning on bring bikes.
We are staying about 8 miles south of san felipe and would like to bike into town, do people bike to get around in Baja? I commute to school and work by bike but unsure of if this is a safe idea there. We are in Phoenix and it's one of the worst places to be a cyclist so I'm thinking it can't be much worse but unsure
Also we are rockhounds - would love to explore anything nearby for fossils, mines, off the beaten path rock formations.
Our vehicle is a AWD subaru with a little clearance but we aren't opposed to hiking, biking back roads that the subaru can't get through.
Are there ATV rentals in San Felipe we can take to the places such as valley of the giants to access more desolate areas?

David, it's been a couple of hours from the posting and I am concerned about you.

Is everything OK or are you just slipping a little?

See www.sanfelipe.com.mx for a few answers.

Sorry, the sea is WAY TOO COLD that time of year! LOL

Rockhounding is a yes! Fossils (must not remove if non-Mexican) are found about 5 miles inland of today's sea level in a few places. I have photos of some south of the sulfur mine, off the old Puertecitos road.

A large abandoned sulfur mine from the 1950s and may WWII period is 4 miles west of Km. 32, on the old road.

A hot spring is located a few miles up Cañon Agua Caliente, off Valle Chico as well as the Puertecitos hot springs, at sea level.

Bruce Barber's book is excellent on the area geology, 'Of Sea and Sand'

Search Nomad for more. Last year, I researched many of the area roads in preparation for a new guide. Those trip reports may be of interest to you:>

San Felipe South: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=85374

Mexicali to San Felipe and the Valle Chico Canyons: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=85989

Fossil beds south of San Felipe: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=57316

Use my links to location photos to get more ideas: http://vivabaja.com/tours/index.html

ENJOY:







[Edited on 9-17-2018 by David K]

Quote: Originally posted by Howard

David, it's been a couple of hours from the posting and I am concerned about you. Is everything OK or are you just slipping a little?

Several years ago, I worked in San Felipe from December thru spring, and what I learned is that the town gets pounded by cold north winds that time of year, almost constantly. Be sure to take appropriate clothing. If you can push back your trip to the end of Feb and March, you will be rewarded with perfect/killer weather.

My wife and I have taken our bikes and ridden all around town, and that's very easy to do. Riding out of town on the highway, not so much fun. Highway 5 south of town is narrow with no shoulders.

Depending on where you're coming from, Tecate can be a great place to cross the border. You can take the toll road 2D east, miss Mexicali traffic, then head south on highway 5. Fast and easy.

You're going to have a great time.

While right in the city (and in any city) the beach may not be as pure as it could be if trash wasn't tossed. You only need to drive a couple miles away to see beauty. Stuck Sucks photo is on the south side of San Felipe looking to the center of town.

Here is the beach, a few miles north of San Felipe (Playa Grande):



and the beach, a few miles south (near Rancho Percebu):



Low tide:





High tide:





If that is an ugly beach, give me more!

Wow! Well I'll be a sunny-beach.

Stuck is spot-on....b u t t cold that time of year!

Quote: Originally posted by David K

While right in the city (and in any city) the beach may not be as pure as it could be if trash wasn't tossed. You only need to drive a couple miles away to see beauty. Stuck Sucks photo is on the south side of San Felipe looking to the center of town. Here is the beach, a few miles north of San Felipe (Playa Grande): If that is an ugly beach, give me more!

Butt ugly. Look at the brown water and dirty brown sand. Tide goes out a 1/4 mile and the beach is worthless. No coves. Just flat, low-lying coast line. SS's pic was great, but that's not what most of SF looks like.

Doesn't hold a candle to Gonzaga, Loreto, or Conception. Or even BoLA for that matter. Not in the same zip code of beauty.

Down there you find turquoise blue waters and white sand beaches. SF is a MX party town or a desert rat town.




[Edited on 9-18-2018 by JZ]

[Edited on 9-19-2018 by BajaNomad]

Waves stir up sand and silt (near Colorado Delta). In your aerial photos there are no waves JZ.
Here is the same beach without waves (no wind):

===== =

Quote: Originally posted by Fatboy

Wolfpack, Some good advice on here such as what ADVRIDER and DAVIDK posted. Hopefully others will chime in and give you more tips and ideas. Go with open eyes and a smile and you should enjoy yourselves. Take some posters on here with a grain of salt such as JZ. He lacks tact, but I hope he means well. According to him all dedicated GPS's should be immediately thrown in the dump, you must host your pictures on a 3rd party site and now it appears San Felipe is an 'armpit'. A lot of people go to San Felipe and have plenty of fun and while it is not my area of choice, do not be dissuaded without looking into it first. I too prefer to go much further south but with the road being paved so far down you have to go quite far nowadays to see any hints of the 'old baja' and you may or may not have the time to travel so far south. Do not underestimate the area northwest of San Felipe. Look up on this site about Walter Henderson's Rock Pile for some info. Lots of cool stuff in those there mountains up around Cerro Borrego(Sharps Peak or whichever name you choose to use).

Quote: Originally posted by JZ

Skip San Felipe and go to Loreto or maybe Conception Bay. San Felipe is the arm pit of Baja. Beaches are ugly, mountains don't run along the coast. No good coves and no islands to explore. Just a big party town for locals from Mexicali and desert rats from the US. Keep going South and you'll find the good spots in Baja. [Edited on 9-17-2018 by JZ]

JZ,
I *am* a desert rat from the US !!! I’ll take that as a compliment
We already have a reservation as I mentioned, so ragging on the place I’m going when is really just bringing negativity to the whole topic. If you notice in the original post I was asking for suggestions for where I’m going and things to do - not other vacation spots to switch to
I’m not trying to be more than 5(ish) or so hours from home (Phoenix) which is why we chose San Felipe.
Our options were Rosario or Ensenada, Rocky Point or San Felipe. San Felipe had a beautiful home available on the beach with WiFi that is dog friendly for the month we want to travel.

Neither of us speak Spanish and didn’t want to go so far into a brand new place for a whole month having never been to Mexico.
As far as the beaches being ugly - I grew up on the north east coast of the United States, Maryland/Jersey areas - No instagram filter in the world can make those photos as nice as the one’s I’ve seen even of northern Baja. Obviously I know I’m not going to be in Hawaii but you make it sound like downtown LA.



[Edited on 9-18-2018 by wolfpack]

SF pictures... Not such a bad place...

Quote: Originally posted by wolfpack

Hi everyone! My husband and I, and our two dogs are spending 1/2 of December and the first part of January in San Felipe. Trying to get an idea of what to bring and what we can rent/buy there. We are really active and plan on being outside exploring most of the time there. We have kayaks but would rather not bring them if we can rent cheaply. Can paddle boards or kayaks be rented in San Felipe? Wetsuits? I'm guessing this is a no, but just trying to find out as much as I can. We bike a lot, mountain and road and are planning on bring bikes. We are staying about 8 miles south of san felipe and would like to bike into town, do people bike to get around in Baja? I commute to school and work by bike but unsure of if this is a safe idea there. We are in Phoenix and it's one of the worst places to be a cyclist so I'm thinking it can't be much worse but unsure Also we are rockhounds - would love to explore anything nearby for fossils, mines, off the beaten path rock formations. Our vehicle is a AWD subaru with a little clearance but we aren't opposed to hiking, biking back roads that the subaru can't get through. Are there ATV rentals in San Felipe we can take to the places such as valley of the giants to access more desolate areas?

Quote: Originally posted by wolfpack

Hi everyone! My husband and I, and our two dogs are spending 1/2 of December and the first part of January in San Felipe. Trying to get an idea of what to bring and what we can rent/buy there. We are really active and plan on being outside exploring most of the time there. We have kayaks but would rather not bring them if we can rent cheaply. Can paddle boards or kayaks be rented in San Felipe? Wetsuits? I'm guessing this is a no, but just trying to find out as much as I can. We bike a lot, mountain and road and are planning on bring bikes. We are staying about 8 miles south of san felipe and would like to bike into town, do people bike to get around in Baja? I commute to school and work by bike but unsure of if this is a safe idea there. We are in Phoenix and it's one of the worst places to be a cyclist so I'm thinking it can't be much worse but unsure Also we are rockhounds - would love to explore anything nearby for fossils, mines, off the beaten path rock formations. Our vehicle is a AWD subaru with a little clearance but we aren't opposed to hiking, biking back roads that the subaru can't get through. Are there ATV rentals in San Felipe we can take to the places such as valley of the giants to access more desolate areas?

Great article!

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Great article!

Thanks, David.


Sancho - You are probably right about the quality of the boards. We love our inflatables for travel.

Quote: Originally posted by Three2tango

... We love our inflatables for travel.

A month ago I was boating with a friend who was very proud of his brand new inflatable. Our gear was stacked by the wharf while we walked over to the cafe to order some lunch to go....

While standing there we heard a rather loud explosion that made everyone look to the dock area. When we returned to load the boat I was first to see that the SUP had exploded....15 minutes sitting in sun was all it took....

Poor guy had never even used it....

Quote: Originally posted by motoged

A month ago I was boating with a friend who was very proud of his brand new inflatable. Our gear was stacked by the wharf while we walked over to the cafe to order some lunch to go.... While standing there we heard a rather loud explosion that made everyone look to the dock area. When we returned to load the boat I was first to see that the SUP had exploded....15 minutes sitting in sun was all it took.... Poor guy had never even used it....

Quote: Originally posted by norte

As has come up in another thread, San Felipe has been having a lot of problems with violence over the last year. Some got arrested but are out now and looking for revenge. I would look elsewhere until it all cooled down.

Quote: Originally posted by JZ

Quote: Originally posted by norte   As has come up in another thread, San Felipe has been having a lot of problems with violence over the last year. Some got arrested but are out now and looking for revenge. I would look elsewhere until it all cooled down. You literally post this about every town in Baja. I don't like San Felipe, but this is not a reason to avoid it. We get it already, you don't want ppl to go to Baja for some reason.

Quote: Originally posted by David K

See www.sanfelipe.com.mx for a few answers. Sorry, the sea is WAY TOO COLD that time of year! LOL Rockhounding is a yes! Fossils (must not remove if non-Mexican) are found about 5 miles inland of today's sea level in a few places. I have photos of some south of the sulfur mine, off the old Puertecitos road. A large abandoned sulfur mine from the 1950s and may WWII period is 4 miles west of Km. 32, on the old road. A hot spring is located a few miles up Cañon Agua Caliente, off Valle Chico as well as the Puertecitos hot springs, at sea level. Bruce Barber's book is excellent on the area geology, 'Of Sea and Sand' Search Nomad for more. Last year, I researched many of the area roads in preparation for a new guide. Those trip reports may be of interest to you:> San Felipe South: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=85374 Mexicali to San Felipe and the Valle Chico Canyons: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=85989 Fossil beds south of San Felipe: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=57316 Use my links to location photos to get more ideas: http://vivabaja.com/tours/index.html ENJOY: [Edited on 9-17-2018 by David K]

Quote: Originally posted by wolfpack

David - is the *old road* the one that runs parallel to 5 - just a little west of highway 5? ==== I will answer The Old Pureticitos road (I call it OPR) parallels Hwy 5 and the drive is a good way to see the desert as opposed to the drive on the pavement. Yes the road is damaged, buy just about an off road rig or pickup can drive it with no issues. Some places will be such that you will have to negotiate some big rocks. In the worst whoops you will find a better bypass on the side. Do it at least once and tell your friends all about it. From the north the road begins just south of the south PMEX and merges with Hwy 5 at ~Km51.

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Yes. On my map, I only show a few miles of it near the sulfur mine as it is very torn up, being used for the Baja 1000 and other races and not being graded since 1983 when the new road was built along the coast. Not much need for it to get anywhere, anymore. Where the highway swings away from the coast it joins the route of the old road and stays on it to Puertecitos.

Hi Paul, the new 2018 maps I have made are to complement the Baja Bound Road Guide I produced.

I like maps and I wanted to make my road logs even more visual so the reader can "see" where the roads I have logs for are in relation to the land and sea, and other major roads mentioned or logged by me.

The Old Puertecitos Road (OPR) was very important to me as it was the first dirt road I traveled on in Baja... in 1965 going to Gonzaga Bay.

I traveled over it often, and later (1974+) drove it many many times from that year until 1982 when I was surprised to bump into a new graded highway as I was driving to Shell Island from OPR. It blocked the original arroyo road and I had to find a way to get around this huge new dam!

In any case, The only place I see a need to show OPR for my readers was where I actually use a bit of it in the new guide from the Azufre Pass road to the Sulfur Mine. It is in really bad shape now in that area.

I purposely avoided crowding the map with more details than needed for what the book had to keep it easy to use. We have the Baja Almanac, even though it is almost 10 years old, to show more, plus I bet someone will take up the reins of making new San Felipe South off-road maps, as I used to do in the 70s and 80s.

Here are some of my hand-drawn maps from age 16-47 for anyone who likes maps, as I do... It was one way I could "go back to Baja" when I was at home... I have Mike McMahan and other Baja maps on my walls, wherever I lived... since I was 13!

1973:


1978:


1980:


1980:


1988:


2004:



I did a lot of my mapping using a Subaru 4WD wagon! I re-opened the Azufre Pass route which was an abandoned road when I found it in 1978... and moved a lot of rocks to get through! I called it Santa Rosa Canyon originally as some maps called the mountain, Sierra Santa Rosa. I am the one who showed my map of it to Sal Fish and he invited me to help Score... I declined, but it wasn't long before the San Felipe 250 used it.

Here I am with my Subaru, pre-running the Baja 1000 in 1979, south of Puertecitos. I was 22...

Quote: Originally posted by David K

It is over 2 hours from the border, not close, and 5 hours from San Diego. It is where the big sand beaches begin and all sorts of desert and canyon sidetrips for us with 4WD, buggies, bikes, or like camping. We don't stay in town or motels. Where we camp is the greatest and being an island, most don't go there or like camping under the stars like we do. Sand, sea, and shells are all we need to be provided with.

Again, you are focussing on the city of San Felipe and not the desert region beyond. I don't do cities. I can stay in the United States if I wanted to be around crowds and have paved streets. San Felipe is where I fill my gas tank, get some fish tacos sometimes, and leave to go here...

Oh, I'm not talking about the town of SF, because we all know how crappy that is, I'm talking about the desert and ocean in that area.

Just look at that flat, low lying coastline in your pic. And the tide is gonna go out a 1/4 mile in an hr or so.

SF is trash compared to this:










[Edited on 12-12-2018 by JZ]

Quote: Originally posted by Three2tango

We have enjoyed our time in San Felipe. It's a fun little town. We even kind of like the scruffiness. Much better than a fake tourist town like Cabo or Cancun. It would be awesome if the water was like JZ is showing in his pictures but then it wouldn't be an affordable place to visit. It's not like Rocky Point in that the vast majority of visitors are actually Mexican unless you are hanging out in the gringo communities like El Dorado Ranch.