New Years At Guadalupe Canyon Hot Springs In Mexico

The first time I visited Guadalupe Canyon Hot Spring in 2014 it was to climb the DPS peak Pico Risco. It was a rough trip and due to various factors we arrived at the camp around 2 am and managed to do just about everything wrong.

We didn't have a reservation and ended up stumbling around other people's camps until we found one that was unoccupied and and had a filled hot tub which we proceeded to soak in until almost 4 am, sleep a few hours, then did a brutal drive back to Orange County that same day.

Despite that it stood out as one of the most beautiful and memorable desert trips I've done and ever since I've wanted to come back when there was a little more time to enjoy the amenities.  Which finally came about this weekend for New Years 2017

We made the plans late and I expected they'd be filled up considering the holiday.  Sure enough the first query we made through http://www.guadalupecanyonoasis.com got a reply they'd been filled up for 3 months.  However when we tried http://guadalupecanyonhotsprings.com we were told there was plenty of room and we proceeded to reserve the El Coyote pool for $100 for two nights.

It's hard to get a full picture of the situation back there.  As near as I can tell the name of the camps have changed over the years along with ownership.  There are at least 3 camps owned by brothers though one of them (Arturo's) has been cut off from the spring water due to family drama.

We were staying at Mario's Camp this time which is also identified as Campo los Manantiales or Canon de Guadalupe depending on the sign.  Confusingly the entrance we took to get there includes the El Sol site which is listed on the Oasis site.  I've been there twice and I'm not sure how the place is divided up but everyone we've dealt with there has been kind and easy to work with.

We left Orange County Saturday morning as another big storm was pounding the area.  I was somewhat concerned we'd have trouble getting to the camp since we planned to take the Subaru but I decided that was less risky that wandering Mexico in a neon green jeep.

As always the crossing into Mexico went quickly.  We crossed at Tijuana Otay and found the streets largely deserted which helped make the drive a bit easier.


Once you're on the 2D it's a nicer drive though you have to dodge the occasional pothole at 110 kmph.


There are about 3 toll stations you have to stop at before getting to the turnoff which take pesos or american dollars.  I had a pile of pesos from the Cerro Pinacate trip and took this opportunity to get rid of them.


The road gets very windy for a time before exiting the mountains into more desert terrain.  Here there's a large sign pointing you at Canon de Guadalupe.


From here it's a dirt road and I remember it being a long drive across painful washboarding but this time the road was in much better shape.  We turned on the road just behind two Mexican military humvees that were driving so slow I wasn't sure whether to try passing or not.  They never waved us past but eventually pulled off to the side letting us drive a bit faster.

27 ish miles down the road there's a large olive plantation where we followed signs toward the hot spring.


Up until this point the road was passenger car friendly but almost immediately past the sign it gets a lot rougher with large rocks jutting out of the road.  Despite the damp ground we never got close to being stuck in Kristen's Subaru Forester but I did have to drive gingerly.


You can tell they did some improvements at some point but it only seems to get worse on the property.  We did see one passenger car pulled off along the road at the point they'd probably decided to walk in so that's always an option if you're worried about your vehicle.

Pico Risco towered above the camp

We'd rented out Coyote which is a small pool off by itself.  When we arrived there was another group nearby that was just leaving so we had the entire area to ourselves.  We could hear a fair amount of people in the distance but a fair number seemed to be leaving which surprised me.

The site was in the side of a hill that was a bit muddy due to leaking spring water.  This made the walk up to the pool somewhat treacherous and Jen and I both ended up going down multiple times despite trying our best to step carefully.


We didn't have much use for the picnic table below but there was a decent sized cement area by the pool.  The tub itself was fed by a hose coming from up the hill which kept it almost uncomfortable hot on full flow.




We had a view looking out towards one of the bigger sites which was where most of the activity seemed to be.


The tent spot in our site was barely big enough for my car camping tent.  Mario actually told us to set up in the site nextdoor where there was a bit more space but we decided we'd rather have the tent close.  (Also this minimized the trips on that bloody stinking mud slope)


This was our bathroom which required us to negotiate the difficult slope below our camp then walk a few hundred feet.  It was a nice building from the outside with tiled signs pointing towards male and female sides.  However the male side was locked off by a gate an inside looked to be the remains of some bathroom stall walls and a mattress.  The female side was open and had two flush toilets with no stall walls to block them off.  There were no signs but clearly the provided buckets were for disposing of used toilet paper.  Also the gate couldn't be latched but there weren't too many people around us so we didn't have to deal with much contention.

Looking back up at El Coyote from the bathroom

We relaxed in the tub and enjoyed champagne before retiring early.  We'd elected not to put on the rainfly which turned out to be a mistake when a storm whipped up sometime before midnight sending us scrambling as large drops hit the mesh and splattered us inside the tent.

The next morning we intended to go climb Pico Risco again but since we all had it we didn't do a great job of getting moving early.  There was a hot tub to enjoy after all.



We did start hiking eventually and followed the signs promising waterfalls up the canyon that starts from the last site along the road.


There's multiple use trails that go on either side of the small stream eventually leading to some pools and very slick rocks.


Despite the dire warnings it's not difficult to pick your way up the rocks if you look around.  This is the standard route to Pico Risco.


The route approaches the peak via the gully to the right.  I was looking forward to the 3rd class near the summit but it was soon obvious we'd started too late in the day to avoid extensive hiking after dark.  And again, there was a hot tub back in camp to enjoy...



On the way back we explored a few unoccupied camps all of which seemed rather nice if a little more in the open than ours.  We also traced the pipes to this which we assume is the source of the spring.


Jen was also nice enough (after some *slight* encouragement) to buy me my very own mustached tijuana turtle statue.


This required her wandering the lanes for a bit to figure out where the owner of the cart with the turtle we wanted was.  Which was kind of funny because usually you have to be careful not to make eye contact or people will practically crawl in the window panhandling or trying to sell something.



Eventually we were through the line.  The inspection station to get back into the US is always a bigger hassle and this time they wanted to see in the back of the vehicle and claimed we had far too much stuff for a mere two days of camping.


Back on the US side we stopped at BJs north of San Diego for some decent food and slightly subpar beer before getting home at an astonishingly decent hour.  And then promptly coming down sick with something which I'm insisting must be zika.