Just in case there is no place to turn around if necessary, Elizabeth and I hike down the grade to check it out.

I want to see more of this old road, so Elizabeth waits as I hike further.
Using the telephoto, here she is from further down.

Hwy. 1 to Hwy. 5 is about 11 miles. We now know what the west 6 miles look like.
On the east end, a road comes about 3 miles from Highway
5, passes the green pools and ends at the turquoise mine. See http://vivabaja.com/wayno and http://vivabaja.com/1102/page2.html for photos and GPS.

Satellite Image of the grade

The old road is clearly visible on Google.
I hiked over halfway down, but the bottom was out of view.
From the bottom of the grade to the turquoise mine, the road is reported gone,
but motorcycle tracks stay to the center (north) side of the arroyo for 1+ mile
and pick up the turquoise mine road that leads to Hwy. 5.