The History of Northern Baja from the Driver's Seat

Most people know Baja California as a long, narrow strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. But drive it yourself and you’ll find cave paintings, extinct volcanoes, old mission routes, underground tunnels, and a shipwreck story tied to gray whale lagoons. Here’s what you’ll pass on the first 450 miles of Highway 1, from Tijuana to the steel eagle outside Guerrero Negro that marks the end of Baja California Norte.

Mexican Federal Highway 1

Mexican Federal Highway 1 wasn’t fully paved until 1973. Before that, reaching the midpoint of the peninsula could take weeks over dirt roads, river crossings, and makeshift bridges. The road roughly follows 18th-century mule trails used by Jesuit missionaries, and in a few places, you can still see where those trails diverged from the pavement.

Today, active paving projects near San Quintín have made once-rough stretches much easier to handle in a standard sedan. The Baja 1000, which runs along much of this same corridor every November, is a good reminder of what the road used to be like for everyone, year-round.

Mexicali | The Underground City

Most people roll through Mexicali without stopping. That’s a mistake. If you arrive at the Calexico/Mexicali border crossing, you won’t want to miss La Chinesca.

In the early 1900s, Chinese immigrants came to Mexicali to work on Colorado River irrigation projects. Facing discrimination and brutal summer heat, parts of the community moved underground. Beneath the Chinesca neighborhood, they dug a labyrinth of basements and connecting tunnels, creating an underground city used for business, social life, and, during Prohibition, selling alcohol to Americans who crossed the border for what they could not get at home.

La Chinesca recently received a designation as a Barrio Mágico (Magic Neighborhood). This is not just a Chinatown, it is a historic neighborhood with more than 20 restored basements beneath its streets open for tours.

Pro Tip: Book a tunnel tour through a local guide before you arrive, as spots fill up quickly. We like the Origenes y Secretos de La Chinesca tour. While you’re there, have lunch at Chiang’s Bistro for the Chinese-Mexican fusion that Mexicali has been perfecting for a century.

Valle de Guadalupe | Before the Wine

Known as “Mexico’s Napa,” Valle de Guadalupe, was first a refuge for Russian Molokans. In 1905, before the boutique hotels and the Harvest Festival, Russian families (a pacifist Christian sect fleeing Tsarist religious persecution) settled here. The original colony left in the 1960s, but some of their descendants still live here.

The Museo de la Comunidad Rusa tells its story through photos, artifacts, and oral histories. At Restaurante Familia Samarin, next door to the museum, you can get pan ruso, a dense, slightly sweet bread that is made using the same recipe the Molokans brought from Russia.

Pro Tip: The museum is small and sometimes keeps informal hours, so be sure to check them ahead of your visit. Pair the visit with a stop at one of the older family-run wineries, which are a different experience from the newer resort-style ones. Try JC Bravo, one of the oldest family-run wineries in the Valle. Sol y Barro and Retorno are also small but exceptional.

Ensenada | The Hollywood Escape

When Prohibition began in the U.S. in 1920, southern Californians started looking south for what they could no longer legally get at home. Ensenada, about three hours south of San Diego, was one of the easiest places to go for drinks, gambling, music, and coastal luxury.

Hussong’s Cantina is the oldest cantina in Mexico, opening its doors in 1892. It was the second establishment, in all of Mexico, to be issued a liquor license. More importantly, this watering hole is where the Margarita was invented! Thriving long before Prohibition sent Americans south, their arrival only added to the legend. The clientele over the decades has included gunslingers, revolutionaries, politicians, and a rotating cast of Hollywood names.

The Riviera del Pacifico was a sprawling waterfront casino and hotel that opened in 1930, during the final years of Prohibition in the U.S. Back in its heyday, its guests included Hollywood greats like Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. And boxer Jack Dempsey was the public face of the resort. Today, the landmark lives on as the Riviera de Ensenada Centro Social, Cívico y Cultural, a history museum, cultural center, and event venue.

Cabo San Lucas barely existed as a destination then. Ensenada was the escape, and the bones of that era are still standing today.

Pro Tip: Hussong’s has expanded to locations in the U.S., but those don’t carry the same decades of accumulated character as the original on Avenida Ruiz.

San Quintín | The “Valley of 13 Volcanoes”

San Quintín sits on a field of 13 extinct volcanoes, now eroded to cinder cones that look like dark hills rising from the coastal plain. The bay is ringed by ancient wetlands, and the oysters here have been producing some of the best shellfish on the Pacific coast for generations.

Unbeknownst to many, in the 1880s, a British company attempted to colonize this area, convinced they could grow wheat on an industrial scale. They built a pier, imported equipment, and started a town. The rains never came reliably, the venture failed, and the colonists left. Today, the only remains are a stretch of wooden pilings near the Old Mill (Molino Viejo), known as the English Pier.

Pro Tip: The Old Mill area is easy to miss. Ask locals for directions, and while you’re there, buy oysters directly from one of the waterside operations. They’re typically sold by the bag and shucked on the spot.

Cataviña | Central Desert Rock Art

Giant cardon cacti, elephant trees, and the strange, spindly boojum trees (cirios) that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book dominate the landscape around Cataviña. Among the light pinkish-gray granite boulders, the Cochimí people left behind rupestrian paintings called “Las Pintas” that predate the Spanish missions by centuries. The art is in an open-air boulder field right off the road, accessible on foot. Figures, geometric patterns, and handprints are left in red and black ochre.

Pro Tip: Go in the morning before the heat of the day. A local guide from Cataviña can show you the less-obvious panels that first-timers miss.

Guerrero Negro: Salt, Whales, and the Eagle

Ten miles before Guerrero Negro, a giant steel eagle, called Monumento al Águila, straddles the highway at the 28th parallel. This is the border between Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur. The two states run on different time zones, so arriving at the Eagle monument means a one-hour shift, depending on the season and direction of travel.

Every driver also stops here for a quick agricultural inspection. Tires get sprayed and produce gets checked. A small fee is charged. It usually takes just a few minutes.

Guerrero Negro translates to “Black Warrior,” named after a 230-ton American whaling ship that sank in the adjacent lagoon in 1858. Those same lagoons were hunting grounds for gray whales through the 19th century. Today, Laguna Ojo de Liebre is a protected UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the few places in the world where gray whales reliably birth and nurse their calves. The whale-watching season runs roughly from January through April.

One of the largest evaporative salt operations on earth dominates the Guerrero Negro landscape. The salt works kept the city industrially focused and therefore thinly populated for decades, which helped keep the nearby lagoons in good enough shape to protect the gray whales that return each winter.

Pro Tip: You will encounter routine military checkpoints along Highway 1. Be polite, have your vehicle documents, FMM tourist permit, passport on hand, and answer questions simply.

A Note on the Road

Highway 1 is narrower than you’re used to, occasionally rough, and has minimal shoulders and guardrails. None of that should deter you, as millions of people drive it every year.

Mexico auto insurance is not optional paperwork. It is legally required, and it matters most when something goes wrong far from home. Before you drive Highway 1, make sure your policy covers liability in Mexico and gives you access to claims professionals based in Mexico who know the country, the roads, and the process.

Get your Mexico insurance policy now from Mexpro!