San Blas Bypass to avoid Tepic

[tleeming]

Went via this route to R de G with 24' TT a few days ago. The road from 15D down to the Santa Cruz turn-off is fine and on to Santa Cruz, but the section either side of Zacualpan is terrible shape. I am certainly not going to go home that way. The overhead clearance was not a problem but would be for taller motor homes
My 10 c worth.
Antonio

[Talleyho69]

There was 36-40 foot Pace Arrow there when we were there last. We watched them leave, and they did it without any jockeying around.

[moisheh]

Thanks tallyhoe: I was beginning to think my memory was going! I do remember that the transition from the freeway to the road was not complete. But as much as I would like to try Tepic for a day or 2 it seems we wont be able to get our 34 ft. DP into the park?

Moisheh

[briansue]

If only the designer of the mini mall had thought about how to get larger vehicles in there - wanted to go and went to look in our car but can't figure how a large RV can get in there.

[Talleyho69]

I remember that!
Fortunately now, it's a very nice periferico around the edge of the city with real off ramps to get into where things are.
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but give Tepic a try! Even one night, it has lots going for it. Our personal fav, after the Huicol goodies at the square is the fact that the RV park is behind a mini mall with several great, cheap dinner choices, and an OXXO!

[moisheh]

We were on our way North about 4 years ago. Coming from Guad. We turned onto the road that goes through Tepic. Stopped at Soriana on our right. Then hit the road. A few blocks further there was a sort of tunnel. Sign said no heavy vehicles and the tunnel had no height signs. We took the lateral but it ended. Finally got back to the road. That is how I remember going through Tepic. In San Blas you do not have to go right to the square. Many times we have parked on the road that brings you into San Blas. A short walk to the Plaza. From there you can easily turn around and head to Playa Amor.

Moisheh

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I don't particularly care for the jejenes in the San Blas area. Sometimes it's clear and safe other times I get eaten alive. The itch and bumps last longer than a week.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

Don't forget to stop in the village of Matanchén for some of the wonderful banana bread etc.

[Talleyho69]

We are 4 meters tall, and there isn't anything even close to us.
For Huichol stuff, you can't beat Tepic, for the quality, selection, price and ability to buy direct.
We left a ceramic piece with the DIF people in
Tepic last month, and they are having it custom beaded for us. Price quoted was absurdly inexpensive.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The shortest overpass is 13'6" which I assume to be 4-meters. Just follow signs for Mex 200. Signage to Campostela is a bonus. The worst part of this route IMHO is the first 2 km., jouncy concrete and speed bumps. Parking in San Blas centro ain't no fun. The one way streets coming in and exiting the town provide no parking and the loop around the zocalo (square) is almost always congested. Not a good diversion for folks eager to press on.

I timed my tranait in a car last trip. The coast road took an hour and ten minutes longer. The brush was overhanging the road - not too cool for fiberglass siding.

To each his own - it's all unknown (or ignored).

[moisheh]

We have always taken the turnoff to San Blas. Sometimes the Huichol are selling wares in the plaza. Then back over the bridge and on to Las Varas. Unless the road is in bad shape it is a nice route. Sometimes we stay at Playa Amor. Usually a bunch of Canadians in the park. We tried going through Tepic but the signage was horrible. Lots of signs telling us not to go under the bridge but no signs for an alternate route.

Moisheh

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I side with the OP. The route is poorly demarcated and described even in this thread. The "coast" road winds down sharply from Mex 200 toward San Blas but it does not go THROUGH San Blas. To maintain the route, a turnoff is made to the left to take the traveler to Matanchén. Just before the bridge that leads to San Blas. After turning the roadway parallels the coast. But then at the south end of Matanchén Bay, the coast road comes to a ABRUPT "T".

If you turn to the right, a spur road will take you to SANTA CRUZ, but the road rapidly drizzles into very narrow streets and then into oblivion. Sta Cruz is not much of a village, never mind town. It is the place to go get groceries if you are camped nearby.

Obviously making a RIGHT at the "T" is not the way to go to rejoin Mex 200 at Las Varas.

So upon reaching the "T" a person makes a left. Afterwards down the road you can look up on a hill and see ZACUALPÁN. You'll pass through it and make a right just after the zocalo.

Then it's on to Las Varas. You'll know you've reach the entronque with Mex 200 as there is a traffic light at the intersection.

Fer crying out loud, more noise is made about the route between Tepic and Las Varas than about TRULY hazardous descents like the road over Tioga Pass, the descent down Cuesta Del Diablo near Sta Rosalia, Baja California Sur, or even the damned Grapevine. I would rather descend Tepic to Las Varas 5 times than the Grapevine, once. Climbing the winding grade SOUTH of Puerto Vallarta is like TEN TIMES as severe and a hell of a lot longer.

But the comments will keep flying about "Campostela". I went through Campostela in the old days when a person was forced to. I'm not missing much these days. Climbing the hill south to north is different. It is there that a person encounters slower big rigs belching black smoke. It may pay to consider taking the much longer PUERTO VALLARTA toll road back up to Mex 15-D toll road, or the coastal route through Zacualpán, Matanchén, and past San Blas. Memorize the turnoff intersection in Las Varas. The highway is EXTREMELY WIDE multi-lane there and there isn't a god awful amount of traffic.

Damned tough to get lost on the coastal route IMHO.

[briansue]

Another mistake on my part. I started looking at some of my SCT maps and they have 2008 as their date. I looked on the SCT website and so far the maps I have looked at all say 2012. There are changes. But I am no expert. These are probably the most up to date and accurate maps of Mexico. Maybe they update every 4 years or so?

[briansue]

Here is a web address for the SCT map of all of Mexico.....

http://www.sct.gob.mx/fileadmin/DireccionesGrales/DGP/Atlas/Cartografia-2013/MAPA_CARRRETERO_2012.pdf . . .

[briansue]

Apparently there is a weird thing about Streets & Trips that sometimes it will show a location at one scale or zoom level but not at another. I finally found Santa Cruz and tried to zoom in but it disappears. So I zoomed back out and highlighted it and zoomed back in and it stayed. But thought S&T shows many towns streets it does not show that town that I can find.

Thanks for all the tips on the route. I was pretty sure I knew what to do but then got confused.

Here is a web address . . .

http://www.sct.gob.mx/informacion-general/planeacion/atlas-cartograficos/listado-de-atlas . . .

which is the official SCT MX Gov't website for maps. These are the maps Guia Roji gets there maps from but these are more detailed. If you download these to your computer you will find you can zoom in and move around to look closely at the map area you are interested in. These maps are .pdf files and can be quite large - the site is not fast so can take time to download. But better than Guia Roji in a number of ways - if you can read them on your computer. They show many things Guia Roji maps do not show but then Guia Roji may have something the SCT maps don't have.

I am not sure what is going on with recent versions of Adobe Reader which is used to read these .pdf maps. I cannot find the Hand Tool I used to use to grab and move the map around to the area I want to look at more closely. Maybe the Hand Tool is there but I have the latest Adobe download update and I cannot find the Hand Tool. I can easily Zoom and scroll and move the map around other ways but cannot find the Hand Tool. These are very good maps but using them can take a little practice - like anything else.

Here are some interesting comparisons I noted when comparing my 2010 Guia Roji to the SCT maps which I think we updated in 2011 - and also to my 2013 Streets & Trips.

There is a road on the 2010 Guia Roji going to San Blas they show as MX54. The SCT maps show this road as MX200. On Streets & Trips this same road is difficult to find but they show it as MX74. I think. Can't be sure about any of this. And therein lies the problem with trying to find our way around Mexico. Some maps show there are more roads than other maps. Different maps show different numbers for the same roads. Some maps show a road as an unimproved road and another map shows it as a super-highway.

Then, as someone noted above, the sign you need to find to take the correct turn to get to the road going to where you want to go could say something other than what you think it should say. It takes a bit a practice and a lot of map reading to find the best routes around Mexico.

All of which is why we have all the maps - and both a Garmin and Streets & Trips. I try to always check with the SCT maps too.

As an added note and something most recent travelers in Mexico know - they have been doing some amazing things with new roads as well as rebuilding some of the old roads to be much better than they were just a few years ago - and many new perifericos too. So asking who has been on this or that road recently is the only way to know what is going on with that road this week - it could change next week. Not all roads or perifericos can be found on any map.