South of San Quintin?

[Desertbound]

Heading to baja in a couple weeks to take the prerunners out, do some surfing, and just have some fun. Looking to stay on the west side of the peninsula. Made the run to san quintin from ensenada a bunch of times but havent done much exploring south of that with the exception of a day trip to Rosario.

Is the route south of Rosario any good? What kind of destinations are feasible from San Quintin in a day? San Carlos caught my eye and looks pretty sweet. Reccomendations on hotels to hit up south of Rosario? Thanks.

-Rob

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[PAB]

Heading to baja in a couple weeks to take the prerunners out, do some surfing, and just have some fun. Looking to stay on the west side of the peninsula. Made the run to san quintin from ensenada a bunch of times but havent done much exploring south of that with the exception of a day trip to Rosario.

Is the route south of Rosario any good? What kind of destinations are feasible from San Quintin in a day? San Carlos caught my eye and looks pretty sweet. Reccomendations on hotels to hit up south of Rosario? Thanks.

-Rob

Never been to San Carlos Norte but hear it is a sweet place to check out. I have been near there and a day trip is totally doable from San Quntin. There are two hotels in El Rosario that we stay in, Mammas is right there and all is good there but the place next to the Pemex (Baja Cactus I think) is awesome, really fair on the price and some of the nicest rooms in Baja and a big fenced parking area.

Catavinia is also a day trip but the trails on the East side of the Hwy 1 can be pretty remote. You could use roads on the west side that go to San Carlos and then intersect with 1 above Catavinia (quite a decent section of slab though) Not much surf at Catavinia unless you trek down to the 7 sisters.

There are some awesome headlands above El Rosario. Where hwy 1 turns left off the coast after the long straight below San Quintin if you go straight/right you will find some of the best cliffs to sit and watch the ocean and sunset in that 5 mile area.

From the Desert Inn in South San Quintin you can drive the beach for at least 15 miles....seen some surf down there too

[bajafan]

San Carlos is a really cool spot. Good surf at multiple spots, great moto riding, and simply beautiful (like most of Baja!). It's known as a world-class windsurf spot though, so the surf is obviously best early/late (or better yet Oct/Nov). There's a windsurf camp there that sort of 'maintains' the area and charges to camp on the point, etc... I don't know if they're still in business, but they were called Solo Sports, I think. They used to have some really cool aerial photos of the area on their website, which is worth a goog search on it alone.
For a prerunner run, you could loop from San Q either down to Punta Baja and connect with the San Carlos road out to Mex 1 and back north, or stay on Mex 1 south from Rosario and about 15 minutes or so after you cross the big bridge over the big dry wash take the San Carlos road out and loop back north. The problem with going that way though is that if you go all the way out to San Carlos, you have to back track 15/20 miles to find the road that cuts north. There's a bunch of Baja sucker roads (you know, the ones that look well traveled and just dead end in the middle of nowhere) along the coast north of the windsurf camp. Fun to explore, but you can't get back going that way.
Anyway, get a AAA Baja map and do some exploring!
I wish I was going....have fun!

[SPROCKET]

You can also make a day and find the PINTAS. Look on the aaa map same turn off as san carlos just go east. theres a few farms houses you can ask. Some pretty cool cave paintings and nice place to camp and stay the night.

have fun.

remember its not alllways about the destination, getting there is fun also.

[Lord Green]

From Santa Catarina south to 'fish camp' are good beaches, good camping and fun prerunner roads. The 'Baja Adventure Book' lists surf locatiions, fossil sites and other information about the area. We've found blow holes, tide pools and ship wrecks.

[Desertbound]

Thanks for the replies guys. Some really helpful info. I think we'll stay at the desert inn in san quintin on the way down then just drive south as much as possible, hit highway to rosario then turn off again and make our way down to san carlos from Punta Baja and try not to get too lost. Stay at Hotel Brennan (anyone ever stayed there?) and then head back to the old mill in san quintin. That sound decent? Whose got GPS files? haha.

[nobrakes]

stay at old mill.theres a surf spot called cabo san quintin(on the point)good fun like "on any sunday" style ride on beach to get there..the wall is south of el rosario also a good spot. you can make run to mikes sky ranch. all from the old mill

[don ron]

if you are going to stay in the sanquintin area there is a new resturant hotel called JARDINES de BAJA off hyway 1 going toward the old mill but go only 1 crossing turn left south about 1 mile very good food and beds,,,,,,,,,,,,ron aka don ron

[MALABANAN]

San Quintin point is SICK!!! You go in by the military base to the beach, then drive south along the beach, up a hill and along the cliff until the end of the point. Long rights, Rincon or Malibu stylie...Bring many Pacificos, lime and salt...Da Kine.

[Giant Geoff]

Rob, there are 2 small volcano’s across from Old Mills you can go to the top of them and get a great view. To get out there, make your way north from Old Mills on dirt trials to make your way out to the point.
Here are some photo’s to give you an idea.
http://giantmotorsports.com/componen...5643&g2_page=6