Ojos Negros

Ojos Negros is the town of the valley of the same name, about 705 meters up, just north of Federal Highway 3 between Ensenada and San Felipe. It had 2,707 people at the 2020 census and is the seat of a delegación of Ensenada municipality. The valley used to be called San Rafael, after the creek that runs through it; the present name, in use since 1864, comes from two marshes that looked like a pair of dark eyes from a distance.

This was Kumiai and Paipai land. Agustín Mancillas received the first land grant in 1843, and in 1870 the prospector Ambrosio Castillo struck gold. Some 1,500 people rushed in, Real del Castillo was formally founded on October 2, 1870, and from 1872 to 1882 the camp was capital of the northern district of Baja California, until the seat moved to Ensenada. Once the gold ran out the place emptied, a flood in 1890 wrecked most of what was left, and by 1930 only about 37 people remained. The ruins of Real del Castillo Viejo still stand in the valley.

Ranching, farming, cheese and, more recently, wine keep the valley going. At Rancho La Campana, north of the highway, the Ramonetti family has made cheese since 1911, and in 2008 Marcelo Castro, the fourth generation, built a stone cave that holds up to 10,000 wheels, each turned by hand every day. Visitors can watch the evening milking, taste fresh and aged cheeses from six months to two years, and eat at picnic tables under the trees; the milk is not pasteurized. Vines arrived around 2000 with Bodegas San Rafael, followed by Vinícola Infinito, Dominio de las Abejas and others. With vineyards above 800 meters, this is the highest and farthest-inland wine valley in Baja California, cooler and wetter than Valle de Guadalupe, and it shares a wine-and-cheese route with Santo Tomás and Guadalupe.