I was recently made aware that to access the hikes I have shown on my blog and described in the “Hiking Loreto” guide book, requires permission from the ranch owners of the land.
You can contact the president of Loreto Guide Association, Rodolfo Palacios Castro, for a guide to take you on these hikes because they have permission from the owners and are aware of the need to protect these fragile places. His Facebook site is:
Currently, the owner of the Las Parras Ranch along the road to San Javier Church sells passes to their property at the Pescador Grocery Store or Hacienda Suites. As time goes by, there may be more owners who do this.
Our smaller group of 6 Loreto Bay Hikers ---Donald, Julie, Rich, John, Yash, and me----returned to Ligui Canyon to explore the upper reaches of Mesquite Canyon. To get there from the Vila del Palmara exit on Mex 1 Highway, we took two 4 wheel drives 3 1/2 miles up the rough river bed to just a few hundred yards from the canyon entrance. We first had to scale the sketchy wall entrances to Mesquite Canyon just past the entrance waterfall before we would find ourselves wading through the beautifully carved canyon in the aqua green waters still flowing as we approach summer.
Here we are clinging to the sketchy walls of the canyon just beyond the waterfall near the entrance.
We continued wading up the water-filled canyon until we came to an opening where the canyon met up with the Rim Trail---frequently called Poo-poo trail for all of the cow pies found along the trail.
Our 6 Loreto Bay Hikers---Donald, Julie, Rich, John, Yash, and me. This was John's last hike before returning to Calgary. He and I have enjoyed leading Loreto Bay Hikers to these amazing hiking places identified for us by DeeDee and Dave Kelly in their "Loreto Hikes" guide book.
This is the last hike that I will be leading for the season. It is one of my favorites because it leads us by four pools as we boulder hop up the river bed. This is my third year of leading other Loreto Bay Hikers on these weekly hikes. Every time I go out on these hikes, there are always new hikers that join us.
It is called Pinturas Canyon because of the cave paintings that we use to be able to see before several hurricanes buried them below the piled up gravel. Another hurricane may uncover them again.
Cecilia Fischer is from Loreto and worked for Loreto Bay as their sustainability and environmental manager. She now works for Ocean Foundation whose mission is to maintain and protect our marine environment, and for her, especially the marine preserve that surrounds Loreto in the Sea of Cortez.
During our hike, Cecelia was able to help us identify many of the plants, trees, and cactus. She also provided us with some of the history of the area and current concerns with potential mining operations in the area and how it may affect the drinking water and pollute the sea.
Cecelia leads the way through a canyon along the way.
Our first pool of 4.
A bit of Boulder hopping along the river.
Our hiking reward---a refreshing swim.
Now back in Seattle, I am fine-tuning my hiking gear and preparing my five days of meals for my upcoming Appalachian Trail hike that begins at Springer Mountain, GA on June 7th. I will be joined at the Atlanta airport by one of my hiking buddies, Gary Holliday, I met in Loreto where he and his wife, Heidi, joined me on many of these Loreto hikes. They also joined me this past summer in doing the Choquequirao Trek, Peru, touring Lima, Cusco, and Chinchero, Peru with the Crooked Trails Tour Group. Our plan is to do about half of the AT this year by stopping at Harper's Ferry, WV--about 1,000 miles of the 2,100-mile trail.
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