latinoguy
Adventurer
A few weeks ago, I tried gathering relatives to join me on a weekend family camping trip to San Felipe, to no avail. The excuses were valid, (a cousin's wife was due on Dec 5th, too close for comfort, etc., others had already made family arrangements)
Still, I felt obligated to make my promise good to my mother as I had promised her a trip to San Felipe earlier in the year, and the Thanksgiving weekend seemed like still a good time to come thru on my promise. She had been there a couple of years before on a family camping trip and really enjoyed staying in palapas/ramadas by the beach.
I knew San Felipe was going to be our final and main destination, but I was also curious to explore other areas of interest.
So without extended family members to complicate the logistics, I changed things up a bit and decided to make a 1 day detour and visit Guadalupe canyon for the first time. I also planned ahead and purchased lbmaps, baja topo maps for my Garmin, and a new Kelty tent. (The lb maps proved very valuable on this trip.)
Off we left the Coachella Valley mid morning with glooming clouds over the mountains on Thanksgiving Day, and headed for the Mexicali border. In my opinion, there was very little traffic considering that it is generally a heavy traffic holiday weekend. After stopping in Calexico for gas top off and getting Mexican insurance coverage, we crossed the border, eat some Chinese food for lunch, and head towards Guadalupe Canyon at the Laguna Salada exit.
At first I was somewhat skeptical of driving thru the Laguna Salada, having gotten some rain the day before, and knowing the dirt can turn to tire gripping mud quickly with rain, but the trail looked dry enough and it actually made the drive enjoyable and low dust. There were clouds in the horizon, but the forecast did not call for any more rain thru the weekend.
We didn’t see anybody on the way to Guadalupe Canyon, except for a couple on a Ford Explorer (I think) who were changing a flat tire a few miles before our destination, so I stopped, offered my help, but the couple told me were fine, and soon after we get to our camp site. We stayed at Ernesto's campo.
Guadalupe Canyon was everything I expected to be based on the information I read on the internet. That night we enjoyed a nice grilled chicken and vegetables for our Thanksgiving dinner, and went to sleep with a clear sky and the typical desert star filled dark sky. The weather was cool without being too cold. The following day we were greated to a sunny day.
After a hike to the waterfall, and a last dip in thermal waters we headed south on Laguna Salada towards San Felipe.
Leaving The Campo
The next part of the trip was the adventure. I decided to drive on the Laguna Salada and head south towards San Felipe. My GPS navigator had me exactly over the depicted trail, but when I got the the intersection where I was supposed to head east towards the "carretera" I saw that I was drifting off the set trail and did not feel confortable moving away from the trail not knowing what laid ahead, so I backtracked to the original trail I had been travelling (It was cool seeing remnants of the Baja 1000 trail indicators on many sections of the trail I was on) and continued south.
More to come...
Still, I felt obligated to make my promise good to my mother as I had promised her a trip to San Felipe earlier in the year, and the Thanksgiving weekend seemed like still a good time to come thru on my promise. She had been there a couple of years before on a family camping trip and really enjoyed staying in palapas/ramadas by the beach.
I knew San Felipe was going to be our final and main destination, but I was also curious to explore other areas of interest.
So without extended family members to complicate the logistics, I changed things up a bit and decided to make a 1 day detour and visit Guadalupe canyon for the first time. I also planned ahead and purchased lbmaps, baja topo maps for my Garmin, and a new Kelty tent. (The lb maps proved very valuable on this trip.)
Off we left the Coachella Valley mid morning with glooming clouds over the mountains on Thanksgiving Day, and headed for the Mexicali border. In my opinion, there was very little traffic considering that it is generally a heavy traffic holiday weekend. After stopping in Calexico for gas top off and getting Mexican insurance coverage, we crossed the border, eat some Chinese food for lunch, and head towards Guadalupe Canyon at the Laguna Salada exit.
At first I was somewhat skeptical of driving thru the Laguna Salada, having gotten some rain the day before, and knowing the dirt can turn to tire gripping mud quickly with rain, but the trail looked dry enough and it actually made the drive enjoyable and low dust. There were clouds in the horizon, but the forecast did not call for any more rain thru the weekend.
We didn’t see anybody on the way to Guadalupe Canyon, except for a couple on a Ford Explorer (I think) who were changing a flat tire a few miles before our destination, so I stopped, offered my help, but the couple told me were fine, and soon after we get to our camp site. We stayed at Ernesto's campo.
Guadalupe Canyon was everything I expected to be based on the information I read on the internet. That night we enjoyed a nice grilled chicken and vegetables for our Thanksgiving dinner, and went to sleep with a clear sky and the typical desert star filled dark sky. The weather was cool without being too cold. The following day we were greated to a sunny day.
After a hike to the waterfall, and a last dip in thermal waters we headed south on Laguna Salada towards San Felipe.
Leaving The Campo
The next part of the trip was the adventure. I decided to drive on the Laguna Salada and head south towards San Felipe. My GPS navigator had me exactly over the depicted trail, but when I got the the intersection where I was supposed to head east towards the "carretera" I saw that I was drifting off the set trail and did not feel confortable moving away from the trail not knowing what laid ahead, so I backtracked to the original trail I had been travelling (It was cool seeing remnants of the Baja 1000 trail indicators on many sections of the trail I was on) and continued south.
More to come...
socialized a bit, and called it a night around 10PM...I was also glad the neighbors next door also called it a night early as well, as I hear people like to party late into the night at Ruben's (midnight is the shut everything off rule)
