Four cool Baja books…

While we were on our Baja expedition earlier this month, much of our discussion during dinner and our after hours get-togethers was on the cave paintings and the missions. Baja is one of the primo places on the planet to take these in, and we were all excited about seeing them.   We visited the cave paintings in the Sierra San Francisco mountains about 650 miles south of the border on the eastern edge of the Baja peninsula, and getting there involved a rough ride on an unimproved dirt road.  It’s real Indiana Jones stuff.

My good buddy Dan (see his photo in the blog below) mentioned that he had purchased an excellent book on the cave paintings by Harry Crosby, and as it turns out, I also had purchased a copy of Crosby’s work a few years ago. It really is a great book with magnificent color plates, and it covers the awesome cave paintings we see every year on our CSC Baja expeditions.   The book also covers Baja’s many other cave painting locations.  The book is not cheap, but it’s money well spent in my opinion.

I’d like to mention another book I had talked about a few years ago, and that’s Burckhalter’s awesome work:  Baja’s California Missions.  Here’s what I said about it in a CSC blog entry back in 2015:

Next up, the Franciscans. Actually, they’re one of three groups of interest. First the Jesuits came to Baja, then the Franciscans (I listed them first to satisfy my allegiance to alliteration), and then the Dominicans. The topics of interest in this part of our discussion center around the Baja missions.

You may recall that I told you about a couple of books I purchased recently – one on the Baja missions and one Baja’s cave paintings. I just finished reading the one on the missions, and folks, if you have any interest at all in this topic in particular or Baja in general, you owe it to yourself to buy a copy of Burckhalter’s book. The photography and the riding are top notch…so much so I feel kind of dorky for not buying it sooner. All those trips I’ve made into Baja and I really haven’t known anything at all about the missions. It seems the missions were the Europeans’ entry ticket into Baja, and all concerned paid an extremely high price…and none more so than the native inhabitants. There were several indigenous tribes “missionized” by the Europeans with devastating effects. Smallpox, in particular, came with the Europeans and took out close to 95% of Baja’s original population.

The above notwithstanding, the missions really are majestic. I’ve seen three so far of the original eight that are still standing….San Ignacio, Mulege, and Loreto. You saw our photo of the San Ignacio Mission on the recent CSC Baja Run…

The Baja missions all go back to the 1700s. The story is a fascinating one, and Burckhalter tells it well. It’s the kind of book I know I’m going to read a few more times to get the full story. And the photos…well, let’s just say I wish I could take pictures like that.

Of course, there’s one more book I think everyone with even a passing interest in Baja should buy, and that’s my very own Moto Baja!   But wait a day or two.  I’m going to update it with a group photo from our most recent CSC Baja ride and fix one or two of the mistakes I’ve found in the original edition.  All that should happen this week.

And here’s another magnificent book I think any motorcycle rider will enjoy…it’s Clem Salvadori’s great work on riding in Baja:   Motorcycle Journeys Through Baja. If you’ve never ridden Baja on a motorcycle, this book will make you want to do so.  It’s what happened to me when I first read it.

Salvadori’s book is the first one I ever bought on Baja, and it inspired me to spend more time exploring some of the more “off the beaten path” locales in this exotic motorcycling paradise.   Salvadori is one of the greatest motorcycle writers ever, and I’ll be the first to admit that his book is a much better travel guide than is my Moto Baja! (my book is more of a collection of stories and photos; Clem’s book is a “real deal” travel guide).

Salvadori has great insights on traveling in Baja.  In addition to covering all of the more-well-known routes, he identifies many of the lesser-known spots ideal for motorcycle adventure travel.  One of my all time favorites is the shipwreck off the coast of San Jacinto on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula, a spot my good buddy Welker and I visited only after I read the Salvadori book (I would never have known about it otherwise).  It’s accessible only via dirt road, and it led me to the place where Welker and I had to outrun a pack of rather rude Mexican pups.  Welker got away cleanly; me, not so much.  But you’ll have to read Moto Baja! to get the full story on that one!

So, that’s it for now, folks.  Stay tuned…like always, there’s more good stuff coming your way, and you’ll see it first right here on the CSC blog!