British Columbia to Baja; Winter Solstice in the Desert

rfoubi

Observer
So my wife, Kim, and I have been to Baja 5-6 times since we met 10 years ago. Many times without our vehicle, and in 2009 we drove our trusty VW van down the mainland and back up the peninsula. Since then the van has gotten older (it’s an 87) and put on many miles (up to 460,000km), but has been infused with a newer Subaru engine and tons of mods, and is still going strong.

Of course we have changed since then too, and welcomed a new member into the family. Orson was born in February and starting going on weekend van camping trips with us ever since he was 2 months old. Although our summer weekend trips were frequent and great, we were really dreaming of getting on the road again for a longer trip, specifically back to the desert SW and Baja.

Originally the trip was slated for November, which is a cold, dark and generally undesirable month in the ski town we live in (Rossland BC). Too cold and wet/dark to mountain bike, not enough snow to really ski, etc. However a 3 month work contract came up that I couldn’t refuse, and thus the dates we had available were mid December to mid January. As you know, North America is pretty cold and dark for the most part at that time of year, so we were going to have to stay south and low elevation if we hoped to get the nice weather we were looking for.
Since the whole northern 2/3 of the US and all of Canada was frozen solid, and driving 2500km each way with a baby seemed like a terrible idea, we decided that Kim and Orson would fly to Phoenix and I would drive the van and all our junk down, and then we would focus our trip on southern AZ/CA and northern Baja.

It was a crazy week leading up to departure date, but we managed to get the van loaded up with bikes, our canoe, camping gear, baby stuff, and everything we would need. Of course we had a work Christmas party to go to on the Friday night, and then I had foolishly booked the flight to show up in PHX on Monday morning. So it was going to be a marathon drive for me, in full winter conditions in a 30 year old vehicle, with 2600km to cover in 54 hours. Anway, lets begin!

Part One: Canada to Phoenix

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

3:45am, temperature -19C (-2F). No block heater, van parked outside. But the suby motor purred to life first try and the van and I were off! 10 minutes later I crossed the US border with no issues, and it was game on. The next 3-4 hours were quite dark and cold… The heat works decently in the van, but it only comes out in the front, and there is a lot of cold airspace sucking the heat back as fast as it can come out the front. I had to drive with the heat on full the whole time, and even then my feet would get cold, and I was rocking a down vest and toque.

A few weird quirks with transmission being stiff to shift, door locks freezing shut etc kept me on the edge of my seat, but eventually the worry dissipated, and gave way to the excitement of being on the road again. The familiar noises of the van set me at ease, and a hot coffee in my hand made watching the sunrise come to the frozen countryside of rural Washington quite the pleasure as I cruised south.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

I hit I-90 and blasted over to tri-ctites, and drove all over town trying to track down a few items I hadn’t had time to gather for the trip. A new house battery, spare coolant, fuel filters, headlight bulbs, and anything else that might be hard to track down in rural mexico. I stocked up on groceries and supplies as well, and then continued down I84 into Oregon, and across the mountain passes near Baker City and La Grande. I stopped to snap a photo and soak in the glorious snow covered PNW before I started into the desert.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

The van in all its glory, looking silly with canoe and bikes in a snowy forest. A quick sidenote about the van and its history: My parents bought in new in 87, at which point I was 2 years old. I basically grew up with this van throughout my childhood, and then when I was 16, the transmission went on the van and my parents were contemplating selling it. I made a deal to pay for the transmission repair (which thankfully didn’t cost the $4k it would these days) and the van was mine. Since then it was my daily driver for years. Before we went to Mexico the first time, I stripped the old rusty paintjob down to bare metal and repainted it my garage with rollers and 200 bucks of marine paint. Since then we’ve slowly turned it into a very capable expedition rig. It is only 2WD, but with rear engine and rear wheel drive, loads of clearance, a LSD, and big tires, it will go an amazing amount of places. The engine was replaced 5 years ago with a 2008 subaru 2.5L engine putting out 165 HP that now enables us to do the speed limit, even up hills! Other kit includes second battery, 12V truckfridge, propex propane heater, 2x 30W solar panels on the ski box, etc etc.

Anyway sorry, I digress! Back to eastern Oregon:

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

Nice sunny, cold weather, with bare roads made for quite pleasant driving as the sun set and I passed through Mountain home, ID, before heading south on the 51 through Owyhee and Mountain City, NV.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

Very cold, however. -22C intake temps. As I crossed the mountains into northern Nevada, it dropped as low as -26 outside (-15F). This is after I have driven 1300km straight south. ******. Anyway around midnight I pulled into a dirt road south of Carlin, and settled in for some much needed rest. 1360km/850 miles for the day. Great success!

It was a bit of a cold night (-15C). usually I would have my -40 sleeping bag, but we were heading for mexico and I figured on lows around freezing at worst. So I huddled under the wool blankets and it was actually decently comfortable. Although we have a propex propane heater with a thermostat that I could run all night to keep the van warm, for some reason I just like to tough it out and only crank the heater in the morning to take the chill off. I sure enjoyed warming my toes by the heater in the morning though!
I woke up before dawn, eager to keep pushing on to make it to PHX by the next morn. I watched the sun rise in the expansive desert of northern Nevada as I continued south.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr
Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

While planning the routes I would drive, I had mainly been interested in trying to find a fairly quick direct route, but also one that travelled a few roads I hadn’t been on. So I took 278 towards Eureka, and then west towards Austin. My trip planning had also involved finding some hot springs that were close to pavement so I could sneak in a tub or two en route. I decided to check out Spencer Hot Springs southeast of Austin, NV.
It felt great to turn off the pavement and get onto the gravel. Hot springs is ahead in the distance.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

Oh and the views weren’t bad either

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr
Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

The pools were a bit too cool since the ambient temps had been so low for so long, but it was still warm enough to soak. There were 2 other people when I showed up, so we chatted for a while, and then they left, and I had the tub to myself, with the amazing snowy mountain backdrop. It was hard to leave! But I still had a very long way to go, so, alas I hit the pavement again and blasted south.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

I had planned to go through Tonopah and check out the Crescent Dunes, and the giant solar power plant there. My dad (who also loves the desert and epic drives) had shown me some photos of this area, and I had been intrigued ever since. Secretly I was also just looking for excuses to take some dirt backroads on the way down south. I followed 376 south past Round Mountain, and then turned west onto the high speed gravel desert tracks that cut west towards route 89.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

Soon, I could see the solar tower, rising out of the shimmering desert like the eye of Sauron.
Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

It beckoned me like a beacon in the desert, and after 20-30km of gravel I arrived.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

It’s a huge array, and consists of >10,000 heliostats (big mirrors) that concentrate the suns rays on a giant central tower full of molten salt, which stores the thermal energy. Pretty cool to see in person, the scale is staggering. Unfortunately it was down for maintenance, so all of the mirrors were tilted flat.

Its also located right next to some amazing sand dunes, so its great to see nature and technology both in all their glory. I took a quick jog up the dunes to get some exercise and snap some photos. Oh and I was pretty excited that the temperature outside had finally broken above freezing. That only took 1000 miles of driving!

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr
Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

This was a last minute project before the trip, getting some solar power of my own to help keep the batteries topped up while camping. The only available real estate on the roof of the van is the roof of our ski box, since we always have mountain bikes and either surfboards or a canoe. I mounted two 30W Renogy solar panels up there and wired them up with MC4 connectors so the roof box could still be taken off (eg to work on my van in the garage at home). There is space for another 30w panel up there, so at some point I will probably add to the capacity of the system. I’d love to add a movable 80-100W setup to really harness the suns power, but this system is working amazingly so far. Its nice to watch the battery voltage displays and see the effect of the sun charging the batteries anytime the sun is out. Whether we are at camp with the roof box lid propped up and pointed at the sun, or simply pulling into a grocery store and the rig sits for half an hour soaking up the sun. Previous to installing solar, our house battery would run the fridge, interior lights etc for between 36 and 48 hours before the voltage dropped too low. Now, even after running the propex heater (12v fan) for 1hr a day, the fridge 24-7, interior lights, stereo, and exterior LED camp lighting, and commonly 2-3 hours of charging a macbook, camera and ipad, we never killed the battery after >48hrs (which was the longest we ever stayed in one place).

Anyway enough rambling about that, let’s get back to the trip. Another last minute item I had purchased for the desert/beach were some MAXSA sand ladders. These are basically one of the better reviewed of the knock-off Maxtrax type ladders. I didn’t want to spend too much on them but wanted something to keep our heavy 2wd rig from getting really buried in the sand. So I decided to do some testing in a small patch of sand with a hard bottom gravel road under, in a place with cell service not far from the highway in case I got really stuck haha. I figured better to test it solo first and figure out the capabilities, rather than on a beach with the tide coming in a screaming baby, and an unimpressed wife!
So I parked on the soft stuff, hit the brakes, gunned the throttle and buried the back wheels. Nice and stuck. Next dig the sand out, plop the ladders in, and then carefully feather the clutch and throttle to roll onto the ladders, pick up some speed, and hopefully float across the sand. It worked amazingly well! I had to repeat this process several times, but overall I was super impressed with how well it works. After having been stuck in sand/snow many times in both 4WD and 2WD vehicles, I sure can appreciate having these around. So while I always kind of thought that these were poser expo bling, I now totally see how well they actually work, and won’t travel without them again.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr
Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

I shook the sand off the ladders, packed them up (lashed to the inside of the canoe) and hit the road. Since my route took me directly through Las Vegas, I decided to hit up my favourite taco joint (Tacos El Gordo), which is located on the strip. I still don’t get how this little strip mall of Korean restaurants, the taco restaurant, and some liquor stores and convenience stores hasn’t been bulldozed for a glitzy casino, but by some miracle it hasn’t, and I waited in the 20 minute lineup, which was totally worth it, and walked away with 5 tacos al pastor, refueled, and hit the road.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

Token vegas shot.

I headed southwest, past the pitch black hoover dam, across the new (ish) bridge and into Arizona. Unfortunately there had just been a big accident involving a moving truck with trailer rolling on the freeway. I sat in gridlock for 2 hours, but it wasn’t too bad since I had plenty of organizing and fiddly little last minute interior projects that hadn’t been completed in the hurry to hit the road. So I tinkered inside the van until traffic got moving again, and then made it as far as Wickenburg, Az, where I pulled onto a dirt road and found a place to crash. Another 1100km covered today. Waking up a scant few hours later was rough, but the sunrise and the Saguaros made it worthwhile.

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr

An uneventful but slow, rush hour drive into Phoenix ensued, and I did in fact make it to the airport in time to meet the flight that Kim and Orson were on.
I’ll end this part with a shot of me pulling into the airport and a map of the route so far.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qUIlJ9E3EtnyvpoLmdybui6yVMk&usp=sharing

Stay tuned for part two. (Southern Arizona)

Untitled by Robin Foubister, on Flickr
 

rfoubi

Observer
Part 2: Southern Arizona

There is a facebook group for VW van owners to share their driveways for others to camp in. We are members and decided to contact the phoenix members of the group to see if anyone would host us. We met Scott and Connie, who welcomed us into their yard and we shared stories and checked out their impressive collection including beetles, split window buses, and vanagons. They also offered us tangelos from the tree and peppers and eggplant fresh from the garden in December. What a great way to spend our first night in phoenix.





I had been hauling a full set of tires on rims, since we wanted our summer/offroad tires (BFG mud terrains) for the desert, the rocks and the beach, but needed our snow tires for the 2500km of winter driving to get to and fro. Scott was nice enough to let us keep our spares at his place, so I swapped the tires, washed the van, and then we were off the next morning.

First stop was Picacho Peak state park, which is conveniently located right off the interstate. However this means you are staring at and listening to the interstate from your campsite, which at $30 USD was the most we would pay for camping on the whole trip. That being said, it is a beautiful spot and we went for a decent sunset hike.



From here we headed south to Gilbert Ray Campground, which is located adjacent to saguaro nat’l monument west of Tucson. We were treated to some intense desert rains, which is not how I expected to put the new awning to the test, but it worked wonderfully. I made it out of conduit, a tarp, and some extendable poles, loosely based on various peoples plans on expo. By tilting the poles we were able to get a nice angle to shed the heavy rain, and huddle up and cook underneath.









Heres a shot of Orson’s sleeping setup. He’s got a plywood and PVC bedframe that hangs from the doors over the driver/passenger seat, and then we pitch his peapod sleeping tent and sleeping pad up there on top. Half the time he ended up sleeping in the main bed with us, but it sure was nice to have his separate loft for naps and putting him to bed before us. The whole frame lays flat and stores on top of the engine compartment when we drive, and the tent folds into a package about the size of a frying pan.

My family, who also live in Canada, flew down to meet us for a few days of camping, and they rented a Jucy camper van (minivan with RTT) from Las Vegas.

0I7A5316.jpg by Murray Foubister, on Flickr

We went and checked out the Sonoran Desert Museum, which is an amazing museum/botanical garden/zoo out in the desert.



We hiked along brown mountain on a ridgetop trail connecting the museum with the campground.




The sunset light was amazing, and after the rain/clouds of earlier, especially appreciated.









0I7A5321.jpg by Murray Foubister, on Flickr
 

rfoubi

Observer
From here we hit the interstate and headed east, then split off and headed south towards Tombstone, Arizona. We took a dirt road for half an hour up towards the mountains to arrive at the west edge of Cochise stronghold, which is a series of rock formations where the mountains meet the plains. It’s a unique environment of long grass, oak trees, and yucca. Driving through the grasslands invoked more of a sense of Africa than southern Arizona, and I half expected to see a herd of Wildebeest wandering by.



0I7A5417.jpg by Murray Foubister, on Flickr

We pulled into a small crag, which was our destination, and Kim and I took advantage of having family around to babysit.


Rapelling in

0I7A5343.jpg by Murray Foubister, on Flickr

0I7A5383.jpg by Murray Foubister, on Flickr

Kim climbing

0I7A5408.jpg by Murray Foubister, on Flickr

Me on the rock

We got some easy toprope sport climbing in on the cliffs there, while my mom and brother went for a hike, and my dad snapped some photos. We had only allowed one day for this area, but we were all very stoked on the place and wished we had more time. I’d love to come back and spend a week hiking, climbing, and exploring the backroads.



Soaking up the sun



Where to?




Anyway, as the sun set (too early as it tends to do for this time of year) we drove into the grassland on a small dirt track and found a nice place to camp.










We even hung a few festive Christmas lights on a shrub, since it was December 23rd, and we would be spending actual Christmas in a hotel (boo). Beautiful area to wake up in, albeit chilly in the morning!
We made a quick detour to the tourist trap of Tombstone to enjoy some steak, eggs and coffee for breakfast and snap a few photos on the main strip.





We cut across to the Kartchner Caverns state park and did one of the cave tours. Unfortunately no photos since cameras weren’t allowed inside. It was very spectacular and well worth the visit though.

From here we braved 55mph crosswinds and buffeting rain and arrived back in Tucson. My parents and brother were headed back to Las Vegas the next morning, so we stayed in a hotel, and actually found a decent place to eat on Christmas eve. The next morning, we awoke to an Arizona white Christmas! Dusting of snow on the mountains, framed by the swaying palm trees. Pretty cool.



We said goodbye to my family, and then headed west out of Tucson. The skies had cleared and the desert views were glorious.



We were aiming for Organ Pipe cactus national monument, situated right next to the Mexican border. We went for a hike among the cacti, and even decorated one for our Christmas tree.





Christmas in USA, Mexico mañana!
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
Super cool! Thanks for sharing. One question: How did you keep you baby warm at night?
 

krick3tt

Adventurer
Great write up and photos. You certainly put away the fears of traveling with an infant and seem to have done very well with your accommodations.
 

rfoubi

Observer
Super cool! Thanks for sharing. One question: How did you keep you baby warm at night?

We just bundled him up in a couple layers, warm sleepers and warm sleep sacks. He did fine, a few nights he didnt complain but we were worried it was getting too cold so we just brought him into the bed with us.
 
Great report and keep on sharing. As a former "bus" owner (a '69 and a '70 Westfalia) who spent a winter in Calgary, I have a suggestion for dealing with a cold VW bus while you're driving: a Mexican blanket hung behind the front seats from side-to-side. In SoCal it was for style and privacy. In Canada I discovered that reducing the amount of space to heat helps when you only have a marginal air warmed heater system. So the next time you're in Baja shell out a few pesos for a blanket, or perhaps a blanket from the PNW with a cool design. :sombrero:
 

Jsweezy

Explorer
This trip is awesome. I am super jealous as I have a 16 month old now and I still haven't been out and about with him!
 

rfoubi

Observer
Great report and keep on sharing. As a former "bus" owner (a '69 and a '70 Westfalia) who spent a winter in Calgary, I have a suggestion for dealing with a cold VW bus while you're driving: a Mexican blanket hung behind the front seats from side-to-side. In SoCal it was for style and privacy. In Canada I discovered that reducing the amount of space to heat helps when you only have a marginal air warmed heater system. So the next time you're in Baja shell out a few pesos for a blanket, or perhaps a blanket from the PNW with a cool design. :sombrero:

THats a great idea, I thought about that on the way down. Works great with 1-2 people but a little hard with the baby in the back behind the blanket!
 

rfoubi

Observer
Part 3: Mexico!

Sorry for the delay in posting, this weekend was Rossland’s Winter Carnival, and things got hectic!

Anyway, lets continue:

We woke early the next morning, always eager to cross the Mexican border with plenty of time to spare for the unexpected. Our main destination was Baja, but we figured since we were fairly far east, and to check out somewhere new we had decided to cross on the mainland, check out Puerto Penasco, drive the new (ish) road up to El Golfo de Santa Clara, and then work our way over to Baja through this roundabout route.

We managed to get our FMM visas that are required for stays of more than 7 days. We really had to work to get them to take our money and give us the visa. This leads me to believe that most people skip this step and travel without this FMM permit in Mexico. In any case, travelling without proper paperwork in other countries is not something we cared to risk, especially for the $40 it cost us.

Crossing at Lukeville/Sonoita was a breeze though, (especially after prior experiences with Tijuana/Mexicali), and after a few minutes of traffic through town we were heading off through the desert again. There is pretty much nothing between there and Puerto Penasco, so we made good time and enjoyed the desert views.

I had read on this forum about Playa Bonita RV park as a place to stay in Penasco. Normally we are not the RV park type, but when you are in a resort town, there are not many options. So we pulled into Playa Bonita, ponied up the extra few bucks for a waterfront site, and drove our tiny rig amongst the white behemoths and right up to edge of the sea of cortez.







One of these things is not like the other!

OK, so maybe RV parks aren’t so bad. Still not really our jam but hard to complain about 5 feet to the sandy beach, not to mention the luxury of wifi and hot tub! It was the most we would pay for camping the whole trip ($29 USD per night) but it was a great way to relax on the beach with no stress. Plus Orson just loved crawling around on the sand and the beach was great for morning walks.





It was a bit cool with the breeze off the ocean, but the sunsets were spectacular. One of the biggest things we had to get used to with travelling around the winter solstice was how fast the sun went down, and how cool it was in the evenings.







Playa Bonita was close enough to the centre of town that I would rip into town on the mountain bike to get groceries without having to move the van. As you can see, the recent storms that dumped snow on the mountains of Tucson wreaked havoc here too in the form of giant puddles in many of the intersections.





Morning solitude. I have never been up for so many sunrises in a row in my life. With the dark nights, we were all going to sleep fairly early, and Orson would usually wake before sunrise. I would grudgingly crawl out of the warm bed, fumble around for shoes, pants, a jacket, toque, baby carrier, etc and then climb out of the van and into the dark of the pre dawn. The boy and I would wander the beaches, desert, or wherever we were as the light slowly crept into the sky and the rest of the world awoke. My resentment at waking too early, too dark, to a squawking baby had long faded, replaced by the simple joy and awe coming from being in a peaceful place watching a beautiful sunrise.



After a couple of restful days hanging on the beach, eating tamales and pollo asado, and soakin in the sun we were ready for some more adventure. We loaded up, hit the Pemex for gas, and then took off into the desert towards el Golfo de Santa Clara. This new ribbon of Asphalt connects Mexicali area with Puerto Penasco, and follows the railway through some pretty raw desert and sand dunes. Some trip reports on Expo of some real desert expeditions through the dunes had piqued our interest in this area. However with a 2WD van rather than a unimog, we stuck to the asphalt!



Still got some sand driving in where the dunes drifted over the highway. There is really only one section where the road cuts through the big dunes (a la Yuma/Glamis) so we stopped to snap a few photos.





From here we beelined to el golfo and parked on the quiet, sandy residential streets and went for a wander down to the sea of cortez. Quite the contrast from the fancy gringolandia resorts of Puerto Penasco. Now we felt like we were back in the real mexico!




Orson the sea turtle crawls along the beach

Stopped in at El Delfin Restaurant for our fill of fish tacos



Where are we going daddy?

We couldn’t stay long since we were planning on hitting San Felipe tonight. It would be our longest day (400km) of the trip. It actually went pretty well with the baby, and by timing naps we actually had a fairly peaceful drive. It was crazy to sea the vibrant green fields of the Rio Colorado delta area after many days in the desert.



The greens were soon behind us after we crossed the river and hit the Baja peninsula. We blasted down past the mudflats and made it into San Felipe by late afternoon.



Other trips to San Felipe we had stayed out of town, or in motels, but had heard that there were several RV parks on the beach. We aimed for Kikis, but all of the waterfront sites were full, so we picked from one of the other cheaper, slightly more run down places, but did not regret it as we could still get a site like this!



Unlike our Puerto Penasco RV park experience, the “RV parks” in San Felipe were full of much younger, more adventurous couples and families in cool rigs like this land rover with a V8 swap and an airstream, as well as bumping into 3 VW vans with young families like ours.



Now we are talking! We unwound and chilled on the beach, and shared some beers with some Oregonians camped next to us.



Oh, and the sunset was amazing



The next day we took the canoe out and went for a quick paddle. Unfortunately we had missed the wind window and only got 20 mins in before it got a little too choppy to paddle with a baby on board! So instead we parked the boat and walked into town for some food.





As the sun set, however the wind died and we got a nice calm paddle in.



San Felipe treated us well but after 2 days in town we were keen to keep heading south and leave the city behind. Vamanos al Sur.

Stay tuned for Part 4, where we leave the pavement, RV parks and people behind!
 

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