Why this ride
A one-way ride of 490 km, Mulegé to La Paz - roughly 5 h 53 in the saddle. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Baja California Highway 1: Mulege to La Paz
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 490 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 53
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mulegé
Mulegé is a green surprise in a very brown country. The town sits where a small river reaches the Gulf of California, and a belt of date palms follows the valley inland, so that after hours on dry, spiny desert road you drop through a gap in the hills and find yourself among palms, orchards and the scent of water. The old mission church, founded by the Jesuits in the early eighteenth century, stands on a rise above the river and looks out across the palms.
Read the complete Mulege write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mulegé is where the day begins. Next is Loreto.
2. Loreto
Loreto has a claim that no other town on the peninsula can match: in 1697 the Jesuit Juan María de Salvatierra founded the mission here, Nuestra Señora de Loreto, and it became the first permanent European settlement in the Californias. The town served as the capital of the whole region for decades, until the seat of government moved north, and the old mission church with its stone front still stands on a quiet street in the centre. Today it is a laid-back place of fourteen thousand people with a seafront promenade, a small harbour and a lot of fishing boats.
Read the complete Loreto write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Loreto comes up about 135 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Paz.
3. La Paz
La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur, a city of over two hundred thousand people on the shore of a wide bay that gave it a pearl fishing industry for centuries. Cortés landed here in 1535, the pearl oysters made the place famous, and John Steinbeck set his novella The Pearl on this coast after sailing the Sea of Cortez with his friend Ed Ricketts in 1940. The oyster beds failed in the early twentieth century, but the city has kept its easy, coastal character, and the seafront walk, the malecón, is where everybody goes in the evening to eat ice cream and look at the sunset.
Read the complete La Paz write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 490 km.
Leg by leg
Mulegé to Loreto
Mulegé → Loreto is 135 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Loreto to La Paz
Loreto → La Paz is 355 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.