Ready, Set...."Jeep!!"

But which way?

We decide before we leave this year we want to check out the backroad out of Mulege that is a loop going to San Jose Magdelena.  A month ago we tried to drive from the north, but the road was blocked about half way.  The floods with the hurricane rolled huge boulders down the canyon.

This first sign was a decoy to get us going in the wrong direction...so we back track and take the other fork in the road.

Jerri the gate girl!

The road goes from a Class 1 off road...to Class 2 after about two hours.  We cut across several rancho properties, always being careful to close every gate we open.

Healthy looking cattle!

The small ranchos in the back country are creatively built without a lot of materials.  Even so, the cattle look good.  Many are tagged.

Picnic time

We stop for lunch after about 3 hours.  This is a nice shady spot, in the middle of a rancho.  Two motor bikes race by...which, strangely, we never see again.

Fancy signs for way back "nowhere"

We finally find a sign indicating that it's "only" 80 km more over to the west side of Baja...San Estanislao, which is on our way,  turns out to be a ramshackle abode, maybe originally a small travel trailer...and a fenced area, and the Exmision is the ruins of the mission we were looking for, but never saw.  We did pass by it.  I think.  :)

Local

Cattle and burros and sometimes goats show up randomly.  Later in the day we come across some cowboys riding back to ranchos.

Yikes...the drop off...

Class 3 road?  Road?

As the road deteriorates, Nan can be heard saying...several times actually: "I DO NOT vote for this!" or..."Hey, it will take us three and 1/2 hours to get back out...and it's 2:30....and..."  Yet, again: "I do not...VOTE for THIS!"

Take a look at the road ahead....see that little line on the other side of the canyon?  And no, we haven't reached the boulders blocking the roadway yet...YET....but...no one, Nan is sure, NO ONE has been on this road in the last three years...or around the same holes, or wash outs....

Ribbon of road...

We finally stop, look ahead...and give it up.  Hard for the drivers...easy for Nan.  And Sparky and Skipper.

Can we go home now?

With another possible 3 hours back, we finally turn around at 2:45 p.m.  And besides, the Class 3 road is definitely unrated now.

As so often, the road out is "faster" than the road in.  This day we see only two other vehicles...rancho trucks...and two motor cross country bikes.  Oh....and three cowboys on horses or donkeys.  Take a look at the handmade chaps and stirrup guards made from rancho leather!  Amazing!

Baja Vacquero on the backroad past Mulege

Safe arrival back on the beach by dark....oh, but first, a stop in Mulege for a hamburgesa at El Candil...also known as "Scotty's"....a local restaurant run by a guy from...wait for it...Oregon!