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Primer: Does everyone know where Arroyo El Volcan is or at least where where El Marmol onyx quarry is?

El Marmol is 9 miles from Hwy. 1 at Km 148/149 between El Rosario and Cataviña.

The arroyo is 4 miles from El Marmol and flows to the Gulf of California just south of El Huerfanito. The Mexican topo maps have mis-labled the arroyo as 'Zamora' and called the next arroyo south 'El Volcan'!

El Volcan is a cold water geyser and an area of soda springs where onyx is slowly being formed. Much onyx is in the area, as well. The geyser is less than a half mile south of the road, in the arroyo. The lost mission site discovered by elbeau is 4 miles to the north.

Some maps:












PART 1 (Friday April 29)

My fellow adventure seeker was Baja Nomad member ‘El Vergel’ (Vern) from the Los Angeles area and the beach campo south of San Felipe. ‘Baja Cat’ (José) who waited for us just across the border at Otay Mesa joined and traveled along with us on Friday.

The drive south was easy and fun.


Corredor 2000 zips you around Tijuana to or from Otay or Tecate (Vern Pic)


We stopped for lunch in San Vicente at a taco cart operated by Gloria, who served us ‘tacos de borrego’ (lamb tacos) along with a cup of consommé de borrego to which we added onions and salsa… YUM









We arrived in El Rosario about 2:30 to fill our gas tanks and buy a few cases of Tecate and Dos Equis cerveza. I also wanted to show Vern the rooms at Baja Cactus Motel as they are so outstanding given the location and typical highway accommodations usually found in Baja. We also saw Itzel’s mother who reported her daughter as doing fantastic following the heart surgery of several months ago.


Baja Cactus Pemex (Vern Pic)


Baja Cactus Motel front desk (Vern Pic)


Hugo Lopez art at Baja Cactus (Vern Pic)


Baja Cactus room (Vern Pic)

Fuel prices in Baja (below the border region) were 8.77 pesos per liter for Magna and 9.87 for Premium. The exchange rate at Baja Cactus was 11.20 pesos per dollar and in Ensenada on Sunday was 11.00 pesos per dollar… both close to $3.00 per gallon.

The 56 mile drive down Highway One to the El Marmol road was a breeze and the signed road was between the 148 and 149 kilometer markers. The next 9 miles to El Marmol are dirt, but some of the easiest dirt miles in Baja and would be a breeze for most vehicles.

We stopped to take new photographs of the schoolhouse ruins and cemetery before the final leg of today’s drive down to Arroyo el Volcan. I heard the sound of a speeding Toyota Tacoma and it was ‘TW’ (Tom) and his brother Bill arriving from an ice run to Cataviña (20 miles distant). José, Vern and I followed them down to the campsite in Arroyo El Volcan, 4 miles from El Marmol.


















Already there was ‘bajalou’, ‘dtbushpilot’ (David) and ‘XRPhlang’ (Phil) on the sand/gravel arroyo at the base of a giant rock face. That evening was plenty fun discussing just why the hell we all drove hundreds of miles and spent hundreds of dollars to be in such a place! It was great!






'bajalou' and 'BAJACAT'


'XRPhlang' (Phil) and 'dtbushpilot' (David)


'El Vergel' (Vern), Bill W and 'TW' (Tom)

TW made a batch of grits to supplement our morning diet and we secured camp for the day's hike. It looked on the map to be about 3-4 miles down the arroyo to the primary site of elbeau's Santa Isabel (arches, stairways, fountains). I called the location 'site B' on my Google Earth map. Our camp was just a few hundred feet down the wash from the El Marmol-La Olvidada mine road (which was totally graded very recently).

The last photo posted above in Part 1 was the morning showing our camp.

Our camp was in the arroyo, on the left of this image:



The site (white tag 'site B') was exactly a 4 mile hike away:



We begin the hike:



The arroyo of El Volcan was extremely interesting and is well worth the visit (even without a lost mission)! I will let my photos do most of the story telling...





Water in small amounts was near our camp and oozing out of a cliff at the first big bend.






David K, always happy to be in Baja!








A piece of onyx trapped in newer rock, along the arroyo.













To Be Continued!... Part 2 here: LOST MISSION EXPEDITION 2011 (PART 2) - TalkBaja.com

That is interesting. I do know (from good sources) that they moved a lot of the Baja marble (marmol) out by ship at the Puerto Catarina fish camp. In fact there are still a few very large chunks of old marble still sitting in the shallow water there that fell while loading and were just too big/heavy to retrieve. I was told they have been there for several decades.

That was the fish camp where I caught up with Mike Younghusband the second time...