My fellow adventure seeker was Baja Nomad member ‘El Vergel’ (Vern) from the Los Angeles area and the beach campo south of San Felipe. ‘Baja Cat’ (José) who waited for us just across the border at Otay Mesa joined and traveled along with us on Friday.
The drive south was easy and fun.
Corredor 2000 zips you around Tijuana to or from Otay or Tecate (Vern Pic)
We stopped for lunch in San Vicente at a taco cart operated by Gloria, who served us ‘tacos de borrego’ (lamb tacos) along with a cup of consommé de borrego to which we added onions and salsa… YUM
Vern 'El Vergel'
José 'Baja Cat'
We arrived in El Rosario about 2:30 to fill our gas tanks and buy a few cases of Tecate and Dos Equis cerveza. I also wanted to show Vern the rooms at Baja Cactus Motel as they are so outstanding given the location and typical highway accommodations usually found in Baja. We also saw Itzel’s mother who reported her daughter as doing fantastic following the heart surgery of several months ago.
Baja Cactus Pemex (Vern Pic)
Baja Cactus Motel front desk (Vern Pic)
Hugo Lopez art at Baja Cactus (Vern Pic)
Baja Cactus room (Vern Pic)
Fuel prices in Baja (below the border region) were 8.77 pesos per liter for Magna and 9.87 for Premium. The exchange rate at Baja Cactus was 11.20 pesos per dollar and in Ensenada on Sunday was 11.00 pesos per dollar… both close to $3.00 per gallon.
The 56 mile drive down Highway One to the El Marmol road was a breeze and the signed road was between the 148 and 149 kilometer markers. The next 9 miles to El Marmol are dirt, but some of the easiest dirt miles in Baja and would be a breeze for most vehicles.
We stopped to take new photographs of the schoolhouse ruins and cemetery before the final leg of today’s drive down to Arroyo el Volcan. I heard the sound of a speeding Toyota Tacoma and it was ‘TW’ (Tom) and his brother Bill arriving from an ice run to Cataviña (20 miles distant). José, Vern and I followed them down to the campsite in Arroyo El Volcan, 4 miles from El Marmol.
Already there was ‘bajalou’, ‘dtbushpilot’ (David) and ‘XRPhlang’ (Phil) on the sand/gravel arroyo at the base of a giant rock face. That evening was plenty fun discussing just why the hell we all drove hundreds of miles and spent hundreds of dollars to be in such a place! It was great!
'bajalou' and 'BAJACAT'
'XRPhlang' (Phil) and 'dtbushpilot' (David)
'El Vergel' (Vern), Bill W and 'TW' (Tom)
TW made a batch of grits to supplement our morning diet and we secured camp for the day's hike. It looked on the map to be about 3-4 miles down the arroyo to the primary site of elbeau's Santa Isabel (arches, stairways, fountains). I called the location 'site B' on my Google Earth map. Our camp was just a few hundred feet down the wash from the El Marmol-La Olvidada mine road (which was totally graded very recently).
The last photo posted above in Part 1 was the morning showing our camp.
Our camp was in the arroyo, on the left of this image:
The site (white tag 'site B') was exactly a 4 mile hike away:
We begin the hike:
The arroyo of El Volcan was extremely interesting and is well worth the visit (even without a lost mission)! I will let my photos do most of the story telling...
Water in small amounts was near our camp and oozing out of a cliff at the first big bend.
David K, always happy to be in Baja!
A piece of onyx trapped in newer rock, along the arroyo.
Where I left off in Part 1 was near the end of the 4 mile hike down Arroyo El Volcan... As we looked high up the cliffs to the location of the corral in elbeau's satellite images we could not see directly the level or semi-level area. It was out-of-sight, and some of us wished to find a way up there for a closer look... Now, if we only had a helicopter, like Erle Stanley Gardner did 40 some years ago!
bajalou had all the sites GPSed on his hand-held and I had the primary Santa Isabel site on mine... That was my goal: to get right to the spot that elbeau saw 'man-made' structures like arches, stairways, fountains, etc. If that was there, then we would look for the others places later.
On the Google Earth image, the site is just off the main arroyo, along a side gully...
Both images are looking southwest, up the side gully...
GPS of the site marked by the white ballon: GPS is 30º01.42', -114º46.29' (WGS84). Elevation is 1,701'
Here are the views as we near the final big S bend in the arroyo, see the corral area, and see the entrance to the LOST MISSION side gully (maybe call it Arroyo Santa Isabel?):
Interesting trench erosion up and over the ridge... Santa Isabel is on the other side!
