Going Inland

Coastal Baja becomes tamer and more tourist-friendly every year, but the peninsula's inland deserts have managed to remain remote, undeveloped and, for those very reasons, strikingly beautiful. Inland excursions almost always include a visit to the site of a colonial-era Spanish mission. Frankly, these sites will only excite religious pilgrims and archaeology fanatics. But the terrain you're forced to navigate to get to these desert outposts is some of the most unique and breathtaking on the peninsula. In the middle of nothing and on the way to everything, the ranch town of Cataviña is a place you simply have to see if you're passing through on Highway 1. While many of them are visible from the highway, the boulder fields are simply too otherworldly not to see up close.