Three Hikes

Baja has many opportunities for hiking – the challenge sometimes is finding them. If you have limited time, go with a guide (link); most tourist hotels can find one for you. This is a good plan for extended hikes because hiking trails can be confused with cattle trails. If you want to do it yourself, you can find trails on maps and blog posts and by word-of-mouth.

This post highlights three recent hikes. Hike #1 – Sol de Mayo – appears on low-resolution maps of the Sierra La Laguna Biosphere Reserve. The maps can’t be used for navigation. We learned about hike #2 – Arroyo Palmillas – on the Baja Pony Express (link), an English-language website with news, information and announcements for the gringo community. We learned about hike #3 – Sendero sin Nombre – by word of mouth.

Sol de Mayo

Located near the town of Santiago (KM 85 on the Transpeninsular Highway) on the east side of the Sierra La Laguna Biosphere Reserve, Cañon de la Zorra (Fox Canyon) is best known for its waterfall (cascada). Rancho Ecológico Sol de Mayo and has an entry fee of USD $6. Hike upstream from the waterfall (elevation about 275 m) and you'll find pools and wetlands and a beautiful canyon.

Entrance to Rancho Ecológico Sol de Mayo

Cañón de San Dionisio

The granite mountains of the Sierra la Laguna dominate the terrestrial horizon of the Cape Region in southern Baja. Running north-south about 100 km, they rise to over 2,100 m (7,000 ft) and cover 112,522 ha (278,000 ac). Access to the mountains is on dirt roads that follow river valleys and canyons from east to west on the Sea of Cortez side and west to east on the Pacific side. Trails over the high ridges begin where the roads end (link).

Looking down (east) Cañón San Dionisio

Rande and I drove up Cañón de San Dionisio from the town of Santiago on the east side of the mountains. The vegetation is arid scrub (“matorrales”) from sea level up to about 250 m (800 ft), dry forests up to 800 m (2,600 ft), evergreen oak woodlands (“encino”) up to 1,200 m (4,000 ft), oak-pine forests at the higher elevations and palm oases along the river channels (link). The variety of habitats and the area's isolation are reflected in its biodiversity – nearly 1,000 plant species have been recorded and 23% are endemics, including five endemic genera (link). Eight of the 42 species of reptiles and amphibians and eight of the 59 resident bird species are endemics (link).

Santuario de los Cactus

In 2011, Rande and I drove a rental car from Todos Santos on the Pacific side of southern Baja to Punta Colorado on the Sea of Cortez. Passing through the foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna, we saw a small sign pointing down a dirt road to the “Santuario de los Cactus.” We stopped for a short visit and returned to the cactus sanctuary this year.

El Santuario de los Cactus is 6 km off the Transpeninsular Highway between La Paz and San Jose del Cabo at about KM168. The 6-hectare (15-acre) forest-like sanctuary is surrounded by 50 hectares of protected land in ejido El Rosario, a small village of 25 families in the northern foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna [ejido is communally-owned farmland]. At an elevation of 425 m (1400 ft), the sanctuary is part of the dry forest ecoregion, the transition between the lowland xeric scrub of the southern Baja peninsula and the pine-oak forests of the mountains (link).

UNESCO designated the Sierra la Laguna a global biosphere reserve in 2003; 23% of the nearly 1,000 species found in the sierra are endemics. Human activities within the biosphere reserve include extraction of timber and other forest products, farming and cattle raising (link). 

Road to the cactus sanctuary with Sierra la Laguna in the background