TRAVELOG 11: BAJA OVERLANDING EXPEDITION
Photography by Ryan Resatka and Francis Fraioli, Content provided by Mason Schreck
It’s an expansive tract of land, roughly equivalent in length to the West Coast of the United States, but with countless roads that to this day remain unmapped and infrequently traveled. Like many deserts, it’s a place the earth wants for itself. The sense of isolation and beauty Baja offers its visitors is something that once tasted is thirsted for. Due to its vast and unspoiled landscapes, it can feel outside of time or lost to it, but it is set within it and changing. While many of its secrets are held close, for fear of turning it into yet another paradise lost, it faces the same challenges of any wild place.
In late February we joined Pacific Overlander and guests from Bolt Travel, a company that recently launched with a vision to offer its members access to unique group travel experiences. A collective of Americans from both the East and West Coasts, they came along for the promise of time in the wilds with friends and loved ones, the pleasures of group overland touring, and the chance to explore one of North America’s lesser-visited stretches.
Here, 200 miles of highway can pass without a single gas station, and scant resources require that visitors have an appetite for adventure, a tolerance for the unpredictable, a good high-clearance four-wheel drive, and a considerable amount of pre-planning. But with so much open country, devoid of light pollution, and lacking much of the development seen to its north, it offers visitors an unmatched sense of connection to a seemingly timeless wilderness.
