It was time for some groceries and some beach time, so we made plans to leave out of the ranch to the North and camp at Mike's Sky Ranch, then head to San Felipe the next day for some sun. The road between us and Mike's had been described as rough, challenging, and downright miserable, so we were a bit apprehensive. The road did not disappoint and it took us around 2 hours to travel around 20KM to Mikes.
We made it to Las Trucas at the bottom of the hill which meant we were getting really close to Mike's.
We got into Mike's at sunset and paid for our campspot. We were one of three or four other rigs there at dark...which was soon to change. Between dark and 2AM over 100 rigs rolled into Mike's. Must have been some kind of rally or group ride, because the next morning the river bank was full. The music, yelling, and general party carried on into the wee hours and started again around 6AM. I don't think we will be giving any more money to Mike's Sky Ranch in the future, but it was cool to see once.
Either way, we made it down the mountain and were greeted by sunshine for the first time in about a week while leaving Mike's and turning on the HWY toward San Felipe.
As we dropped in elevation to the coast the temperature rose by the minute it seemed. As we could see the coast on our turn South it was a pleasant 60 degrees, much better than the 40's we had in the mountains the previous week.
We grabbed some groceries and fish in town and took off for beach camping. There isn't a bunch of wild camping around San Felipe so we opted for Campo Touristico #1 and found a spot out on the end of the palapas. This spot was really cool as it is where the Mexican government is trying to breed an endangered breed of dolphin in the enclosure just off shore. Federali's walked the beach each day and helicopters and boats drove by often. There are less the 20 of the dolphins left on the planet, crazy!
Blog Post on Campo Touristico
We had 20-30 mph winds on the beach the first night and didn't get much sleep and used the next day to resupply for a couple of weeks and gas up for the drive back up the hill. The weather on the coast is so different from the stuff in the mountains it's crazy. At our campspot we were only 20 miles from the ranch as the crow flies, just over the mountains and down 5000 feet of elevation. We loaded back up after a restless couple of days and far too many fish tacos and headed back to our temporary home.
The road back is more difficult going up than coming down, which was expected. But 4-LO in the Toyota made pretty simple work of the road with only a few sketchy moments. We climbed, climbed, and climbed and arrived back at the ranch just in time for the rain to start,...again.
It was a fun trip, but I don't think we will be taking the road again. We will likely go to San Felipe before we leave in April, but we will be heading to the East side and going around. We would be SOL if something were to break on the side of the hill. It's a crazy hike either direction and I'd rather not have to hi-lift our truck on the side of a mountain quite like that.
Fun driving it though 
