La Misión

La Misión is an ejido and borough of Ensenada municipality, about 40 km north of the port, at the point where the free road leaves the coast and heads inland up a valley between two hills. It counted just over 1,100 residents in the 2020 census, spread between houses on the hillsides, farmland on the valley floor and homes along the bluff above the Pacific.

Below the bluff lies Playa La Misión, a broad sandy beach with surf loud enough to hear from the rooftops. People walk it, swim and ride horses along it; local outfits run rides on the sand and others across the valley into the hills. Next to it the San Juan Bautista creek, also called the Río Guadalupe, reaches the sea and spreads into an estuary of marsh, white herons and wild ducks. Around 250 bird species use the estuary and the slopes around it, and September and November are good months to photograph them. Beside the estuary is a palm-shaded campground with a pool, and vacation rentals line the beach and the bluff.

The village takes its name from the Dominican mission of San Miguel Arcángel de la Frontera, founded in 1787, whose adobe ruins stand in the center. In 1862 Felipe Crosthwaite bought 7,500 hectares from the government and called the place Rancho La Misión Vieja de San Miguel; the ejido followed in 1937. The calabaceado, the folk dance of northern Baja California, took shape in this area, and every year in the last week of May the Fiestas de La Misión, held since 1979, bring food, folk dance, music and religious events. The old road east to the Valle de Guadalupe wineries also starts here. Rain is scarce, roughly 250 to 285 mm a year and mostly in winter; summers are dry, and from September to April the sky is usually clear of coastal fog.