You can’t blame Mexicans for enjoying their land and it’s bounty in their preferred way but when the bird song in the oasis at Rancho El Coyote camping got drowned out by youthful screeching and competing boom boxes the crew of GANNET2 had had enough. We left.
Layne had her gringo moment here as we settled our bill on departure. I’m proud of her for bottling it all up but she got profoundly annoyed inside when the caretaker’s wife charged us 250 pesos each per night instead of the original 240 Edgar charged on entry. It’s not much money (50 cents difference) but the Mexican inability to post menus prices activities and times leaves her feeling taken advantage of from time to time. Then they charged us $30 for two breakfasts. I thought two breakfasts at $15 was steep but we did it thinking Jeff and Nicole were eating as well on their last morning. Then the price doubled when we went to pay and it was suddenly 300 pesos each. And our friends had already long since eaten! (They sat at our table and shared a last coffee with us instead. Good folks). All this to say Layne was grumpy. I can’t blame her but I don’t post these contretemps in our reviews online because to me they seem rather personal. The place is lovely but visit during week days to enjoy peace and quiet and don’t eat at their restaurant if price matters! The cost may surprise you…Moving on:
We took off up the hill after our last long hot showers -the best in Mexico!- and after a quick chat with Mike the resident American solar expert who looks after the ranch’s solar electrical needs. He added to Layne’s gloom by looking at GANNET2 and saying mournfully we’d never get up to 9,000 feet in that. I cut the conversation short as Layne was already carrying a full load and for the record the Promaster did fine, slow and steady to the top. A good test for our plans to tour the Andes next year. Layne gets annoyed when people try to squash her dreams and she wanted to get up to the national park.
The road to the Sierra de San Pedro Martir National Park - catchy name isn’t it? - is very odd. It’s perfectly paved with just one pothole in all fifty miles. It winds uphill very languidly and passes through scrubby high desert scenery with hardly a tree to be seen. These views here with pine trees start only within three miles of the park boundary where the greenery suddenly bursts out into mature high sierra pine forests.
And suddenly as you pass through open metal gates it’s all sandy rock formations and very tall shady pines.
A couple of miles up from the employee housing at the boundary you reach the reception building where you pay a piddling 54 pesos each (not quite three bucks) per day. We planned a single day visit and paid accordingly.
The soldier at the gate waved and smiled, a reassuring presence in the wilderness that all is well and we had the freedom to roam the remaining ten miles of roadway.
The campground is right next to the entrance and has the only facilities which amount to picnic tables fire rings (collecting fallen wood is permitted here apparently) and a couple of pit toilets of modern white design.
We drove past the camping area, marked by a sign saying “No camping beyond this point” and off we went into the void. We saw no other visitors for the rest of the day in the park. Our first stop was at the chapel of Saint Peter of Verona. The park is actually named for a northern Italian saint who was murdered in the 13th century.
His murderer apparently repented the deed and ended up taking holy orders himself. Such is the power of saints.
Layne took a picture of me looking for less as usual in front of the little structure on the hill.
You can just see the tiny structure up the hill:
Layne made cooked oatmeal for lunch. Webb Chiles introduced me to uncooked oatmeal and it tastes pretty good so I go either way but I do like mine cooked. Layne does a savory version that tastes like grits. Go figure how she thinks.
Rusty took his treats and sat himself in cover. He is still a wild dog.
Can’t see him can you:
We drove on toward the observatory at the end of the road but we never got there as we turned off the paved road at Vallecitos, a sierra prairie.
A couple of coyotes were hanging found near the main road. I don’t find coyotes particularly scary but I wasn’t going to let Rusty out at this place:
We drove out across the prairie until we got bored, stopped at a turning point where town trails joined and went for a walk.
That was when I noticed our Weboost cellphone signal enhancer was not sticking up above the roof air conditioner. Clearly the low hanging branch we hit on the main road took a casualty. You can see it in the picture below sticking up above GANNET2:
We carry no ladder so we did what we had planned to do: we improvised. I backed the van up to a rock and stood up at the back with Layne braced against the rock and I reached up and one handed managed to get two fresh zip ties to hold the antenna more or less vertical. At least it wasn’t bashing the roof now.
We turned around as we now had a problem to deal with. Could we find a ladder at the park entrance? The visitor center below has been closed for years owing to Covid:
The entrance building had no ladders. It looked like we might have to go back to El Rancho Coyote as they would surely have one.
Our biggest fear was not dealing with this minor problem and making this worse. There was a ladder against a tree at the employee housing! Behind a locked fence. Then further down the hill layne spotted a tall green gate. Could it work?
We backed up very carefully and I got to work with the zip ties at the top of the gate.
I got the job done and clipped the zip ties clean and that was that. No one passed on the highway while I was up the gate and we drove on no problem. A folding ladder is heavy and not something we use hardly at all and this experience reinforces our choice.
This meant we didn’t have to go back to Rancho El Coyote and that was a good thing if you remember how badly they upset Layne when we left. Besides this is our favorite place to spend the night.
Check out the view:
We came up the road when we left El Rancho and stopped for a break at an open space supposedly being turned into a California Condor look out. For now it’s just a sandy open space alongside the road. We liked it very much as it is more open than the campground in the park, a not very level space tucked among the trees. Layne suggested sleeping here to my surprise.
I checked my handiwork from the ground and all looked well.
It was a good night. For all of us. Silent and dark and filled with a deep sleep in the cool mountain air.
