2024-12-21 Baja – Cerro La Cruz & attempt to reach Las Dolores mission
Mornings are cool here in Baja mountains. But already past 9am the air is warm, and past 10am hot. My pulse starts racing in the heat. There are 2 ideal hours for hiking, from 7am – 9am.
We wake up early morning. Chester makes coffee, simple granola for breakfast. A man on a horse passes by. Here he is called un vaquero rather than a cowboy. We invite him for a coffee but he is on a mission. We also are ready to hit the road towards the ruins of Las Dolores mission, and then to the Sea of Cortez.
As we drive we see a named hill on the map „Cerro la Cruz”, and decide to take advantage of cool hours of the morning. This time I put my hiking boots on.
Hmm, I have my doubts if we can climb it should our hill be one on the left. A rock band looks rather tough.Luckily it was not. Our ‚cerro’ is on the left of Desigual and it looks easy. Initially we even find a road.Getting closer. Terrain is unusually easy. Nice brief scramble for the final steps.Summit! and then down to the carOne of many oases on the way towards las Dolores. This is what makes life possible here in this desertFish enjoys oasis too.We take a short walk to find to source of water. Spectacular terrain here.Another man on a horse, a vaquero o ranchero?We find a caved used in the past by indigenous.Somehow we missed the road to Las Dolores mission?!?! Well, change of plans – we will follow the road to the end, to Ensenada de Cortez.The road becomes harder and harder. We are happy to see concrete on a short steep section. At the end of this section there’s a peak at the centre – short and sweet.We stop the car and hike up it to evaluate the road. From the peak the road looks nasty.So we descend to the car and then hike the road down to decide if it is wise to continue. We change our minds several times. At the end we decide to try.
We got through the steepest and semi exposed part just to discover that the flatter road section had huge rocks and steps. We started getting concerned about damaging Delica, or not being able to get out of here.
We are somewhat disappointed we did not reach the Sea of Cortez nor las Doloras mission but we are relieved we were able to drive our car from that trap, and climb this beautiful nameless peak on the left.Here is our nameless peak in the morning.
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 