Heading out of Bahia de los Angeles, we crossed the spine of Baja again, landing on the Pacific coast at Guerrero Negro. We went from sleepy fishing village to salt mining industrial feel town. It definitely seemed grungy after our idyllic stay on the east coast of Baja. There were some trials and tribulations as well. But not all was bad, we found some charming spots in town. There were also lots of birds to photograph in the huge tidal flats by our camp. Read on to see more!
The journey down to Guerrero Negro was interesting in scenery and drama. Highway 12 had some wonderful desert scenery to gawk at, but don’t get too distracted on the narrow road with the occasional potholed stretch. The bad bit was to come – Highway 1 between the junction with the 12 and Guerrero Negro was terrible, in fact I have not seen such bad roads since then. The road is fairly curvy in places, with a fair number of semis passing in the other direction. The potholes are everywhere – the road has the texture of a pizza top in places with deep potholes hidden among the pockmarks. Assuming there is no oncoming traffic, you use both sides of the road to find the least bad bit of bad road. But you are going to hit some potholes at some point along here, so don’t be flying along at speed if you want to preserve your tires and rims.
Narrow highway for roadside repair
We did not escape the crappy road unscathed. Just as we were getting to the end of the bad road, That RV Over There came to a stop at the side of the road. It would seem the last large pothole had snapped their passenger side front shock, which was now just flopping around on top where it had snapped off. Fortunately for them, they had a shock kicking around, having replaced their driver’s side shock from a previous snap. Roadside repair is not for the faint of heart on the narrow and busy Highway 1. I was under their rig looking at semis coming my way down the road from under the RV. I was thinking escape route the whole time should one look to not be slowing down on approach to passing on the remaining single lane of highway.
A wall in town
A lack of parts with the shock meant some improvisation was done to fit the new shock on. You can see the whole story here. We drove on, thinking the shock was attached good enough to get us to the next town. That thinking turned out to be wrong, a few miles and speed bumps down the road we were again faced with a now new shock flopping around the top connection. But at least the road had improved enough that we found a shoulder lane to pull into so that traffic could pass without pulling into oncoming traffic. It was eventually decided to limp the partially re-attached shock into Guerrero Negro as an Autozone store was only a few minutes drive away. We parted ways there, with repairs eventually completed after a parts hunt and visit to a shop on their part.
GN Main street
We entered Guerrero Negro proper much later in the day than originally planned thanks to the breakdown. A quick shop at Super Ley and we were on our way out of town onto a causeway that was supposed to lead to a pier you could boondock on. But we had run out of daylight – the sky was rapidly darkening as we left town. As I signaled to turn off the main road to the pier, a fellow flags me down speaking in spanish. I’m not getting any of this so we switch to his minimal english and my minimal spanish. Having a conversation in the middle of the road with another RV behind me and traffic all trying to go around us is not exactly stress free. I eventually deduce that he wants me to turn around and park on the other side of the road. It didn’t make sense to me, the fellow looked like a security guard, who had no business doing traffic stops on the road.
But I eventually get turned around in the busy intersection, instructing my friend in the following RV to keep going if Mr. Security didn’t stop them. I end up on the other side of the road on my own. There is no place to park, so I slowly work my way up the block. I figure if they really want to stop me, they will chase me down. I make it to the end of the block and park in a gravel lot there. No one has followed me up here. It seems I escaped, something. Yeah, knowing a bit more spanish would be really useful at times!
But now I was stranded, out of Walkie Talkie range of my group. I didn’t want to go back down the street I had just been on, in case I get “caught” again. So onto googles maps I go, looking for a back road around the intersection. Fortunately, one did actually exist, a backroad following a canal that turns out to have potential as an overnight stealth camping spot on the edge of town. I turn back on the road to the pier, and drive on, trying to catch up to my friends. As I start down the causeway, I see my friends ahead, driving much slower than I was going. I was barreling along, keeping a speed high enough to bounce off the top of the brutal washboard we were on. But the bumps got so bad I was forced to slow down or have my rig shaken to bits. We are now in complete dark, with at least five miles to drive before we hit any potential boondocking.
Fisherman’s launch camping spot
It was decided that a quick turn around and check south down the coast towards the salt mine was in order. The place on iOverlander there was closer, and hopefully down less washboarded roads. Even knowing where the camping was, we managed to miss the turn off the main road into the camp spot. Finding camping in the dark isn’t the most fun. We eventually get off the road and drive down a dirt road to the spot on the water. We can hear ocean, but only see mud flats with what light we can shine on it. The spot is supposed to be a fishing boat launch, with the one caution being that an unusually high tide can flood the low lying spots in the area.
King Tide coming in
One of our group was in the low area here. We knew there was a high tide coming, but the internets were giving us conflicting information. We think “Guerrero Negro” was giving us a different location with different tides, but I’m still not sure what the problem was. At any rate, sleep was hard to come by, with a check out the window everytime I woke up to see if we were still on terra firma. We made it to morning high and dry, thinking we had passed the high tide overnight. But no, the tide was actually rising in the early morning sun.
Max tide. Note the truck is in the water too.
It turns out we were dealing with a King Tide as well, a particularly high tide that occurs when the moon, sun, and earth line up just right to force the tide up to it’s highest point for the year. A strong wind was pushing the water in as well, exacerbating the flooding. But a fisherman had come in and parked his truck and trailer by the edge of the water, launching his boat and going off fishing in the early morning. How bad could the high tide be? Our fishing friend was right at the water’s edge as the water rose.
The lower spot where a boat definitely didn’t look out of place.
I suspect our fishing friend got surprised by the tide a bit too, judging by his trailer being totally submerged by the water and his truck being in the water up to his rear axel. Other than moving not being advisable in the water, I was not too worried for us. You could see where the vegetation had been pushed to at high tide. We were not in danger of being submerged. But it did mean a couple of hours of wading in the water at our rigs.
Higher ground spot. Note the “road” leading off to my left.
The fishermen returned to their truck and trailer just as the tide was starting to go down. I was wondering how they would do getting their truck out of the water with the boat, but they pulled out no problem as this video shows. As the following day was to be as high a tide, we decided that the afternoon dry period was going to be the time to move out to higher ground. I had scouted out a spot a bit further south, right by the border of the giant salt mines. It turns out this spot is on iOverlander too, I just found it first on a little walk down there. I even asked the guard at the salt mine entrance if it was OK to camp over there. He said no problem! I thought I had found an out of the way corner we could hang out at for a while.
Road to spot. Boats came to the channel to transfer people.
One unexpected thing about Baja Mexico is how the locals come driving down every little road. It’s not always recreational travel. I had parked beside a little offshoot road that ended behind me at the water channel separating us from the salt mine. I had not expected people to want to come driving by to access the channel there, after dark several times while we were there. I never was completely sure, but I think it was a drop off point for fisherman or possibly whale tour staff. The timing was always just as the water was coming up to or leaving the channel. At low tide there was no water even close by. One group came by with lunches they dropped off, even hanging around a while to visit just around the corner from my rig. The locals will drive standard sedans down roads some would fear to travel with 4x4s. They have no fear, cars are tougher than people think. Do not assume any road, no matter how bad, is untravelled down here.
The area between me and the sand dunes is full of water at high tide.
This area is definitely for the birds. The shoreline is very flat, so the tides go way out. You don’t even think you’re on the ocean anymore, the water is so far away. Yet at high tide, the area is all covered in water. The sea provides plenty, meaning plenty of birds are in the area. A morning walk down the road passing under an Osprey nest yielded me my best picture with my phone of all things. But the bird passed overhead three meters above me, my phone is what I had time to point, and the bird was plenty close to get lots of detail! Remember what I said previously, the best camera is the one you have on you! I even had a local pass me on a quad, who headed out into the middle of the swampy shoreline. He was sitting out there photographing birds. The birds were enough to get me to pull out my Canon 7D2II, throwing on my 70-200 with 1.4 extender. It’s not the ideal bird lens, but then again it isn’t eight grand either.
We did visit Guerrero Negro again on the way out to celebrate a birthday with a nice brunch at Jardin’s. This place was like a little oasis tucked among the industrial looking area. They had wonderful service and wonderful food. The owner even provided a surprise mini birthday cake for That RV Over There’s birthday. Finding one great breakfast place was enough to make the town not seem so bad. In fact, the stores were pretty good. There was a Tortilleria place that was making fresh Tortillerias, purchased by the kilo. I’m still working my way through my pile, but they are really good! I also discovered that Waldo’s Dollar Mart is a great alternative source of dry goods. They had a bunch of stuff (like peppermint tea) that I was unable to find at the Super Leys down the street. Even in the bigger towns it pays to shop multiple stores to get a decent selection.
The salt mine pile in the distance south of our camp
We headed out of town feeling that Guerrero Negro had some charm afterall. Sometimes you just need to dig a little deeper exploring the side streets to find the charming spots. A new spot beckoned in some sand dunes just south of town, out in the glorious desert. Tune in next time to see what we found out there.
