The road was better then expected. The map had it labeled as an improved two track road, but it had been recently paved and was clean and smooth. We assumed they improved the road for tourism since it wasn't far from Loreto. However, we saw maybe one car on the roughly three hours we were on this road. What a shame, because this was an excellent detour with spectacular views.
That picture just does not do it justice, the road hugged the cliffs and mountain sides the whole way. In places we could see all the way back to the Sea of Cortez.
Arrived at a small shrine just before the mission. Small, quaint worship building tucked back into the mountains. Cool place, really nothing else up here.
While we descended down the road back out of the mountains, I opened the map trying to find a place to camp for the night. This was not as easy as you think. You try reading maps and books on a twisting mountain road without getting sick! One location I noticed, and that Chuck had heard good things about, was Agua Verde.
Agua Verde lied on the Sea at the end of a dirt mountain road that crossed la Giganta. Seemed simple enough. It was so much better then that though. This was perhaps one of the more scenic drives I have ever been on. We exited off of HWY 1, split a couple of peaks, then started the winding road to the coast. Holy crap there was no room for error. The dirt road crawled along the sides of the mountains dropping 300ft plus into gorgeous ravines off its edges. I didn't have a wide enough angle lens to really capture this range. The whole drive I was just in awe.
I was actually unable to get a good picture of our road (since if I stepped out I'd fall 400 feet) until we were nearly down. But you get the idea.
After riding along the coast for a few miles, we finally reached the fishing village of Agua Verde. The town consisted of about six ranch homes and a restaurant that we cautiously avoided. But we were able to find a spot on the beach to camp. Everything setup I spent the evening watching sea lions and dolphins play in the small bay and the sun fall behind the mountains behind us.
We were getting close to land's end now so the swells and waves were getting larger, even on the sea side. The next morning we debated putting the boats in but decided to push on south instead and packed up. We were spoiled by the glassed over water from the rest of the trip.
Ran into some local traffic on the road out.
After the white knuckle drive back through Giganta we were again at a decision point. I pulled the books and maps back out. Again, the only real disappointment we had in this trip so far was the lack of reptilian wildlife we had seen. Now that the only non-biologist member of our party was no longer in the caravan, we decided to try to chase down some lizards. I had gotten snubbed with rock lizards earlier in the trip (remember the photo of the green lizard head peaking out between the rocks), but there was an endemic species rock lizard only found in the cape region of the peninsula. We even were able to come up with a locality that we had a good shot of spotting them. So we headed back south on HWY 1 toward Sierra la Lagune National Park.
Turning off the pavement at the town of San Antonio (sans Alamo) we dropped down through Sierra la Laguna bound for the arroyo at the the bottom and a place called San Antonio de la Sierra (creative huh?) We arrived in late afternoon and a prime time to look for wildlife. What a great place we stumbled upon.
The first thing we noticed getting out of the truck was the bird life. The surrounding area had been very brown and apparently in the middle of a decent drought. Wait what? I thought I was in the desert? Sierra la Laguna was something totally different then the various habitats we had camped in thus far. The cardon cactus, boojum, and ocotillo have now been replaced with oaks, and cottonwoods. The birds were apparently congregating in this arroyo that was still relatively green. I couldn't get any good pics because they stayed in the large canopies of the deciduous trees (including the freaking Scott's Orioles again!), but we added like 12 new species to our trip total in one evening.
Chuck was on bird patrol
I was trying to keep a keen eye out for the San Lucan Rock Lizards. It didn't take long before I spotted a juvenile on a large boulder.
Now this guy was pretty cool looking, but he wasn't mature and was lacking the striking colors of the adults. I saw a couple of LARGE adults but they just weren't allowing me anywhere near close enough to get a hand on or get a decent photograph. I was losing light so I called it a draw and we set up camp in the bottom of the arroyo.
I set up my cot directly under a large cottonwood tree, and watched a ringtail make his way down the arroyo. Well sometime during the night something started peeping in the tree above me. It was like a metronome but would change its rhythm every 30 seconds or start accelerating violently. Sometimes there would be two metronomes competing with each other.
What the heck is that noise!
Chuck dug out his spot light and we lit up the cottonwood. After scanning for several minutes we finally found the biological metronome that was keeping us awake, it was an owl about the size of a softball. It was an elf owl! If it wasn't so freaking cute I probably would have thrown a rock at it to shut it up. Eventually he stopped establishing his territory and went silent for the night.
The next morning I was out after the lizards hard. I was not satisfied with a naive juvenile.
Success!
So happy, one of the animals I was really hoping to see this trip. When he finished biting me, I made sure to get plenty of photos. And holy cow, look at this lizard! (another geek out).
Just wow, what a colorful lil animal.
A successful morning. We packed up camp and headed out for our final campsite of the trip, los Barriles.
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