Heading trucking down 1st of November from Seattle leaving from San Felipe. Looking for an offroad route between Loreto and Lapaz. We will have big tanks on WR and xr650

Thanks,
Brett

There are a couple of routes you can take. Heck you have a bunch of choices, but the best two are following the classic Baja 1000 routes. You can get maps and course notes from any of the races that go to La Paz and follow. The basic course Leaves Loreto and goes up over the Mountains to the San Gertrudes Misson on top, and down thru about a 100 Stream crossings to the highway to Insurgentes. Then out toward the cost and South. You can go out to Insurgentes, Or Ciudad Constatucion for gas or any of the smaller town South of there. You go South to Tomatate, which is about even with La Paz and then turn East over the mini Summit into La Paz. You can also follow the same course to South of Constatucion then follow one of the later 1000 course or the 2000 course over to the East Coast and down. If you go that way better take extra gas because there is none available for a very long time. When We went that way I had a 4.2 IMS on my 650 and had to carry an extra Gallon in a anti freeze jug. The green rock mini grand canyon is worth seeing. Good luck. RB

rickbrnl said:

yes it is! good info rick.

rickbrnl said:

Do not go to south Baja without seeing this if avoidable! Go slow and be careful on some of those corners!

I never saw it until this year and can't believe I missed it before. No small trek getting there though!

Can anyone point me to an older Baja 1000 map that shows the east coast route down through the green rock mini grand canyon? I'm going to be down there soon and would like to check it out.

mgouras said:

I did it following some of the AAA map. you can do it with AAA map in total, the one road I took is much harder to navigate but I turned east 1/3 mile south of Santa Rita....I don't suggest anyone fishing for this road.....It is not quite as defined as the AAA map make it look.

Rosita restaurant turn easy as is the way out of Constitution

Anybody have anys?
having a hard time finding descent maps
Thanks

get a AAA map its the best $5.00 you will ever spend. if you are running gps do a search theres several basic maps out there.

good luck

also tray this link http://www.rlhcomm.c...0overallweb.pdf

and this http://www.rlhcomm.c...ace%20Notes.pdf

please keep in mind that some of the notes change gates and cattle x move and change color but its a good start

Thanks, BF

Got a AAA map (free if your a member) good call. I've seen more detailed maps. The Baja 1000 race maps are very detailed. Where are they from? We want to stay off main roads and highways as much as we can. Leaving from SF to Loreto maybe to Lapaz. We will hopfully be leaving from SF on the 1st or 2nd of November
Thanks:ride:

Just becareful south of constitution near the coast. The silt beds can be pretty tough. Got stuck in one two years ago and my bike got so hot it melted the leads on my stator. We made it back without a problem though.

brettf said:

Go to this website http://www.teamcprfa...-Downloads.html and the maps you need are there for free. There will be more coming soon. If you are using GARMIN for a GPS and have trip and waypoint manager loaded on your computer you can also download the GPS file for the 06 Baja 1000 which takes the routes everybody is talking about and will guide you perfectly right from San Felipe.
If you don't have trip and waypoint manager from GARMIN just click on the logo and it will direct you to their website page where you can buy it from them. It's about 25.00 and once you have it you will be able to download GPS tracks from emails attatchments, and websites that offer them like the page above. Once you download the GPX file into your Trip and Waypoint manager (which is super easy, just double click the map you want on the page above and it will open with the program) you can send it to your GPS if it's a Garmin within a couple of clicks.
If your planning a trip like that I HIGHLY suggest that this is the method for navigation that you use.
Hope this helps!
Chris Parker

rickbrnl said:

Hey Rick,
I live in Loreto and I have never heard of the Green Rock Mini-Grand Canyon. Can you provide GPS coordinate or a description of where it is located? Is it accessible only by motorcycle, or will a good 4x4 truck make it in?

billder99 said:

It's not a tough navigation or road and I call it the Mexico Grand Canyon.

It is fact that the corners are without any guard rails and the drops are 1000's of feet, BE CAREFUL.

It is also fact that there are formations and canyons filled with pink and green rocks and you pass through some epic oasis areas to get there. It is pretty desolate and as I stated earlier do not try and hunt for the road just south of Santa Rita unless you are a solid navigator and have a clue as to what you are doing. The AAA map has it on there but it was tough enough to get 6 of my Rip brothers thinking I was crazy (it was 100 degrees out) and they turned around for the highway.

The way through Constitution and East is easy and takes you through the 2006 Baja 1000 race course (available at PCI on a chip) through San Luis Gonzaga Mission.

You can also turn at the Rosita Restaurant and that will take you east to La Tinajitas where I had a chase truck with fuel waiting on the 2009 Rip to the Tip (this can be seen in the 2009 FUEL TV show and the youtube videos).

The 2011 Rip or the other ride I'm hosting with Casey Currie in March will go through the Mexico Grand Canyon (actually both probably will).

The pinnacle you see just after you get to the Sea Of Cortez is featured in I think Rick L Johnsons old race team poster, sick spot for a photo. I have photos but TT is not easy enough for me to post them!

Remember to only rely on yourself and never go on the word of others. Only you can take care of you.

I went on it back in April. We boondocked for a while following old GPS tracks. That made it more of an adventure. We saw Mexican ranchers and whatnot using the road. It is indeed neat and goes through several cool valleys. But it would be a long trip in a truck, especially if you broke down. There are several spots that i think would be tricky in a truck, but I never drive four wheels off road so please don't do anything based on my word.
Here are a few random not-very-good photos I took on the route that don't show it's splendor in any way. Gives you a sense of the road. But really in terms of difficulty it's really just like any other dirt route you could find in Baja off the AAA map -- good and bad.
The first one is on the way to the canyon area, north just outside of some really old mission.

This one shows us boondocking:

This one shows us back on the route:

I got a very nice PM from a forum member who sent me GPS coordinates for an access trail into the "Green Canyon" area from the beach road north out of La Paz, about 12 miles south of San Evaristo.

This led me to an all day obsession on Google Earth, looking at this whole area in detail. I have now found, marked and tagged several roads through those mountains from Pacific side to the Sea of Cortez... "flying above" (via Google Earth) reveals an area that must be spectacular.

A couple of reference points:

1) From jimmeege:The coast road turns west into the mountains at (24.7700/110.6657). Go about 2 miles to (24.7826/110.6872), and take the spur road off to the south dead ending in about a mile. It looks quite interesting from above, and I will go there first.

2) Flying “upward” with Google Earth for a larger area view, look directly west of there about 5 miles you will see a series of canyons running in a SW to NE line about 15 miles long. I have a suspicion this may be a real geology treasure trove for those who are interested... look at the upthrust lines and you will see what I mean. It is always hard to tell from satellite images, but both areas look like a great weekend motorcycle exploration with the assist of a support truck (no fuel in this area).

billder99 said:

Hello Billder99. Sorry I didn't pick up this thread until today. After reading the prior posts I was going to suggest one easy way was to go North out of La Paz toward San Evaristo along the La Paz bay/ San Juan de la Costa road and you would run right thru it. The other way is was to follow any of the 1000 courses that go to the East coast of Baja thru or near San E. I believe that includes the 2006, the Baja 2000 and the full peninsula run just before the 2000. Look in any of the map books for roads (hehe) that go to San E the towns called El Bosque (Primero Boque, Segundo Bosque, etc) then to the Coast road below (South) of San E. When we went that way we had big tanks and strapped on 1 gallon anti freeze bottles and just barely made it to the Hwy 1 junction where we had a chase truck. There is no gas back there that I know of and even San Juan de la Costa didn't have any obvious source for fuel. San Juan is the launch point for lots of fishing trips so I suspect you could find something there but I am sure it would be $$$$. Last time I was there there was a Pemex station right there at the junction of Hwy 1 with the San Juan/ San E road. Good luck and it is well worth seeing. When we first started seeing the Green rocks we thought someone was painting them they are that green but then we rode into the canyon and wow. Have fun. RB.

Thanks Rick, it is a good feeling to get such nice responses from you experienced Baja guys. Do you have a book of maps you would recommend? I am using Google Earth, spotting roads, following them and marking them... this should be sufficient, and I can even mark crossings and splits with GPS to verify my locations. I have marked several roads out of San Evaristo, west through the mountains. I have been up in the mountains west of Loreto in my 4x4 truck, and it does get remote out there. I need to figure out some sort of Mexican-pannier system for carrying extra fuel & water (hydrate!).

We ride that route a lot, done it 2 times in the past 7 weeks. It's pretty easy right now, maybe a bit rough for a typical truck on the decent to Cortez, all else easy. Also have ridden it when it's 0 chance of a 4wd getting thru (i have a great pic on my site, full enduro stlye).
BD is right, easier nav thru Gonzaga Mission. None of the nav is difficult, just ask the locals, no need for computery thing. There are (currently) at least 3 spots you can buy gas thru that section.

BoogersDad said:

I thinkk it's the Mango guys in their ProTruck. The poster is on the wall in the San Nick.