Desierto Central de Baja California

The central desert of Baja — vast, stark, and home to the world's tallest cacti

The central portion of the Baja Peninsula is occupied by one of the most dramatic desert landscapes in North America. The Desierto Central stretches for several hundred kilometres between Ensenada and La Paz, a landscape of volcanic rock, dry valleys, and vast plains dominated by the towering cardón cactus — the largest cactus species on earth.

Driving the Transpeninsular Highway through this landscape is a genuinely striking experience. The highway is lonely by any standard — settlements are small and widely spaced — but the desert itself rewards attention. The endemic flora includes dozens of cactus species found nowhere else: the boojum tree (cirio), which grows only on Baja and a tiny area of Sonora, is the strangest, a tapered column that can lean at extreme angles without falling. The Sierra de San Francisco in the central desert contains prehistoric rock paintings, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reachable from the town of San Ignacio.

things to do sight wildlife
A story
The cardón cactus (Pachycereus pringlei) found in the Desierto Central is the tallest cactus species in the world — individuals can reach 19 metres and live for more than 300 years. The largest known specimen, near Bahía Kino in Sonora, was estimated to weigh over 25 tonnes. In the Baja desert, these giants mark the landscape like sentinels, their columns rising above the surrounding desert scrub in arrangements that can look almost architectural.