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Ribbonslinger
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Registered: 12-15-2013
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2013 First Trip to Baja
We started our trip Early January when we left Vancouver Island for Baja. We stopped at four places on our way south.
1) Cottage Grove in Oregon. Nice spot with a small pond with lots of Canada Geese.
2) Rolling Hills Casino in northern California. Get the smorgasbord. You will not have to eat for a couple of days. Nice place for the dog to walk.
3) Bear Mountain Trailer Park. Seen “Trailer Park Boys”, sort of like that.
4) Salton Sea. Great Bird life but don’t plan on swimming. Dead fish and mud. Fill up with water here since we are in Mexico tomorrow.
We crossed at Mexicali East border x-ing and got our visa. Then we drove west along the “Berlin Wall” to highway 2 and Guadalupe Hot Springs. There
are two ways to get there once off the highway, either Laguna Salada or the “road”. Took the road it was very slow. If it has not rained take Laguna
Salada, much faster.
A local was broke down so we stopped to help him but now we were late and got to the hot springs at dusk. We could not make it to our tub on the
regular road since we were too wide to fit through the Palm trees so we had to drive through the jungle route through deep black muck. Got stuck, got
unstuck, then finally we got to La Rana Tub. Oscar the host (great guy!) named the jungle route “The Trans Canada Highway” the next day. My come a
long saved the day for sure.
We planned to stay for 2 days but stayed for 5. Amazing place! If you go there do it on a full moon since it lights up the canyon at night.
Photos next.
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Ribbonslinger
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Ribbonslinger
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Ribbonslinger
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Posts: 131
Registered: 12-15-2013
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Ribbonslinger
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Posts: 131
Registered: 12-15-2013
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Ribbonslinger
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Posts: 131
Registered: 12-15-2013
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Ribbonslinger
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Posts: 131
Registered: 12-15-2013
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Ribbonslinger
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ehall
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Registered: 3-29-2014
Location: Buckeye, Az
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Mood: It's 5 o'clock somewhere
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beautiful place. Great advice on taking the dry lake bed instead of the road.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64739
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Thanks for a look at Guadalupe Canyon again... we miss the place!
FYI, you can post multiple photos in a singe post and type captions or text between the photo links (double space). Great job on the photo sizing!
Looking forward to more!
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wilderone
Ultra Nomad
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Thanks for the post and the hotsprings update. May I ask what the rates were?
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Ribbonslinger
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We booked it on line. It is expensive. I think it was $65/ night. La Rana tub is the one you want. January when we were there the place was almost
deserted. Might be a good time to go. Getting a full size truck and camper to that Tub is a challenge. Be careful not to trash your camper on the
palm trees, very tight!
Having said all that we will be going back for sure.
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rts551
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6699
Registered: 9-5-2003
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You have the right rig to explore baja and still have a nice bed to sleep in, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a place to get out of the elements.
New places/new faces!
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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But watch out for the frogs.
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4332
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Location: Yes
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Your last pic I can see the Virgin! 
Good times. 
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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Pacifico
Super Nomad
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Looks awesome... Gotta get there one of these days! Is this the place with little cabins or palapas? Or, just open campsites? Thanks!
"Plan your life as if you are going to live forever. Live your life as if you are going to die tomorrow." - Carlos Fiesta
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Ribbonslinger
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Just open campsites. Has picknic tables and fire grills. Bring some mesquite.
There is a hot shower. Can hike up and down the valley or Mt. Bike. The water in the canyon upstream reminded me of BC and the water was just as
cold.
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Ribbonslinger
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We reluctantly left the hot springs and were on our way to San Felipe. Drove the Laguna Salada route this time and it was great. Don’t go too fast
as there are still some deep ruts along the road.
We came to our first military checkpoint….. I was pretty nervous being approached by soldiers with rifles. I guess I looked like I was going to shi!
my pants because the boys all had some big grins on their faces. No problems and we were off to San Felipe. We stayed at Pete’s Camp. I had read it
is like a drive in theater on the beach. OK place to stay for a night but not why I drove 2000km from Canada. We filled up with water there,
mistake! I wondered why the dog would not drink and the coffee tasted shi!. It was very salty water we put in our tanks, so don’t get water at
Pete’s Camp.
Saw this rig there at Pete’s Camp. He was a retired logging truck driver for BC. Pretty impressive.
We got to Punta Finale the next day and we loved it! No other campers there and a great beach. We went kayaking south of Snoopy’s Rock into a small
“inlet” to get to some amazing beaches. If you go to Punta Finale you have to have a boat.
That is Snoopy’s rock in the background.
Brian on guard duty.
Our first time out in the kayaks I saw something pretty big on the surface. I paddled over and it was a Hammerhead Shark, about 9ft. Called my wife
over after it went under the water, we were both a little freaked out with 4” of freeboard in our kayaks. We soon realized there was a school of
these sharks under the kayaks! Tried not to look down and no snorkeling that day.
This is an incredible beach. No road access and you can see Snoopy’s in the background.
This is the view from the back of the “inlet”. I wanted hike from there to the salt water lake but my co-pilot was not as into it as I was. Next
time.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64739
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Awesome!
Punta Final is typically a vacation home community. Nice you found a place to camp there by Snoopy.
Great job with the photos and captions!
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Tioloco
Super Nomad
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Registered: 7-30-2014
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There are nice empty beach spots to camp between Punta final and alfonsinas. Awesome beauty!
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