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19 days
5852 km / 3706 miles
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Jayne
and I decided to ship our bikes from the Portland,
Oregon area to friends in Los
Angeles to avoid possible snow and ice on the
passes to California. It also would save us riding 1000
miles of interstate, which is not fun. We flew to L.A.
and headed for the border the next day. We took the Tecate border
crossing and headed to Ensenada.
Soth from there to San
Quintin, and on to Bahia
de los Angeles. Then we headed further south to
San Ignacio and
on to Loreto
(which was our favorite town, even though we had bike
issues there). And further south to Todos
Santos (WAY overpriced and overrated). We rode
through Cabo san Lucas
(much too touristy) and north again to
La Paz. On the way back north we stopped again
in Loreto and San Ignacio. Instead of staying again at
Bahia de los Angeles we pushed on to Gonzaga
Bay, which was absolutely the right decision.
We then rode further north on Ruta 5 to San
Felipe and took Ruta 3 back to Ensenade. We
pushed on to Tecate for our last night in Mexico.
On the way back home we stayed with our friends in Los
Angeles again before heading to Oregon. 1000 miles on
Interstate 5, which took us 3 days.
In terms of weather
we had about everything on this tip. A lot more rain
than we had hoped for, a few very warm days, and even
snow going back from California to Oregon.
Images on the left show our entire
route (upper image) and our route
in
Baja California (lower image).
Recommended Map: Baja
(National Geographic Adventure Map)
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The best time for such a trip is
probably February. Before that it can get quite cold and
in March/April is the rainy season. After April it will
be HOT.
The road conditions are generally good. Some of
the small side roads are unpaved, but it wasn't too bad.
Ruta 5 is completely paved as of March 2020. By far the
worst section of road was coming into San Felipe from
the south.
We were surprised that there wasn't much traffic, not
even trucks. Only in towns did we find heavy traffic,
but as soon as you leave town the traffic dies down to
near nothing.
In terms of safety we decided not to camp but
rather hotel it all the way. Nearly all hotels in Baja
offer safe motorcycle parking, and if you come to one
without you just move on to the next. We always had our
stuff locked in aluminum
panniers when sight seeing and locked the bikes
with chain locks, together if possible. We felt quite
safe during our trip, but there are people that had
other experiences. There are lots of police and/or
military checkpoints, most of them just waved us
through. Some asked where we came from and where we were
going, thats all. No reason to panic. |
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We shipped
our
bikes from the Portland, Oregon area to
friends in Los Angeles, California to avoid 1000
miles of interstate riding, saving 3 days of
vacation, and avoiding possible snow and ice on
the passes to California.
We used Uship to get quotes. The guy we picked
turned out to push the pickup date several
times, until it was last minute, but he drove
all night and delivered on time.
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| We flew
fromPortland PDX to Los Angeles LAX where our
friends picked us up. We stayed with them and
took off on our motorcycles the next morning. |
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| The interstate ride from LA to San
Diego was quite bad with grooved pavement nearly
all the way. Soon after we got on California
highway 94 the city ended and we found
ourselves on a nice road with great scenery. |
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Crossing the border
to Mexico at Tecate was a breeze, took
all of two minutes. It actually was too quick.
We were through before we even noticed it and
had to walk back to get our tourist cards
stamped.
Pro Tip:
If you buy the tourist card (FMM) online, make
sure you bring the receipt, or you'll have to
buy another one. If you buy the card at the
border it's a litte cheaper. You may also get
offered to buy home made hot sauce from the
border officer. Welcome to Mexico.
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