Baja blog - Wed, April 1 - exploring the National Park

 Baja Blog - Wednesday, April 1, 2026

 

Hilary here - First a note on water, electricity and wifi here at the Rancho Meling.  An older guide book told us that there was limited electricity in the evenings and no wifi.  The Rancho does now have electricity all day and a generator that goes on sometimes to power batteries, we figured.  And, they do now have wifi.  What they didn’t have was any outlets in the rooms by which you could power anything using wifi so we could only plug things in while driving in my car!  This morning, I started to take a shower and did get some warm water at very low water pressure but as soon as I got in the shower the warm water cooled off so it was a quick event with no hair washing.  Later, there was no water at all for awhile.  Regardless, it is a neat place that we all liked a lot.

We had ordered our breakfast last night so we went a bit early into the dining room to take advantage of the availability of coffee and as soon as our breakfast was ready, the nice woman who does a bit of everything brought us 2 orders of machaca (shredded dry beef cooked with eggs) and and my omelette with ham and a basket of tortillas.  

 

We then regrouped and headed for the National Astronomical Observatory that is near a high point in the San Pedro Mártir National Park.  We knew that the observatory was closed on Wednesdays but hoped to get pretty close so that we could be at a point where you might  be able to see both the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean!  The park is located on the crest of Baja.  As we drove the 30+ miles (which takes over an hour) we were able to log a variety of flowers starting with a small red flower that I spotted at the one place where we could pull off the road and park.  Bob later identified this as the Slender-leaf Ipomopsis.  It was scarlet red with blue anthers.  Also lots of blooming bush poppies.

 

Ipomopsis

Views as we drove up the road to the park

 

We drove through a stretch of beautiful, fully in bloom ceanothus (likely Chaparral Whitethorn).  We saw paintbrush and buckwheat and a small white morning glory.  Luckily there was little traffic as you have to drive fairly slowly for both the curves in the mountain road and to avoid the frequent potholes.  

 

We arrived at park headquarters and went in to pay what was advertised as 65 pesos per person.  The man asked me to write down my car information and asked where we were from.  When I said Arizona, he showed us the bigger chart that showed different pay amounts.  For some reason, we were charged 125 pesos per person.  None of us minded contributing to a national park in any country so didn’t mind the extra charge.  I wondered if it was a sort of reverse tariff - not that I blame him.

 

We were now at about 8250 feet in elevation.  The ranch is at 2100.  We were in a forest of big trees of a variety of conifers.  These included sugar pine, Jeffries pine, Lodgepole, white fir and four-needle pinyon. 

You can see Bob on the left side of the base of the tree

 We continued on until suddenly there was a big gate and it was closed and locked and we weren’t going any further towards the observatory.  They do have strange hours - open Sun - Tue 10-1 and 2-3, closed Wednesday and then open Thursday - Saturday 10-1 and 2-3.  Regardless, I turned around and we slowly returned through this beautiful forest with some open meadows.  I noticed a coyote walking towards us on the road.  He went onto the side but did not run away but looked at us.  He was the most beautiful coyote any of us had seen - not mottled the way many are in AZ and very healthy looking.

 

Very beautiful and healthy coyote

We stopped at the Visitor Center but it wasn’t open either.  There was a great stained glass of big horned sheep over the front door.  We could see an extensive display on California condors, forty of which have been introduced here.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see a condor, but I spotted 2 jays and then Bob saw a flock of them - Pinyon Jays so that was a nice find.  We also saw lots of tiny chipmunks skittering out of the way on the side of the road in many spots.  Still too cold at these highest elevations for blooming wildflowers..  No leaves on the aspens yet.

 

Squirrel enjoying the views as we started to head down the road

We returned to the ranch and lounged for a bit.  Katy and I then took a walk down one of the trails that crosses an active flowing stream.  The ranch has been acknowledged for protection of the red-legged frog. 

We didn’t see any frogs so took off in the other direction up the sandy driveway to see what was in that direction.  We passed the capilla or small private chapel.  Then we turned left towards a cemetery in the distance.  There were cattle in one paddock and horses including 2 foals in another.  I saw movement at my feet as a horned toad moved out of our way.  He blended into the terrain really well but we did get photos.

Katy at the nicely flowing stream

Horned toad

Looking back at the ranch

At breakfast, we pre-ordered dinner for 7 pm as they have a group of 12 Germans and at least one other party so they wanted to know what we wanted for dinner.  The dining hall was pretty full at 7pm and Katy and I got the Arrachera which is like a skirt steak with excellent guacamole, beans and rice on the side.  Bob got the hamburger and said it was the best hamburger he’s had outside the US.  They don’t serve any postres (desserts) but we had some cookies from earlier.  We called it a day after ordering our breakfast for 8am.

Moon rising over the mountains from in front of my room.