States in the region
Baja California is the longest peninsula in the world after the Malay and Kamchatka peninsulas: about 1,250 km from the border with California down to Cabo San Lucas, and between 40 and 320 km wide. Two states divide it at the 28th parallel, a straight line drawn across the desert. Together they hold 145,359 km² — 7 per cent of Mexico — but only 4,567,467 people, and more than four in five of those live in the northern state.
| State | Capital | Population (2020) | Area km² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baja California | Mexicali | 3,769,020 | 71,450 |
| Baja California Sur | La Paz | 798,447 | 73,909 |
Baja California Sur is the least populated state in Mexico and has the lowest density of all, at about 11 people per km². Both were federal territories rather than states until recently: the north became a state in 1952, the south only in 1974.
Geography
The peninsula is a fragment of continental crust that has been pulled away from mainland Mexico along the San Andreas fault system over roughly the past five million years, opening the Gulf of California behind it. The gulf is about 1,100 km long and drops past 3,000 m in its southern basins, which is why it holds far richer marine life than the open Pacific shelf. A spine of fault-block mountains runs down the eastern edge: the Sierra de Juárez and the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in the north, where Picacho del Diablo reaches 3,096 m, the highest point on the peninsula, and the granite Sierra de la Laguna above Los Cabos at about 2,090 m.
Everything between is desert. The north-west corner around Ensenada has a Mediterranean climate with winter rain, which is what makes wine possible in the Valle de Guadalupe — the source of most Mexican wine. South of El Rosario the Central Desert takes over, with cardón cactus and boojum trees and rainfall under 100 mm a year in places. The El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve covers about 25,000 km² of it, the largest protected area in Mexico, and takes in the shallow Pacific lagoons of Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio where grey whales arrive from the Bering Sea to calve. On the gulf side, Isla Espíritu Santo off La Paz and the marine park around Loreto protect sea lion colonies and reef, and Cabo Pulmo near the southern tip holds one of the few hard coral reefs in the eastern Pacific.
Main cities and sights
Tijuana is by far the largest city, with 1,922,523 people in its municipality in 2020, and the San Ysidro crossing on its northern edge is the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere. Mexicali, the state capital, sits inland in the Colorado River delta, on farmland partly below sea level and among the hottest inhabited places in Mexico. Ensenada is the Pacific port and cruise call 110 km south of Tijuana. In the south, La Paz is the capital and ferry port of Baja California Sur; Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo face each other across 33 km of the Corredor Turístico at the tip and share the Los Cabos municipality of 351,111 people; and Loreto on the gulf coast, founded in 1697, was the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Californias and their capital until 1777. The beaches map covers the coastline in more detail.
| Stage of Highway 1 | km | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Tijuana – Ensenada | 110 | 1 h 30 |
| Ensenada – San Quintín | 190 | 2 h 30 |
| San Quintín – Guerrero Negro | 420 | 5 h 30 |
| Guerrero Negro – Santa Rosalía | 200 | 2 h 30 |
| Santa Rosalía – Loreto | 195 | 2 h 30 |
| Loreto – La Paz | 355 | 4 h 30 |
| La Paz – Todos Santos | 80 | 1 h |
| Todos Santos – Cabo San Lucas | 80 | 1 h |
| Cabo San Lucas – San José del Cabo | 33 | 35 min |
| Tijuana – Cabo San Lucas, total | 1,711 | 22 h |
When to go and getting around
The north is best from spring to autumn, when Ensenada and the wine valley are dry and mild; the south is best from October to May, because summer there is above 35 °C and the eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from 15 May to 30 November, with Odile causing the heaviest recent damage at Los Cabos in September 2014. Grey whale watching is January to March, and whale sharks gather in the bay at La Paz from October to April.
Los Cabos (SJD) is the busiest airport, followed by Tijuana (TIJ), which is linked to San Diego by a pedestrian bridge over the border opened in 2015; La Paz (LAP), Loreto (LTO) and Mexicali (MXL) take domestic flights. Highway 1 is the only through road; Highway 2 runs along the border from Tijuana to Mexicali and on to Sonora, and Highway 5 drops from Mexicali to San Felipe and now joins Highway 1 south of Puertecitos. Ferries cross the gulf from Pichilingue, the port of La Paz, to Mazatlán and to Topolobampo near Los Mochis. See the road map and the airports map.
Questions about Baja California
Where is the Baja California peninsula?
It hangs south from the US border at Tijuana for about 1,250 km, with the Pacific on one side and the Gulf of California — the Sea of Cortez — on the other. Two states cover it: Baja California in the north and Baja California Sur in the south.
How long does it take to drive Highway 1?
Highway 1 runs 1,711 km from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas and takes about 22 hours of driving, so three days is a realistic minimum. It is two lanes and unlit for most of the middle section, and driving it after dark is generally avoided.
Where can you see grey whales in Baja California?
In three Pacific lagoons where they calve between late December and mid-April: Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio in Baja California Sur, and Magdalena Bay further south. The first two lie inside the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve.
Does Baja California use daylight saving time?
The northern state does, in step with California, and is the only part of Mexico still changing its clocks after the national repeal in 2022. Baja California Sur stays on UTC−7 year round. See the time zones map.
Is Baja California safe to visit?
Los Cabos, La Paz, Loreto, Ensenada and the Valle de Guadalupe take millions of visitors a year; the US State Department applies a higher warning to Baja California state than to Baja California Sur, largely on account of violence in Tijuana away from the tourist areas. Check the current advisory.