We ventured back down to Mulege recently in our RV (36ft Class A Winnebago towing a Jeep) from Oregon.
We crossed the border at Mexicali East which was an easy drive from the Desert Trails RV Park where we stayed the night in El Centro, California. We
had a brief delay in secondary inspection as my wife Jaime went in to get our FMMs that we purchased online stamped. I stayed with the RV and had a
couple of officials come on board to do a cursory search which included a dog sniffing around inside. I'm not sure what the dog was trained to find
but it probably wasn't Oregon Pinot Noir and IPA.
Mexicali is a large city but I find it fairly easy to navigate. We like crossing in Tecate and stopping in the incredible Baja wine country of Valle
de Guadalupe but really don't like dealing with the congestion of Ensenada and farming towns south. Highway 5 down to San Felipe for our first stop
was a breeze. Stress always melts away as you drive further into the fun side of the wall.
We stayed a week at Victor's RV park which is a close walk to town for tacos. Our dog Crosby's rabies vaccine was expiring soon so we paid a visit to
a great local vet who cleaned his teeth a couple of years ago. Gracias Dr. Solis! We enjoyed the beach and stocked up on supplies in preparation for
our next stop in the beautiful off grid area of Gonzaga Bay.
Leaving Victor's heading south the road is a little rough but we quickly hit the smooth new pavement which is a night and day difference from our
first trip in 2017 that was a vado (extreme dips) and pothole nightmare. The vados have been tamed and the drive was a breeze to Gonzaga Bay. We
pulled into the store at Rancho Grande and got the bad news that we could only stay two nights instead of a week as we planned. We enjoyed our palapa,
the beach, the beautiful bay, and almost perfect weather. Sometimes you have to punt so we decided to go to Bahia de Los Angeles.
The last 25 or so miles connecting Highway 5 to 1 took a lot of time and effort to finish. The construction was finally completed earlier this year
and hats off to the road builders it is still in excellent condition. Highway 1 was often a minefield of potholes South of Catavina but thankfully is
now in very good condition. It's still very narrow and there's no shoulder to speak of which can make passing a semi-truck a little nerve-racking.
Thirty miles later we arrived at the turnoff to LA Bay and find more new pavement for about another ten miles. At some point, the Mexican government
had a plan to truck yachts from the Pacific to Bahia de Los Angeles so the road is actually fairly wide.
We head back to Daggett's Campground a little out of town where we stayed last year and find a good spot overlooking the bay. It's a little spendy by
Baja standards for dry camping with no hookups at $10 US per person per day but they have hot showers and an RV dump station so it feels like an OK
deal considering the lack of options in the area. We have solar power which is pumping in the almost perfect sunny weather.
A sudden death of our neighbor and good friend altered our plans so we headed back early to Mulege. Traffic was light on Highway 1 and the road was in
good condition so the drive took about six hours. There were two rocky and unwelcome detours around some bridge work south of Santa Rosalia to note
but after some endless last few kilometers, we descended back down the hill into Mulege and finally home.David K - 11-26-2020 at 10:00 AM
Thank you for the report... Sorry about the loss of a friend! HeyMulegeScott - 11-26-2020 at 02:00 PM
was your stay at rancho grande limited to 2 days because of other campers with reservations or??
thanks, we should be headed that way in around 2 weeks
Thanks. Yeah, I guess they had a lot of reservations because of the Baja 1000. Enjoy. It's a great spot.Mulege Canuck - 11-27-2020 at 08:29 AM
I will miss my second home in Mulege this year. Let us now how things are around townbajamary1952 - 11-27-2020 at 08:38 AM
Rancho Grande store attempted to rip me off a couple of years ago so guess that hasn't stopped. I paid for a nights stay at a trailer & when I
arrived at the trailer they had rented it to others who were staying longer and they wanted to put me in a trailer with no electricity. So I demanded
my money back and did get it. That whole area is becoming a big tourist trap so not somewhere I will stay. BajaBlanca - 11-27-2020 at 09:09 AM
Such a nice report. There is a terrible delay for roadwork between Vizcaino and San Ignacio, if you are unlucky to arrive when the other side just
started to have their turn to come, it is going to be at least 10 minutes plus.
They are working on the bridge and hopefully it will be completed soon!Cliffy - 11-27-2020 at 09:46 AM
Terrible delay? :-) I hit 10 min delays for road work all the time here in the states. I figure its a good time to just sit back and relax a little
and listen to music. "Pour me another Pepsi please :-)
Blanca you need to travel more up here :-) but then again why leave such a nice place as you have? Chup - 11-27-2020 at 04:33 PM
Beautiful pics - thank youRocketJSquirrel - 11-28-2020 at 02:19 PM
Blanca, Blanca, Blanca... You are, in fact, one of my heroes. But a ten-minute delay is not "terrible". When you wrote that I was thinking 90-120
minutes PLUS. Then the ten minutes was like the punchline! Good for a chuckle.
