Road South From San Felipe

Late June 2016. Still too many football-size rocks to trust taking Dodge K car. The "rough section" will shake up contents of a rig but a pickup and trailer with good ground clearance should be OK. Low motor homes would be very risky. Best to lower tire pressures to 15 lbs to avoid sidewall bruising blowouts. Bring a good compressor. Transmission pan on my car has a nice scar which rapidly encouraged me to make a U turn. But it's a low slung car.

Thanks for that link to bajanomads

The BajaNomad site has regular updates including photos & video.

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=83160

rocmoc n AZ/Fld/Baja

Has anyone been down or up Highway 5 since the beginning of June 2016 ?? Just wondering how fast the construction is going on the final segment to where it meets Highway 1 at Chapala ??

We'll be in Los Barriles until at least April 5th.

Ed White wrote:
Thanks for the report 4X4Dodger. We won't be trying it until early April, so we're hoping even more of the road will be paved by that time.

It will be HOT in April. We just returned from Baja and for the last month it had been in the 80's to 90's everyday. But cool at night.

Good luck and have fun. The roads are fine. And most of the Mexican drivers including the truck drivers are polite and friendly.

Thanks for the report 4X4Dodger. We won't be trying it until early April, so we're hoping even more of the road will be paved by that time.

I drove that road in the last of November with my 32 foot travel trailer behind my Dodge Pickup.

We had absolutely no problem. It is paved to just past Alfonsinas. then it becomes what is essentially a construction road for the construction of the new highway. It was rocky and rough but passable in anything with care.

We at times were down to a crawl. But it much more scenic than Hwy 1 from TJ to Chapala (except for the part around Catavina.)

I had left San Felipe on Baja 1000 race day. I was hoping to get to the intersection of Hwy one before the racers started heading north on Hwy 5 back up toward SF.

We were stopped at Cocos Corner and told we had to spend the night. So we did. Early the next morning they allowed us to proceed even though there were still racers coming up the road.

We were careful and at times in the mountainous area I stopped the truck to get out and listen to see if I could hear a race car coming. About 20 racers passed us that morning with no incident.

Tractor trailers also use this route.

I would definitely go that way again.

Just got home from Baja, what a fantastic trip.

From Laguna Chapala to Cocos corner, dirt road and sometimes rough but easily passed in my 2 15 passenger vans full of people. The road is being constructed in a new area that runs parallel to the old road. New bridges being built, this new road will be incredible. From Cocos corner to the finished road was about 6 miles or so. Again passable if driving carefully. e were passed by a large cabover camper truck who was making good time on the road. We saw every kind of rig (except Class A) on the road heading from Gonzaga to Laguna Chapala. The road was very busy and there are camps set up for the road workers. This thing should be complete in 18 months or less and it will be very nice.

Ed,

Brother lives in Percebu. I asked him, a neighbor recently (last week) made the run. His neighbors response...

"From Percebu 85 miles south paved, 25 miles to highway 1 through Coco's to Nuevo Chapala unpaved (rocky washboard)."

I hope that helps.

Charles