First In A Three-Part Adventure Into The Wilds Of Baja. By Kevin Franklin I CRINGE, WAITING to hear the impact between my truck and the hurtling semi. We're passing each other on a tight curve. To my right lies a steep slope. To my left, the tractor-trailer is passing in the opposite direction, all the while pulling closer to my flank. I imagine the sign on the back of the truck alerting me to my current circumstance. "Warning: This truck makes wide turns on tight curves and will likely mangle the side of your vehicle if not outright hurl you off cliffs." The truck passes, and like jet fighters at an air show, we somehow manage to avoid contact. Meanwhile, my friend continues with her conversation about her work here in the '70s as a marine biologist, seemingly unfazed by our white-knuckle encounter. Rubbing the sweat from my brow, I ask a few questions and smile with feigned nonchalance. After all, you should expect hurtling semis and precarious cliffs when traveling the Baja Highway. Our convoy of two 4x4s, four people and two dogs is spending five days roaming along the Baja coast. Our plan is to leave the highway south of El Rosario and follow some dirt tracks along the coast. The best route to the Baja Highway from Tucson crosses the border at Tecate and cuts across the northwestern corner of Baja to Ensenada. The drive through this country ranks among the most magnificent in the world, cutting through the northern slopes of the Sierra Blanca Mountains. Once Highway 3 connects with Highway 1 at Ensenada, the area becomes heavily populated. We zip through town, heading into the agricultural regions north and south of San Quintin. Many of the farms in this area are owned by Americans and produce crops like winter tomatoes for us northern gringos. Once we pass through the agricultural region, our weary crew begins eyeing the empty coastal beaches north of El Rosario. The sun's sinking closer to the cold Pacific waters, and we're ready to make camp. A must-have book for any serious Baja wandering is The Baja Highway: A Geology and Biology Field Guide for the Baja Traveler, by John Minch and Thomas Leslie. The book narrates the entire trans-peninsular highway by kilometer marker. With this book, our surroundings are transformed from unfathomable rock and plant life to a series of stories about ancient volcanic eruptions, disappeared lakes and powerful earthquakes. For this particular stretch, The Baja Highway explains that to our left and inland, the highway runs along a mesa of Cretaceous marine rocks--rocks that formed when dinosaurs roamed beaches not unlike these. To our right stands a fluctuating bank of sand dunes. Piercing the dunes and a coastal bluff, a wide wash runs from the highway to the Pacific. We follow the dirt track that meanders with it. This is Bahía El Consuelo, Consolation Bay, and we take great solace in finding such a perfect campsite so late in the day. A conglomerate of rock forms a terrace along the beach, and it's here that we make our camp and spend what remains of the day wandering along the deserted beach and rolling down the steep dune faces. At the end of a point jutting out into the Pacific, the conglomerate terrace has been eroded away to create a stony archway and a shallow cave. From here I watch a patrol of pelicans skim the ocean surface while waves crash against the rocks. The sun has dipped beneath the horizon, leaving behind a pink glow joined by a crescent moon. In this moment lives the spirit of Baja, and I'll gladly brave more semi-trucks and narrow roads for more evenings like this. Mapage The topographical ITM Travel Map, which covers all of Baja, and the 1:250,000 topographical maps for Baja, are available at Tucson Map & Flag. The Baja Highway (ISBN 0-9631090-0-6) field guide is available for $20 by calling John Minch and Associates, Inc. at (714) 496-3080 in California. The Lonely Planet Baja California guide book is an excellent all-purpose source of information.

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