Ask Coco how to get to Calamajue (sp?) wash. You go east from Coco's and then make a right turn up the canyon. Lots of whoops once you get through the
canyon out to the highway.
We went that way in September. See my trip report, The Baja Extreme 2016.
There is a gold ore mill on the left just before dropping into the canyon and a 1766-1767 mission ruin on the opposite side of the arroyo from the
mill ruins.
There was a sign facing northbound traffic saying to keep out, located south of the water section. The canyon was made off limits for Baja 1000 use a
couple years ago so the road in stream doesn't get torn up.
The road was the historic route of Hwy. 5 from about 1960 to 1983, when the Chapala route was graded.
I'll read the report for sure. Give me some highlights. How far from Coco's. How long to the highway, etc.
I'm riding with my two boys and was thinking to send my truck down the normal way with my friend.
Here are my mileages from my 2012 trip report (I did not log all the miles in 2016). The road begins directly across the road from Coco's and there
was a barrier you had to drive around at the start:
There are two roads southbound from Coco’s Corner, the most used one is the main road to Highway #1 at Laguna Chapala (12.7 miles) which is
graded and will be the route or close to the route of the future paved highway.
The other goes through Calamajue (say: ‘Cal-a-ma-WAY’) canyon is was the main route south before 1983 when the graded road from Laguna Chapala was
completed. For several miles the road and the year-round stream of mineralized water are one in the same. The Baja 1000 race often uses the Calamajue
route, and that often creates a difficult drive until nature repairs the damage.
0.0 Coco's Corner, turn east, off 'Hwy. 5'
6.3 take road going south (right fork). Left is a graded road that continues to the Sea of Cortez (also called the Gulf of California) at Puerto
Calamajue.
12.9 arrive at the top edge of the Calamajue river gorge. To the left here are ruins of a gold ore processing mill from the early 1900’s. The road
ahead drops to the valley floor.
13.1 faint track goes to the left and climbs up the opposite river bank (0.4 mile) to the first site of the 17th Spanish California mission, founded
in 1766. Only there for a few months, the mission was moved because the water was far too salted with minerals to grow any crops. The new location was
given the name Santa Maria de los Angeles and the first location has typically only been known as Calamajue, the local native Indian name (however one
Jesuit missionary wrote that it was first called Nuestra Señora de Columna).
21.1 from Coco’s Corner (not including the side trip to the mission) out of the canyon and pass the access road to Highway 1 at Km. 251. This cut
across road was built in 1973 during the building of Highway 1 to get water, needed for compaction of the roadbed. The next 6.9 miles are mostly slow
because of the whoops (short, deep bumps) usually created by race traffic.
28.0 from Coco's Corner: After passing Rancho El Crucero, opening the gate across the road (and closing it behind us), we reach Highway 1 at Km.
261.
In 2016, that ranch was abandoned and there was no closed gate.
Here is the AAA map zoomed in on Coco's Corner to the L.A. Bay highway.
I remember getting caught in the wash with a pre run trophy truck, just towards the end before you climb out into the sand whoops. That might have
been the last time it was a sanctioned part of the Mil. Effn trophy trucks anyway, they were jackwads knowing I was on a moto.
Everbody\'s preachin\' at me that we all wanna git to heaven, trouble is, nobody wants to die to git there.-BB King
Reality is what does not go away when you stop believing in it. -Philip K Dick
Nothing is worse than active ignorance. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832, German writer, artist and politician)
When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I\'ve never tried before. - Mae West
Experience is what keeps a man who makes the same mistake twice from admitting it the third time around.
I was looking at the road on Google Earth. Does where I put the pin look like the turn off for the canyon? I put a black circle on a picture of what
it says is the mission.
The mission site is on the opposite side of the wash from the box in your black circle.
I can't tell what the turn off you have marked actually is, but that is not El Crucero or the water truck road. The water truck road is at Km. 251, 10
kms. north of El Crucero (Km. 261). It could be what you labeled.
Here are my Google Earth images of the area. I have noted the south end of Hwy. 5 at Laguna Chapala, The Water Truck road (from 1973 construction of
Hwy. 1), El Crucero, the Fork where the water truck and original Calamajué south roads meet, and the mission site.
See the AAA map... it shows the water truck road as 5.4 miles long. See my road log for my measured miles between Coco's and El Crucero... an easier
point to meet your chase truck with ample safe parking area off the highway. The water truck road is at the top of a rise on Hwy. 1 and easy to miss
seeing if not for the Km. 251 marker. El Crucero is marked as "Gate" on the map (gate no longer closed, rancho abandoned).
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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