This route guide was originally commissioned by and published for Ride with GPS in August 2024. The information shared here is the same information you can find on Ride with GPS and my Routes page.
Since its publication in 2016, the Baja Divide has beckoned mid-winter adventurers to ramble south through its alluring shrub-steppe mountains and vast stretches of undeveloped coastline. Thanks to the vision, time and immense resources dedicated by route creators Nicholas Carman and Lael Wilcox, the Baja Divide has steadily earned its reputation as the venerable winter touring standard. This sprawling 1736-mile bikepacking route connects the Pacific Ocean with the Sea of Cortez, traversing every major Baja California mountain range along the way. The Baja Divide links historic Spanish mission sites rich in water and shade with remote ranchos, rural fishing villages and bustling highway towns via miles and miles of beautifully rugged backcountry desert tracks.
Using Pat Boyle's updated 2023 GPX file, I updated this multifaceted Ride with GPS resource for 2024. This includes Nicholas Carman's original waypoints augmented by my favorite POIs compiled from my experience riding the complete Baja Divide one and a half times, the Cape Loop three times, and revisiting multiple sections over my seven trips to Baja California over the past nine years.
The Baja Divide revised route guide includes the following:
Complete Route: The Complete Route includes the entire Baja Divide route from San Diego to La Paz with updated POI resources for water, food, supplies, camp spots, critical route details, and more.
Route Collection: The route collection contains the complete Baja Divide route above, broken into ten easily digestible sections (for use with your GPS device and downloading for offline use). Each section contains POIs marking towns, services, water, restaurants, trailheads, critical infrastructure, and more. Additionally, each route section includes Nicholas Carman’s original comprehensive route guide notes, course descriptions, resupply information, and essential course details, with minor updates.
Resupply Chart: The resupply chart lists the mile marker where services and resupplies occur and the distance between each one. The chart is available for the complete route and separately for each section. It’s a handy cheat sheet while riding the route and planning in advance.
Route Guide: The comprehensive Baja Divide route guide includes minor updates to Nicholas Carmen’s original route guide, which covers everything you need to know in explicit detail – from basic distances, key resupply points, and noteworthy highlights to detailed step-by-step overviews of road conditions, terrain, highlights, course warnings, with callouts for bike shops, ATM locations, and transit centers so you'll know what to expect and how best to prepare for your Baja Divide experience.
A Brief History of the Baja Divide Route Guide and Updates
2015 - 2016: Nicholas Carmen and Lael Wilcox created and scouted the original route. The original route* website and resource was shared: bajadivide.wordpress.com
2017: A grand departure with over 100 cyclists was held in January 2017 to establish the route. The route was published on Bikepacking.com in 2017*: bikepacking.com/routes/baja-divide
*Neither resource has been updated since 2017.
2022: Due to a land access dispute, Salavador of Fass Bike provides a re-route between Rancho Melling and Vicente Guerrero which he describes in this post: facebook.com/groups/bajadivide/permalink/1532982893788549
2023: Baja Divide rider, Pay Boyle shares revised GPX files and waypoints with the 2022 update: phatboyle.github.io/bajadivide
2024: Using Pat Boyle's 2023 updated GPX file, Sarah Swallow created this Ride with GPS resource that includes Nicholas Carmen's original waypoints in addition to her favorite points of interest (POIs) from her experience riding the complete Baja Divide one and a half times, the Cape Loop three times, and revisiting multiple sections during her seven trips to Baja California over the past nine years.
You can find the updated route file, guide, and resupply cheat sheet for this Ride with GPS version of the route, as well as all the previous versions and resources (2023 and 2017) of the route, here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yu2k9DQdxUs2K3-dwdVFoSBxFSqGRUNd?usp=drive_link