Looking west towards the steep walled Santa Maria canyon. Just beyond is the valley containing the mission.

As we continued west and up into the mountain, we encounterd my favorite Baja trees, the boojum!

Here, the Camino Real dropped into a small side canyon, just north of the main Santa Maria canyon. Look closely just left of center for the trail.

Chris was motivated to get to the mission, but the trail disappeared on us here. We had just enough daylight to get back to my truck, so it was time to turn back. We really didn't want to.