Laguna San Ignacio and Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Franci

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Laguna San Ignacio

   San Ignacio lagoon lies on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, about seventy kilometres by dirt road from the town of San Ignacio, and it is famous for a rare event: the grey whales that come here every winter to give birth sometimes approach small boats and let people touch them. The behaviour began in the 1970s and is still a mystery, but whales and calves come alongside, roll and look up, which has moved many a hardened traveller to tears.

   Read the complete Laguna San Ignacio write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Laguna San Ignacio is where the day begins. Next is El Vizcaíno.

2. 2. El Vizcaíno

   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.

   Read the complete El Vizcaíno write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   El Vizcaíno comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Franci.

3. 3. Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Franci

   Far down the Baja California peninsula, in the mountains above the Pacific coast, are some of the finest rock paintings in the Americas. The Sierra de San Francisco is a rugged range of volcanic mesas and deep canyons, and in the shelters and overhangs along the canyon walls the Cochimí people and their ancestors painted enormous figures: humans, deer, rabbits, birds, snakes and whales, in red, black, white and yellow. Many of the human figures are life-size or bigger, with arms raised, some pierced by arrows, and the older panels are thought to be a few hundred to several thousand years old. UNESCO listed the site in 1993.

   Read the complete Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Franci write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 175 km into the recorded legs you reach Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Franci. Next is back through El Vizcaíno.

4. 4. back through El Vizcaíno

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete El Vizcaíno write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through El Vizcaíno, late in the day. Next is Laguna San Ignacio.

5. 5. Laguna San Ignacio

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Laguna San Ignacio write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Laguna San Ignacio. That is the ride.