Places We’ve Been: Bahia Salinas, Isla Carmen in BCS Mexico

Bahia Salinas became one of our favorite anchorages in all of Baja….providing good northerly protection, a white sand beach, clear water and solitude in one package.  We would anchor here numerous times during our pandemic “Baja” shelter in place.  Here’s my review and info on Bahia Salinas.

Like I said above, we visited this anchorage numerous times, usually anchoring alone or with one other boat, but we did see as many as 12 boats in the anchorage at once.  That only happened once, in spring of 2020 before most of the boats left to fly home or take the boats back up the west coast because of the pandemic.  But we stayed in the Sea of Cortez and Mexico nearly three years, riding out the pandemic in the Sea of Cortez during hurricane season and then spending time on the mainland during the winter months.  We did this until other countries opened up a bit and Covid started to wane (and until we were able to get our Covid vaccinations in the US & Mexico).   

We loved Salinas for its easy clear anchoring, clean white sand beach, great snorkeling over the wreck, nearly abandoned ghost town and small hunting lodge and the remnants of the salt mine.  This is the spot we took our only pandemic guests….and both families had a great time doing nothing…on the beach while the kids played in the small waves and warm sand.  

What you are not seeing in this blog post are all my pictures of the actual ghost town or beautiful church at Salinas, as I cannot find the pictures on my larger hard drive.  I really regret moving the pictures but I had to, as my computer was too full and I had to do something to speed it up….there was no Apple Store in Baja.  Bahiá Salinas is covered nicely on pages 185 and 186 of the Heather and Shawn guide to the area called, “Sea of Cortez, a Cruisers Guidebook” and we used it daily as we were cruising Baja, I would highly recommend it.  Beware of the wreck on the right (east) side of the bay that makes for great snorkeling but bad anchoring….it’s marked by a large bouy anyways. 

The link below will take you to one of the stories written by the HelmsMistress (while we were cruising) about Bahiá Salinas: 

From The HelmsMistress: One Particular Harbor

Here’s more info:

Ease of anchoring:  We anchored over a sand in 14-16 feet of water.

Noise at anchor:  None.  

Provisioning:  None.   

Cellular reception at anchor:  None.

Wifi in the anchorage:  No.

Water Clarity:  We always found very clear water. 

Protection:  Good protection from the north, west, and some from the east.  No protection from the south.  Occasionally we would catch some evening swell from the south, but nothing too bad.  We sat through a two-day northerly here…and although windy because the wind comes through the flat spots, there was no fetch and the wind direction kept us off the lee shore.  When we even got a whisper about a southerly, we would move just around the corner of the island to Painted Cliffs.  Although rocky with no great beach, there was also no southerly swell and little wind during southerlies. 

Bugs:  Nope, we never had any bug or bee problems here. 

Beach:  Yes, there’s an actual white sand beach that stretches over a mile.  

Would We Go Back:  YES, I’d love to go back and spend a few days lazing around the beach and clear water.  

I write about places we’ve traveled with our family as information only….my posts should never be used for navigational references.  But, if you read some of my posts and are inspired to go check those places out or I can help demystify a place for you….it’s a WIN.  We travel as a family with our kids and we traveled throughout Central America with a Great Dane on a cruising sailboat.  Now we live in the US but we still travel as a family.  We’ve finished a family trip to Japan, numerous roadtrips through the western United States, an upcoming trip to Greece and lots of smaller family trips.  Want more info on traveling with family or references for going cruising?  Ask us or let us know you need specifics and we can point you in the right direction- 

Like our stories?  FOLLOWING US is a great form of thanks.