Cataviña is a landscape from another planet, and it happens to have a road through it. Cirio trees, known in English as boojum, rise like upside-down carrots up to ten metres tall, with a few spiny branches at the top, and the cardón cactus, the world's tallest, stands in forests of its own. The whole area is protected as the Valle de los Cirios reserve.
Highway 1, the Transpeninsular, runs through here, and it was finished only in 1973. Before that, the peninsula was a land of ranches, missions and boat connections, and the Jesuits and Dominicans who built small missions here in the eighteenth century had to supply them by sea. Nearby caves hold rock paintings made by the Cochimí people, who lived here for centuries, in red and black pigment, showing human figures and animals. The little settlement of Cataviña has a few motels, a restaurant and an air of being at the end of everything.
The ride is a delight. The road runs south in a series of gentle, rolling bends through the boulders, with no guardrails, a narrow shoulder and long views of empty land. The surface is generally good, but potholes and rough edges appear, and cattle sometimes stand on the asphalt. Wind and heat dominate. Summer afternoons can exceed forty degrees, and winter nights drop close to freezing. Spring, when wildflowers cover the ground after rain, is the best season.
Fuel is the major practical issue. The supply in Cataviña has been unreliable over the years, so do not count on it, and instead fill the tank at El Rosario to the north or Guerrero Negro to the south, carrying a spare can if you can. Cash in pesos is wise, as cards are not always accepted. Water, sunscreen and a hat are essential. If you stop for the night, the stars here are exceptional, with no light pollution to spoil them.