Abandoned, or not so abandoned campground?
Camping by a lava field had been great, but it was time to find some oceanside camping again. We were headed for Santa Rosalía, a former copper mining town that now is more focused on tourism. My research had told me the town still had extensive infrastructure from its copper mining days along the highway. I was expecting an industrial feel to the town. The plan was to stealth camp a night somewhere close to the main harbour, then explore the town from there. Read on to see if we had the best laid plans of mice and men!
Coke checkpoint, get it?
We started the day getting out of our lava camping spot. I’d been a little worried about soft spots on the road, seeing what holes the rodents had made. But Sadie’s large holes trying to get said rodents turned out to be a bigger hazard – I had to fill one in to keep from tripping over it on the way between RVs! The journey back to the road was the same windy narrow passage, giving a few more paint scrapes over to the sharper branches encroaching on the road. We made it back to Highway 1 only to encounter another windy kind of road there – the road down to Santa Rosalia was quite the curvy adventure.
Warehousing in these parts is small scale
Mexico roads being what they are, I wasn’t too surprised at this point. I was glad to have a lighter rig that is a little narrower. But That RV Over There was sweating bullets coming down the steep slopes with a hairpin turn included for extra fun! At least by now we were used to the Mexican level of warning signs (scant) and the increasing frequency white lines across the road to warn you of something you should really slow down for. I wasn’t really caught off guard by anything, other than the semi I met coming around one of sharp corners. That was a moment of cursing for my bad luck at meeting him there, but we made it past each other without exchanging blows.
First parking / stealth camping(?) spot
We arrived in Santa Rosalia happy to be out of the winding road country, intending to avoid the narrow winding roads in town by parking at the waterfront and walking about. The pier we were beside was gated off, so we parked on the street just outside. A large mooring dolphin was beside us, leaning off into the water. It didn’t look like it was going to be too long until this thing just fell into the ocean, but who knows out here. Mexicans can keep old infrastructure going much longer out of necessity out here.
Copper works beside the highway
We explored around the pier a bit, taking note of the noise from the highway right beside us and the gas station just up the road from us. It didn’t look like we were going to get much quiet here. Plus the industrial vibe was a bit dreary – it didn’t entice us on to explore every side street. On top of it, every venue we found nearby for potential lunch stops was closed. So we made a call that this wasn’t the overnight spot we were looking for. A quick tour around with a walk to the grocery store for resupply was in order, then we’d head south for a campground that looked decent.
The old works courtyard
If you want to see industrial ruins, Santa Rosalia has it in spades. There are old buildings up and down Highway 1, but additionally there are some restored and prettied up industrial works in town. There is a nice courtyard with planter beds holding pretty flowers and shrubs. The brickwork courtyard is huge, with one building facade restored to its glory days. It is all fenced off to vehicles, but if you could get in there it would make an interesting boondocking experience.
End of courtyard with unrestored buildings beyond
We walked past the set of restored industrial works to turn west up the hill towards the Ley Supermarket. Mexican supermarkets are small and not as well kept up compared to American stores. This store was particularly low end. There was cleaning going on, but the floor was not very clean, not sure how they managed that. The goods at this store were more low end than the other Leys we’d seen in our travels. Overall, it wasn’t the best resupply run. Even the deli meats were challenging. If I wanted ham, there was a whole cooler full of several brands, but the better sausage and cured meats were hidden in the corner of a corner cooler. It was better than shopping at a corner store at least. The area around the supermarket was also super busy. There was traffic everywhere. We were happy to get away, but it wasn’t going to be our last adventure in this part of town!
Onward we went, traveling south again after crossing the spine of Baja. We were following the coast of the Gulf of California, seeing the ocean once in a while as we hit a mix of improved and old narrow windy bits of Highway 1. We were headed for San Lucas Cove RV Park, which had some promising looking oceanfront spots. Carolyn had been leading the way and texted us that she found some boondocking close to the campground. We hung a left rather than a right to the campground at the sign and find ourselves looking at a baseball field. The field is pretty primitive – it does have a pitcher’s mound but you would be hard pressed to figure out where the bases are. The backfield is scraped down vegetation ending in a hump berm with some tires delineating the outfield. It’s definitely got lots of room to camp.
Built it and RVs will come
We surveyed the area on googles aerial. It looked like this field might be part of the campground; it was right beside it. We’d find out soon enough if someone came to collect fees. You don’t register in a lot of the campgrounds down here. You park it, and someone will be by to collect money, eventually. Mexico is definitely a bit more casual about fee transactions.
We did end up getting a visit from the campground hosts, and paid the same rate as in the campground for an off-beach spot. But at least this meant we were legit and could use the facilities. We’d already been in the campground to dump our tanks, having found no one to pay for the service. So we were happy to pay now since we’d already been using the campground. I was looking forward to taking a shower in a non-time limited free shower, which looked pretty nice for a Mexican shower. In the meanwhile, we enjoyed another nice sunset on the field.
Campground beach near high tide
While the campground was nice, we were happy to have the baseball field to ourselves. We traded being packed in by the shore with other people for being spread out with no one about. Well, almost no one – there were a few people that came by like joggers and the occasional car cruising about. One fellow hung out at home plate under the shade tree for a bit, while we were camped out in the back field. The campground did have some full service lots – power water and sewer. But for those using the sewer dump, well, let’s just say it is not pleasant without getting into a lot of shitty details.
Whale bone decor
The shore lots were really close to the high tide line too. Not so great to have people walking right by your view spot or be doing the walking by as we were. But there were quite a few perma-campers who had set up displays and decorated along the edge of their camping spot, keeping things interesting.
Entry to something abandoned
I went off for a walk the second day to explore around the area. I was thinking there might be some real boondocking nearby. It turns out there are a lot of empty backroads to the north of me. I followed a couple and found a good potential spot at the end of a channel of water from the ocean. It looked pretty good other than you’d be in a mud pit should rains come. I wander on, taking a branch to the right, arriving at a couple of entrance posts to something. What, I don’t know exactly. I can see a building in the distance. The road I’ve turned onto is good – it has seen some traffic and is a little wider than the standard track around here.
Beach side of the building
I arrive at the large building and can see white rocks delineating spots, along with a bano. It seems I have found an abandoned campground! The ocean side of the building has several nice sites facing the water, with a short drop down to the water from them. There is one new house to the north of me, but it is clear that where I am is not part of that property. There is not even much garbage around, just a bit of broken glass here and there.
Old sign at the abandoned campground
I returned to camp to share my find. After some further exploration, we decided that it would be worth moving over here to get away from a bit of town noise that filtered into our camp, not to mention free boondocking at the ocean. But first, there was a trip back to Santa Rosalia for a proper resupply and some tank water fills for myself and That RV Over There.
We had found a place on iOverlander that had water, but they could not do a hose to the RV. It seemed like the best option from looking at the other sites so off we went to fill. One unexpected thing in Baja was a lack of hose to extend to an RV was a common problem at water fill places. Perhaps other RVs are not filling at the RO water places? At any rate, That RV Over There had a 7 gallon jug along with a primitive funnel to transfer water to their tank. I’d be borrowing it to do my tank, but first we had to get their tank filled.
This was our first experience navigating the winding narrow streets of one of the older towns in Baja. The googles were pretty much clueless about one way streets. You are wise to watch very carefully that googles is not trying to take you the wrong way down a one way. Once we passed that potential error, we find that there is traffic everywhere as we approach the water place. That RV Over There manages to pull up close to the water place, I hang back about a quarter block at the one good parking spot to see what the deal is. Indeed, we are going to have to haul water 7 gallons at a time, slowly dumping it into our tanks. That RV Over There was dealing with a sore back and I was dealing with a sore hip.
This wasn’t a fun time, but it gets worse. We managed to haul a couple of containers over when there is a cacophony of honking all of a sudden beside the rig. It turns out that we are parked at a gravel business entrance, and someone needs to get in there *right now*. On top of it, That RV Over There is distracted with an important phone call right at that moment, which they have to momentarily pause to move their RV out of the way. Needless to say, the stress levels are through the roof at this point. But the phone call gets completed, the RV gets moved and two more jugs later their RV is mostly full of water.
Baseball place through the palms
Now it is my turn. I decide that a quarter block walk is preferable to trying to drive up to the shop – just my luck someone would pull up in front of me on the busy street and then I’d be going down the block with no idea of where to turn around. So now we are hauling 7 gallon containers over and filling my tank ever so slowly. At least we can prop the container on my tire to take some of the weight off holding this thing. After the third container, I deem the tank to be “full” with a forth container purchased to fill later when we are not in the middle of a busy town. My next adventure into Baja will definitely include a 20ish liter container with a pump/syphon system to never have to hold containers again.
We manage to get out of the busy area, seeing in the process that the water place, the Ley and several other major stores are all grouped together here on this street. No wonder it was so busy. We are glad to be out of here and heading back to the abandoned campground. We make the trek from Highway 1 down a pretty good graded road. Only the last bit over a hump is a rocky track, but at that point you can already see your destination ahead.
Camping spot view from the water
Since we have the whole campground to ourselves, we spread out over the ocean facing spots, each with our own third of the ocean facing spots. It’s a really good looking spot, we settle in for the night only hearing the peaceful lapping of the the waves of the ocean beside us.
The following day dawns quiet as well, but we do have a visitor come over from the house to the north of us. Bob it turns out just wants to meet us, being curious who has come to camp here. According to him, no one ever comes and camps here. Only the locals come in the summer to take advantage of the warehouse frame for shelter in the hot sun. It turns out that we are camped on La Huerta lands – they are the ones running the campground. But Bob doubts anyone will be by here to collect. We gleam a few other local details and return to our peaceful enjoyment of the beach.
But then the weekend arrives. We have had the occasional car come by, and a fisherman who came to a corner of the lot everyday to launch his boat and do a bit of fishing. But starting Friday and into the weekend the locals arrive to party. It seems the summer period Bob was talking about has expanded to cover at least the period we are there now. At least it isn’t a bunch of drunk teens or yahoos with guns. There are kids, mothers, grandmothers and guys all just having a good time playing their music loud and singing. But our peace has been transformed into party central. Carolyn is particular affected, as her rig is between two of the large louder party groups – she has music being blasted from both sides. On top of all that, it turns out the campground hosts collect from this spot too – same price as everywhere else. So much for local knowledge.
Parked in Ejido San Lucas
We escaped this mayhem a couple of times for a walk to the little town here, Ejido San Lucas. It’s not a big town, but big enough for several corner stores, and two restaurants on Highway 1. The first to the north is Palapa la Abuela, a nicely decorated place with a large authentic Mexican menu. We enjoyed our time there a great deal – the food was all excellent, along with the service.
Bahia porch
The place to the south is called Bahia Restaurant, having been recommended by the locals staying in the campground. While it also had some very nice decor, the place was decidedly more Americanized. They were playing country music. Everyone there was white, in fact I think half the campground residences were out there on a Friday night. Garlic bread was served as a side rather than Salsa and chips. While my dish was OK, the rest of the table was not impressed with their food. The one saving grace was the good margaritas at a good price. I’d only recommend it to people with fussy eaters in their party who just must have some American food. The Mexican dishes were not any better than a regular place in the States.
Palapa la Abuela entrance
We were so impressed with Palapa la Abuela that we made a return visit, in part to escape the noise of camp on a Sunday evening of partiers. The restaurant however had its own music, an old American fellow playing old beach and latin songs. He wasn’t the best singer in the world, but you could tell he enjoyed what he was doing. We gave him a hearty round of applause after every song. He even came over to chat with us after, being appreciative of the attention. He turned out to be another retiree with a side gig down in Mexico. In talking we found out that he knew many Canadian retirees down here too. That did not come as a surprise to me – we had been running into so many Canadians that I don’t wonder if Bahia is going to start serving Maple Syrup pancakes for that market.
Wheel window in walled big money compound
I spent a bit of time riding the Grom motorcycle down the many backroads in the area. The roads close to town had a mix of houses, from run down shacks to some big money compounds. You don’t have urban planning here so things tend to be mixed together, but there definitely was a stretch of beach that had more moneyed folk to the south of the campground, with the less moneyed houses being away from the beach near the highway in town. The googles were navigationally challenged, sending me down one road that turned out to be a dead end. But before I could find that out, I had stopped just after turning, not sure about this road already.
Rich area entry gate
I see three dogs barking up ahead, heading my way. It was too late for me to turn around, so I had to face up to the three pack and see if they were friendly or not. I had been aggressively barked at by one dog from the rich neighborhood already, so I wasn’t sure what these guys just down the street were going to be like. The pack stops a few feet away from me and I can see they are friendly, thankfully! But they not quite sure about me on the motorbike, hanging back. I coax one over for some petting, which broke the floodgates. I suddenly have three dogs jumping on me for attention, threatening to knock me over from my straddling the bike. But I survive the friendly mauling and proceed to the end of the road to find out that the googles has led me to another dead end where no dead end is indicated. Googles errors lead to some adventures for sure!
No dumping
The sad part about the backroads that didn’t have any development on them was the amount of garbage strewn along the sides of the roads. It was obvious that most of the small town used the back area as a dump, dumping loads wherever down the roads. It has gotten to the point of annoying some people. I did actually find a ‘no dumping’ sign (Spanish of course) but it didn’t make any difference near the sign.
Very random garbage
What did make a difference was the people living near the beach that were picking up bags of garbage and taking them to the local dump to try and clean up the area. They had made some progress on the area immediately away from the beach. That explains in part why the abandoned campground was mostly garbage free, that and the local fee collectors provide garbage cans that were being emptied regularly.
While the new week marked a return to only the occasional car coming by, we had decided it’s been enough time in the not so abandoned campground. It was time to head further south, to our final destination heading south. Yes, we had decided that we had gone far enough on this adventure. Traveling in a new country in unfamiliar lands has its extra stressors. It was time to experience one more stop south, then start heading back north. See you next time at our furthest destination points south in Baja! If you want to see more pictures, I have many more photos you can view in my Baja photo collection on Flickr.
