Snowbird 101: For the Adventurous Sonora, Mexico

Two most common ways to reach the Sonoran beach towns of Bahia Kino or San Marcos: 1) take highway 3 from Puerto Penasco; 2) cross the border at Nogales and take the toll road Highway 15 south. 

Roads in Sonora are in much better condition than we saw last year in Baja.  Highway 61, shown here, connects Bahia Kino with the toll road to Guaymas and San Carlos.  It was repaved in the last year or so.

Highway 61 merges onto the divided road to Guaymas.  Total toll cost for Nogales to Hermosillo, paid at three toll stops, is 126 pesos.    

Kino Bay and the town of Kino Nuevo, five miles north of the old town Bahia Kino.  In the foreground is Kino Bay RV park, probably a very grand park when constructed 40 years ago, now a little long in the tooth.  Still fairly reasonably priced at $20 US/day, $420/month or $1200/3 month.

There are many splendid home fronting the bay, the vacation homes of the prosperous from Hermosillo.

To the north lies many enticing coves waiting for fishermen, snorkelers, divers or kayakers.  In the background is Isla Tiburon (Shark Island).

Kino Bay RV is popular with Snowbirds who trailer boats to their permanent casitas within the park.  Nearby the Kino Bay Club Deportivo is a hub for ex-pats drawn to the area's mild winters and world class fishing. More information on Club Deportivo and Kino Bay in general.  C

We met many friendly American and Canadian Snowbirds as well as travelers passing through on their way down the Mexican coast.

Mid-week deserted beaches sprout crowds of sun-lovers and party goers on the weekend.

Bart injured a hind knee on this trip.  To prevent a complete tear of his ligaments, he saw most of Mexico from the luxury of his dog carrier.

Sea of Cortez in its moody sunset mode,  or calm before the storm.  For one of the driest places in North America, we saw a fair amount of rain.

Did I say there were a lot of ex-pats?  Enough to put together this band and 50 or 60 more to pack the bar.  The music was pretty good, the fun pretty much off the charts.

While birding in the Rio Sonora estuary, we met Miguelangel Hernandez Garcia, son of an oyster farmer.  He knew a lot about the bird-life and was thrilled to get to look through Susan's binoculars, a first for him.

"No walls between friends" mural in Kino Nuevo, a movement started in Kino and spreading through the sourthwest.  See more Growing friendships between our countries.  

Our original destination had been San Carlos, on Guaymas Bay but Kino really grabbed us and wouldn't let go.  We took a day trip to Guaymas and San Carlos to make this report complete.  We were told San Carlos was a very lovely beach town.

Guaymas Bay looking north towards San Carlos.

Patio of the Playa Cortes Hotel in Guaymas.  We stayed in this hotel on our first trip to Mexico in 1985.  It was a delight to see it again. The hotel has an RV park, $25/night full hook-ups.   

The grounds beautifully landscaped...

The RV park has access to the beach and nearby boat ramp.

San Carlos yacht harbor.  One of the best protected harbors on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez.  There is also a full-time scuba shop in SC for those who want to get wet.

San Carlos' charm comes in part from its many inlets, coves and bays.  It is also awash with high rise condos, vacation getaway for Phoenix and Tucson  A little further north from this view is the famous "Catch 22" beach where the movie was filmed back in the 1970s.

There is at least one other RV park in San Carlos, and reportedly somewhere you can camp on the beach, but I couldn't confirm either fact.  We did check out Totonaka RV which is right on the main road, across from the beach.  Plenty of reviews of Totonaka make it sound pleasant enough.

But to us it seemed a little crowded...

And the spaces a little difficult to shoehorn into.

But at about $25/day in peak season, it is not too pricey and you are within walking distance of good beaches, nice restaurants and other shopping.

We hated to leave Kino Nuevo, but our target return date of March 10 was nearing and it was time to go.  We drove the toll road to Santa Ana and then Highway 2 to Sonoyta...back to Organ Pipe Cactus NM for a few more days before the dash north.

Highway 2 between Sonoyta and the border crossing at San Luis Rio Colorado has recently been rebuilt, with wide shoulders.  This is a main trucking route and some reviews of this road warned of dangerous truck traffic but we mostly had the road to ourselves until we hit the outskirts of San Luis.

Be aware, there is a military checkpoint just east of San Luis that can back up truck traffic for miles.  Lucky for us, the non-truck checkpoint wasn't nearly as congested.  Only a half hour delay. 

Unlucky for us, we made the mistake of attempting to cross the border on a Sunday afternoon.  It took over two and one half hours to get to the US Border, more than the amount of time we saved by not driving to Yuma via Arizona highway 85 and Interstate 8.