Articles - Baja Road Trip - www.inlapaz.com

Story by Ron Mullins
Photos by Crystal Bybee & Ron Mullins

I just did a run down to La Paz. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's very close to the southern most part of Baja California, Mexico.

I made the drive with my daughter Crystal. Crystal recently took up diving and got certified to scuba dive.

I expected this trip to be an interesting one because a hurricane was approaching the southern end of Baja and was expected make landfall the day after our departure from here in San Clemente.

Every Baja trip is different from the last one you did, the peninsula changes that much. I always look forward to seeing which face Baja is going to wear for me. There has been a couple hurricanes in the recent months so I half expected to see some green areas. For the most part, the drive down was pretty much as it always is in the northern territory. I was very much excited about introducing my daughter to The Bay Of Los Angeles. I had described it to her many times. I told her how for me, the first sight of The Bay of LA, (BOLA) as you crest the hill and first see it, is as if god decided to create the perfect place for divers.

I told her I would stop at the crest of the hill so she could see the sight I had been describing to her. At the crest I pulled off the road and drove to a good spot for photos. The first image is shot from that spot. Notice the little monument, cast in concrete, in the lower right corner of the image. Also, notice the green I had half expected. The second image is a close up of the little monument.

The reason I was going to BOLA was to stop by and say hi to Dotty Frazier. For those of you who don't know who Dottie is, she was diving history's first woman certified scuba diver, the first woman scuba instructor, the first woman dive shop owner and many, many other firsts. Not only is Dottie famous for her accomplishments in scuba diving but Dottie as it turns out, may be one of the first skin divers with photos of her activities from as early as 1926!

Needless to say my newly certified scuba diving daughter was ecstatic about meeting Dottie Frazier! The third image is my daughter Crystal with Dottie Frazier.

The entire BOLA area was very wet with puddles everywhere. It turns out a HUGE storm had come in the night before and thoroughly drenched everyone. So much rain that Dottie's RV sprang leaks all over and they were trying to dry it out when we drove up. They said it was really quite a rain, on of the most intense they had seen in Baja.

We had a long way to go so we couldn't stay. We said our goodbyes, topped of the gas tank and hit the road again. We were pretty surprised by how wet everything was and had to slow for several wet arroyos. We were trying to make it to Santa Rosalia before the sun went down, after hitting a cow on a previous trip I wanted to adopt everyone else's theory and not drive at night. We were pleased to reach Gureo Negro with plenty of sun light left.

The last image is a shot I took at the Eagle Monument, at Guero Negro. You can barely see the eagle behind the whale skeleton, next to the ginormous flag pole. After weaving our way through the Eagle Monument, immigration / fruit stop and getting the almost complementary pesticide spray down, we were on our way! It was getting late and the sky was very ominous. However we were making good time so we were fairly confident about making it into Santa Rosilia before the sun vanished.

I noticed a row of trucks ahead in the distance and thought it was odd to see so many trucks stopped at the same place. As I approached the trucks it became obvious they were stopped in the traffic lane. It must be a TERRIBLE accident to have traffic backed up for what appeared to be MILES! The first image shows the line of trucks. It was impossible to photograph the full line of trucks, they stretched literally for miles, with cars trapped between them the entire distance. Having four wheel drive I thought I might be able to off-road my way around the accident!

The next image shows the reason for the stopped traffic. The storm which had hit BOLA so hard, had collided with the hurricane turned tropical storm, we knew about before we left San Clemente. A giant storm off the Pacific was carrying a tremendous amount of rain when it collided with the hurricane which carried a tremendous amount of rain.

The river shown in the second image, is a relatively small arroyo; however on this day it was a raging river with a width of at least 100 meters and in some spots possibly 200 meters. My daughter and I agreed before we left San Clemente, in view of the hurricane we knew was going to hit La Paz, if the conditions prevented diving, we would photograph. It was pretty obvious we weren't going to drive any farther so we set out to try to photograph the magnitude of this arroyo.

Crystal shot this third image of me shooting.

This fourth image is what I was shooting.

The harder I tried to portray the size, the magnitude of this thing, the more I realized it just wasn't going to be possible. In this fifth image you can see the white water. This thing was HAULING ASS. As long as the line of stopped vehicles was on our side of the river, it was just as long on the other side.

I sort of gave up and figured I could probably do better by photographing the hopelessness of the locals. What do you do in this situation. I guess you sit down and watch it.

We went back to Gurreo Negro and got one of the last rooms available. The next morning we sort of slept late and figured we would head back to the arroyo and see if would be possible to get across. We figured we could sit and wait there as easy as anywhere so we took off. We off roaded our way past all the stopped and trapped cars and trucks. The water level had dropped some but it was still A LOT OF WATER. Finally someone got up enough nerve to give it a go. As ironic as it sounds, it wasn't a gringo! Look where the water level is in relation to the hood of the car. THEY MADE IT!!! They floated through some of it, but they made it!

Everyone was pretty much just sitting there sort of in disbelief so Crystal and I figured we probably would get another chance like this!!!! Of course she had to take photos of our attempt. These are pics shot from the passenger side of my 4 Runner.

The water was up to about half way up the door. You know your car sounds completely different when its underwater! We got across but not without in taking at least some water. I burned up a couple of air sensors for a nice little repair with $658 but after we got back home. I guess I can't complain, it could have been worse! We got across, I drove the passenger side of the 4 Runner up on steep mound, opened up the driver side doors and let the water out.

It was an amazingly light traffic drive for some reason!!! It was also amazingly green. This next photo is the road leading down into Santa Rosalia. Notice the size off the rocks that slid down the hill and onto the road.

These are pics Crystal shot as we drove. Baja is certainly beautiful after a rain.

We made it in to Constitution on fumes and stopped at the first PeMex we came to where my daughter couldn't resist taking this photo. I had been telling Crystal about this church with a unique decoration over the entry doors. I don't think you'll see a church decoration like this in the states!

The clouds were still in a circular shape from the hurricane. We tried to photograph it but the clouds were so low it's hard to see it. When we got to my place in La Paz, we opened all the doors in an attempt to dry out my 4 Runner. You can see all the doors open but something I just noticed in this photo, look at the trees! The wind wasn't blowing!!! Do you think things got blown around a bit?

We were in La Paz for just under a week so we figured the drive back should be pretty impressive considering what it looked like on the drive south. We weren't disappointed. We came around a bend where we got a peak-a-boo glance of the Sea Of Cortez. I had to stop and back up to shoot this photo, it was worth it.

I saw this rocky hillside, blanketed in green and had to stop. I think one of the problems with Baja is the immensity of it's beauty can sometimes blind you to the smaller beauties so I wanted to try to photograph some of these smaller beauties with the green and rocky hillside, what originally caught my eye, as a back drop. The problem is some of these smaller beauties are so low to the ground the vegetation blocked the hillside I wanted.

This next image is my first failure. You can see the hillside, just barely. I couldn't get this angle right. Ugly isn't it?

This next image is pretty cool. I got the backdrop I wanted, the flowers I wanted and the sign, well, it's unmistakable to anyone who's driven in Baja. I didn't want the road, just an insinuation of it.

Then this next image, well, lets just call it flora and fauna.

Last is another image my daughter shot while driving. Where else can you go to see desert like this, with an ocean view?

I'm hope I'm not boring you with my photos. This has been one of the most interesting Baja trips I've done and certainly one of the most beautiful. You know! One of those things I just felt compelled to share!!!

Ron Mullins
San Clemente

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