Baja California is a long, thin peninsula, and El Vizcaino is where it gets properly wide. The biosphere reserve covers a huge, dry belt of the central peninsula, from the Pacific lagoons on one side to the Sierra de San Francisco on the other, and it is named after Sebastian Vizcaino, the Spanish captain who sailed these coasts in 1602. Scattered over the desert are the strange plants that make Baja famous, the towering cardon cactus, the squat elephant tree, and the cirio or boojum, a tall tapering spike that looks like an upside-down carrot with a few frizzy branches. After a rare rain the ground is briefly green.
The reserve is a World Heritage site for two reasons. The first is whales. Every winter, grey whales travel thousands of kilometres from the Arctic to breed in the warm, shallow lagoons of Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio, and from January to March small boats can take visitors close enough to touch a curious calf. The second reason is the rock paintings in the Sierra de San Francisco, huge, red and black figures of people and animals, up to several metres high, painted on canyon walls by an unknown people many centuries ago. They are reached with local guides and mules, and need a permit.
The riding is long and simple. Highway 1 crosses the peninsula in endless straight sections with huge views, a surface that is mostly good, and little traffic apart from the occasional truck. The dangers are not bends but distance, wind and sun. Strong crosswinds can push a bike across a lane, and in summer the heat is severe. The cooler months, from November to April, are much better. Cattle and sometimes burros wander on to the road, especially at dusk, so avoid riding after dark.
Fuel is the vital practical point. Stations are far apart, often more than a hundred kilometres, and sometimes run dry, so top up whenever you pass one and carry a spare can. Small towns such as San Francisco and Las Margaritas have little, and Guerrero Negro, on the Pacific side, and San Ignacio, an oasis town of date palms with an eighteenth-century Jesuit mission church, are the main services. San Ignacio is a lovely place to rest, shaded by palms beside a freshwater lagoon in the middle of the desert. Pack water, snacks and a good puncture kit, and let the quiet sink in.