Catavina Boulder Fields

This morning we drove back out to Mex 1 and headed south to El Rosario, where we stopped for lunch at Mama Espinosa's. The lobster burritos were delicious, though expensive. Portions were large, so we saved half of our lunch to eat for dinner tonight. Kai thought she might be having brake problems so we asked for directions to a repair shop. They couldn't find anything wrong, but the odd noise disappeared so she felt reassured.
Our stopping point for the night is Catavina, a beautiful area of huge granite boulders, date palms, and cacti forests of magnificent cardon and the odd looking cirio (boojum tree). We drove off the highway about 3/4 mile toward Rancho Santa Inez, which is just a large packed-sand parking area with several shade trees. We are the only campers here, so we circled our vans around the largest shade tree and got the chairs out for happy hour and leftover lobster burritos.

We visited with Ralph (I think that's his name) who was out on his 4-wheeler running his dog on a leash. I'm not clear if he owns this place or has just lived down here for many decades. He told some anecdotes about his experiences in the area and said, "McQueen and Garner used to come down here on their motorcycles when they wanted to get away from the Hollywood scene for awhile".