Choose Your Baja Surf Spot

Beyond Ensenada Surf Guide

Once you get south of Ensenada everything becomes a lot more desolate. The key element of a longer road trip into Baja is planning out your travel route and destination to avoid any possible hitches. Often times what looks like a quick and easy drive on a map is a slow, meandering drive off-road over rough terrain. Knowing the exact travel time to get to your destination will make the experience much more enjoyable. In most cases, having a truck or SUV with good ground clearance is the way to go. The majority of Highway 1 is a two lane road all the way down to the tip of the Baja peninsula and it can be challenging even in the daytime. There are steep hills, winding cliff side roads and drivers who have no hesitations about passing other vehicles on a blind corner. For these reasons alone it is best to avoid driving at night as you will be sharing the road with semis, buses and RV’s. Driving at night is also dangerous because of the lack of street lights and the potential for livestock and other animals to be on the road. It is not uncommon to see vehicles to be driving at night without few or any working lights at all.

When you venture off of Highway 1 you can expect the road to either be well maintained pavement or dirt or a rocky, muddy and sometimes impassable mess. It all depends on when the last rain took place and if there is any sort of maintenance provided by the state. The key is to have a reliable vehicle, be prepared for anything and have a backup plan. All of the extra work to get to the more secluded areas pays off though, as those couple extra hours off the beaten path means you and your friends will hopefully be scoring waves with nobody else around.