From the Border to the Bahía Concepción, Mexico
This story begins over a year ago when Michael told me he wanted to RV down the Baja California Peninsula. At first, I didn’t take him that seriously, but after several months of his daily Spanish lessons on Duolingo, I decided I needed to come up with a plan.
We stayed at Sunbeam Lake RV Park in El Centro, CA the week of our planned border crossing at Mexicali East. While in El Centro, we purchased Mexican auto and travel trailer insurance. We walked across the Mexicali West border crossing to get a stamped FMM (basically a tourist visa). We rented a storage unit to empty enough space in the back of our truck for our new 60-gallon water bag. We exchanged some dollars for pesos.
On Friday morning, we were hitched up and ready to go before sunrise because we wanted to beat the traffic in Mexicali. Of course, we noticed a tail light was out so we got delayed waiting for the Autozone to open. At the border crossing, the agents checked our vehicle registrations, peeked inside our truck and the inside of our trailer, and then we were finally on our way.
I had planned 3 drive days to cover 560 miles to our first weeklong destination, which was just south of Mulegé. The roads have been better than expected but we are also driving slowly. Our route:
Our first overnight stop was Victor’s RV Park in San Felipe, just 120 miles south of Mexicali. San Felipe is a snowbird town on the Sea of Cortez and has a lot of oceanfront RV parks. We spent the afternoon loading up on diesel, groceries, and more pesos and also walked the beach and the Malecón (an oceanfront sidewalk that all coastal towns have).
On Saturday, we had a long but stunning drive from San Felipe to Guerrero Negro on Highway 5, which has only been a paved route since 2020.
Guerrero Negro, on the Pacific side of the peninsula, is a salt-mining town and the gateway to the very special grey whale calving lagoon, Laguna Ojo de Liebre. We were a little too early in the season for a tour but have one planned on our way back north.
Guerrero Negro has a famous fish taco food truck, Tacos El Muelle, so we had to try that. We confirm that it is delicious and can’t wait to eat there again!
We also filled up our water bag at a water purification store. We bought this bag because most tap water at RV parks is not potable and we didn’t want to depend on being able to tow our camper directly to these stores. It’s been hard enough to just maneuver our truck.
On Sunday, our drive was 185 miles on Highway 1 back over to the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula. Our destination was Playa Santispac, one of the numerous beaches to dry camp along the incomparable Bahía Concepción.
The Bahía Concepción is a large bay on the Sea of Cortez lined with smaller coves, many with breathtaking beaches and calm turquoise water that is great for paddling, at least in the mornings before it gets windy.
As you can see, Playa Santispac was packed with RVs, some American but mostly Canadian. Some are staying for the entire winter. It is the most big rig friendly of all the beaches in the area and was 200 pesos or currently less than $12 per night.
We loved our actual spot on the beach with a palapa for shade. There were 2 restaurants on the beach and vendors came every day to sell water, seafood, produce, and baked goods. There were also bathrooms and a dump station for RVs.
We spent the weekend on the water and even saw a couple of dolphins as we were paddling. Baja has such a unique combination of mountains, desert, and marine landscapes.
We only left Playa Santispac once the entire week because we wanted to walk around the charming small town of Mulegé, built around an oasis.
By the end of the week, we didn’t want to leave. If I hadn’t already made reservations further south, who knows how long we would have stayed. One week was certainly not enough and we can understand why so many people stay the entire season.
