Baja CA................the sea of Cortez....................like Baja Fresh...........a Mexican restaurant........similar to Chipotle.....................man oh man oh man.............


El Camino Del Diablo is believed to follow Native American footpaths dating back at least 1,000 years. In 1540, accompanied by native guides, Captain Melchor Díaz led a detachment of the Coronado Expedition through this vicinity en route to The Californias. The first Europeans definitely known to have transited the route were in the party of Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino, Commander Juan Matheo Mange, and Father Adamo Gilig, who along with attendants and Native American guides (who knew the location of vital water sources needed along the route) first made the crossing in February 1699.^[2] The trail offered a shorter route than sailing around Baja California, while avoiding most of the more hostile Native American tribes. However, the 1781 Quechan Indian uprising at Yuma Crossing on the Colorado River prevented travelers from reaching the Californias via the trail. Although Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Fages managed to rescue captured Spanish survivors of the uprising in December of that year, El Camino Del Diablo largely fell into disuse until 1849, when the California Gold Rush brought many new migrants from Mexico to the gold fields of California. Afterwards, the trail was used by both United States and Mexican Boundary Survey teams, mapping and cataloging the land purchased in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase. A second wave of miners used the trail in the 1860s whenplacer gold was discovered along the Colorado River. Many of these migrants would die from thirst and heat exhaustion en route. As a later traveler noted, "frequent graves and bleaching skulls of animals are painful reminders of unfortunate travelers who died from thirst on the road."^[3]