Green Door trail

New Green Door Track
This time we started from the south and we had great success.
Issues were found. We had to drive around huge Cardon’s across the road in two places but were able to get back on the road with some trials. The road for the most part is heavily overgrown, and we had to bash thru some pretty big tree limbs. Tons of scratches and after the first rig we had sap dripping on our rigs. (The sap came off with alcohol when we got home).
Our previous track was done with a Garmin and used a 10-minute track point interval, so we used that track just as a gross guide. Tha t track is omitted on the attached KMZ. The road was easy enough to find. Yes, we found their TW and Johns track from November and they missed the road at one point by less than 20 ‘. It was on their left.
It is obvious from examining our track the south end was difficult as the bushes had concealed the road. Thus, we wandered a bit.
The Murdock map has a road that was accurate as it starts from the south and is not complete. We followed it until it ended at a side wash. From there the road was easy to find. When traveling S the area where Murdock ends is a very easy place to lose the road. The new track solves that issue for sure.

Major edit:
The KMZ does not show the important WPs:
Jct North is 28 40.7633, -113 25.491
Jct South is 28 27.763, -1213 12.697
Stone wall is 28 39.421, -113 26.161






Attachment: Trail001GD.kmz (77kB)
This file has been downloaded 305 times

[Edited on 2-3-2020 by PaulW]

GOOD JOB PAUL!!!

I last drove the entire route from north to south in 2002, other times either the north half or the south half (2001-2003)

This road's modern history is told in Erle Stanley Gardner's 1967 book, 'Off the Beaten Track in Baja'... The Gardner expedition blazed this route in February of 1966. It was not on any map then and only old sages like Dick Daggett of L.A. Bay seemed to know of it. The Gardner team reopened and reconstructed where necessary theis route so they could get to Rancho El Barril directly from Bahía de los Angeles.

The 1965 AAA map only shows some of it:



The first book to make a road log and draw a map of it was the 1972 updated edition of Cliff Cross' Baja Guide.



The Auto Club began to map all of it, too... here's their 1973 map:



The better detailed 1975 & 1978 maps:





1987 the new graded road via San Rafael was added and the road more accurately placed:



1989 was the last year they included the old road:



The final AAA maps (to 2010) included the northern part of the road:



How the Green Door Road got its name...
Paulina and Dern pose at it, a few years ago, before it vanished.

Quote: Originally posted by PaulW

New Green Door Track This time we started from the south and we had great success. Issues were found. We had to drive around huge Cardon’s across the road in two places but were able to get back on the road with some trials. The road for the most part is heavily overgrown, and we had to bash thru some pretty big tree limbs. Tons of scratches and after the first rig we had sap dripping on our rigs. (The sap came off with alcohol when we got home). Our previous track was done with a Garmin and used a 10-minute track point interval, so we used that track just as a gross guide. Tha t track is omitted on the attached KMZ. The road was easy enough to find. Yes, we found their TW and Johns track from November and they missed the road at one point by less than 20 ‘. It was on their left. It is obvious from examining our track the south end was difficult as the bushes had concealed the road. Thus, we wandered a bit. The Murdock map has a road that was accurate as it starts from the south and is not complete. We followed it until it ended at a side wash. From there the road was easy to find. When traveling S the area where Murdock ends is a very easy place to lose the road. The new track solves that issue for sure. Major edit: The KMZ does not show the important WPs: Jct North is 28 40.7633, -113 25.491 Jct South is 28 27.763, -1213 12.697 Stone wall is 28 39.421, -113 26.161 [Edited on 2-3-2020 by PaulW]

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

the kmz file has now disappeared