Laguna Salada

Laguna Salada is a huge closed basin southwest of Mexicali: a clay-and-salt bed about 60 kilometers long and 17 wide, stretched between the Sierra Cucapá to the east and the Sierra de Juárez to the west, with Cerro El Centinela closing off the northern tip. Its floor lies about 10 meters below sea level, making it one of the lowest places in Mexico. It is a tectonic trough tied to the San Andreas fault system, the same one that continues north to the Salton Sea.

A lake that comes and goes

For centuries the lake filled with Colorado River floods that entered through the delta and the Hardy River, and in exceptional tides even with water from the Gulf of California. Records document a "large lake with abundant fish" in 1884, and fillings in 1890, 1893 and 1905–1907, the same floods that created the Salton Sea. The Cucapá crossed it every year on their way to the Sierra de Juárez and planted along its shores when fresh water came in. Today the Colorado is almost entirely diverted, so the lake lives dry: its last long wet period ran from 1978 to the late 1980s, with fishing and tourism, plus a brief return in 1997–1999 and a shallow sheet of water after Tropical Storm Kay in September 2022.

Pavarotti, a Boeing and the races

The vast, empty flat has hosted some unusual events. On October 18, 2003, for Mexicali’s centennial, Luciano Pavarotti sang here to some 40,000 people in nearly 48 °C heat at one in the afternoon. On April 27, 2012, Discovery Channel deliberately crashed an unmanned Boeing 727 here for the documentary "Plane Crash", and that same year UABC students launched the Cimarrón I rocket, the first in Baja California. Scenes from "Resident Evil: Extinction" were filmed here, and in 2013 a Trophy Truck hit 219 km/h on the bed. Motorcycle, quad and buggy series race here every year: in 2026 the ZR Promotions Triple Corona, Racing For Boobs in March and the Mex Log 300 in October, with over 90 teams and grandstands at kilometer 28.

Getting there and what to expect

Leave Mexicali on the free Federal Highway 2 toward Tecate; the highway crosses the lake bed and, if you keep climbing the La Rumorosa grade, the lookouts show the whole basin. The north entrance is marked by large red pillars: pavement at first, then dirt. A regular car reaches the edge and the first few kilometers along the compacted tracks; to cross it or continue to Guadalupe Canyon you need a high-clearance truck or 4x4. There are no services, water, shade or reliable signal: only a few red masts with a map, an emergency button and a water reserve.

Safety: the desert is unforgiving

Mexicali Civil Protection asks people to stay out of the desert between May and October, when wild areas exceed 52 °C and "there is no safe time of day". After rain the bed turns into deep mud that traps even trucks: in July 2019 a family of ten spent the night stuck on the way to Guadalupe Canyon until a Navy helicopter found them, and there were two more rescues in 2022. In October 2026 the state government denied permits for a sky-lantern festival in the area over environmental risk: local biologists point out that the lake bed holds ecosystems worth conserving, so leave no trash and stay on the tracks.