San Felipe ( Kiliwa: ''Juwiy mja) is a coastal city in San Felipe Municipality, Baja California, located on the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

. The population of San Felipe was reported as 17,143 inhabitants in the 2020 Mexican Census. San Felipe is historically a fishing town. Today it is also a popular

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

destination, known for its beaches, nature, and

desert racing Desert racing is the act of racing through the desert in a two- or four-wheeled off-road vehicle. Races, which generally consist of two or more loops around a course covering up to , can take the form of Hare and Hound or Hare scramble style eve ...

, as home to the '' San Felipe 250''.OffRoadXtreme - 2022 SCORE San Felipe 250: Everything You Need To Know
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History

The first European to arrive in the Baja California Peninsula was

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

on May 3, 1535. The history of San Felipe began later with the expeditions of Francisco de Ulloa, one of Cortés's captains who navigated the bay in September 1535. In 1536, Hernando de Alarcón and Domingo Castillo explored the region and made the first detailed map of the peninsula, giving San Felipe its original name, Santa Catalina. After the first expeditions were long forgotten, Father

Eusebio Kino Eusebio Francisco Kino, Jesuits, SJ (, ; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was an Italian Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer, mathematician and astronomer born in the Prince-Bishopric of Tre ...

rediscovered the Baja California peninsula in 1701. Juan de Ugarte later built the first ship in Baja California and explored the area, arriving in San Felipe on July 5, 1721. Twenty-five years later Father Ferdinand Konščak arrived and christened the bay San Felipe de Jesús. In 1766, Wenceslaus Linck was the first European person to reach San Felipe by land, and in 1794 the Lt. Governor of the Californias, José Joaquín de Arrillaga, began to use it as a port. He also established the land route between San Felipe and Ensenada through Valle de la Trinidad. It was not until 1925, during the administration of General Abelardo L. Rodríguez, territorial governor, that San Felipe began to incorporate, when the first fishing camps were established and the government organized the first sub-delegation and school. Octavio Vega Ruiz was appointed sub-delegate and the basis for the growth and development of San Felipe were established during his administration from 1926 to 1942. The sea transportation of both people and cargo also contributed to the integration of San Felipe as a township. Among the most celebrated ships of the era were José Ascolani's ''Trieste'', and ''Pacita'' and ''Río Colorado'', owned by Arnulfo Liera. By the end of the 1920s, San Felipe had nearly 100 permanent inhabitants, and in 1940 appeared for the first time in the census with 287 inhabitants. By 1947, the Compañía Industrial del Golfo de Cortés, owned by José María Rodríguez Luján, bought the land from Guillermo Andrade's estate to build an international tourist center. The Mexicali-San Felipe highway began paving in 1948 and was completed in 1951. At the same time, the 15-room Hotel Augies (later the Villa del Mar, Trucha Vagabunda and Las Palmas Inn) opened. In 1959, the motel El Cortés was opened to the public. Many new hotels were established in the 1960s, including Hotel Riviera, El Pescador, Arnold's del Mar and Arco Iris, and the tourist camps of Costa Azul, Las Arenas, Miramar, Playa Bonita, Playa de Laura, and Rubén's. The port had electricity by 1963 and piped drinking water by 1967. The 1970s saw the establishment of the government building, restaurants, bars, gas stations, a small boat anchorage, airport, sea walk, main boulevard and sewage system, as well as the first four-star hotel, the Playas de San Felipe, followed by the Fiesta Hotel. The La Hacienda opened in the 1980s; the Marina Resort and Spa in 1993. Currently, San Felipe's income depends (in descending order of importance) upon tourism, shrimping and fishing.

Geography

The Bay of San Felipe is 3 meters above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. At low tide, the water can recede as much as 2 km. San Felipe experiences one of the largest

tidal bore A tidal bore, often simply given as bore in context, is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay's cu ...

s in the world due in part to the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

to the north. The seven-meter tides expose a kilometer of

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

floor. The Valley of the Giants natural reserve of the thousand-year-old Cardon Cactus has become a major attraction after the transport of one of these giant specimens to Seville, Spain for

Seville Expo '92 The Universal Exhibition of Seville 1992 – Expo '92 (officially: ) was a universal exhibition held from Monday 20 April to Monday 12 October 1992, at the , in Seville, Spain. The theme for the expo was "The Age of Discoveries", celebrating the ...

. The area has also become a favorite spot for photographers worldwide. Local environmentalists are lobbying for the protection of the valley in the form of a Nature Reserve. The entrance to the park is located at .

Climate

Temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

s in San Felipe average approximately 24 °C year-round. San Felipe is located in a unique

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

, where the

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

meets the sea. Temperatures range from a nocturnal winter low of in the shade during July and August. The temperature of the sea experiences many variations, reaching a low of 60 °F in winter and highs of 79-86 °F in summer.

Economy

The port of San Felipe is a small town historically dependent on fishing and now on tourism, catering mostly to travelers from the United States. The city is home to San Felipe International Airport.

Tourism

San Felipe was a popular

spring break Spring break is a vacation period at universities and schools that includes the Easter holiday, and takes place in early Northern Hemisphere spring. Introduced in the U.S. during the 1930s, spring break has been observed in Europe since t ...

spot for residents of the Western U.S. states and northern Mexico, due to its many tourist attractions. Nightclubs and bars dot the beach areas. Some visitors enjoy camping on the beaches or off-roading on ATVs and dirt bikes in the adjacent desert. Several hotels, ranches, camp sites and RV parks in or near the town offer volleyball, tennis, pools, bathing areas and fishing. In 2005, San Felipe's first golf course, Las Caras de Mexico, opened to the public. This oceanside golf course is located at La Ventana del Mar. Other popular activities are off-road racing events such as the Baja 250 and San Felipe 250, the former a spin-off from the popular

Baja 1000 The Baja 1000 is an annual Mexican off-road motorsport race held on the Baja California Peninsula, with a course of up to about 850 or more miles. It is one of the most prestigious off-road races in the world, having attracted competitors from ...

international race organized by SCORE and the latter hosted by CODE, an off-road racing organization based in Mexicali. In 2007 the SCORE race was changed to Ensenada due to a disagreement between the local ejidos, but the issues were resolved and returned to San Felipe in 2008 and has been held there since. Currently, CODE holds two races in the San Felipe Desert: the CODE San Felipe 200 in April and the CODE Race Ready 275 in December; the first is a loop around the deserts of San Felipe, while the other is a one-way race from Mexicali to San Felipe at the end of the season. Another visitor attraction are the hot, sulfurous, geothermal springs at Puertecitos on the Sea of Cortez, cooled somewhat by sea water. In recent years, San Felipe locals and tourists have enjoyed a new activity, Carnaval. It is often referred to as a Mexican Mardi Gras but the name is an exaggeration, since the locale is smaller than in other Mexican carnivals. New to the San Felipe Calendar of Events is the International Blues & Arts Fiesta, a San Felipe Lions Club fundraiser held the last Saturday in March. Every other year, San Felipe receives hundreds of motorcycles in the Devils Run festival in the last weekend of April. Most of the riders make a run from Temecula, California, but the event attracts bikers from many different places as far as Cancun, Mexico or New York The three day event includes several contest and get together experiences like a rock concert sponsored by the local authorities and gets up to 90% of the different lodgings available in tow
DiabloRun
One of the lesser known sightseeing trips in San Felipe is a boat ride to Konsag Island. This is a rock, visible from the San Felipe coast line, and about an hour out to Sea. The area around the rock has much marine life and makes for great fishing.

References

External links

{{coord, 31, 01, 39, N, 114, 50, 07, W, display=title, source:eswiki_scale:25000 Populated places in Baja California Populated coastal places in Mexico Port cities and towns on the Mexican Pacific coast Populated places established in 1916 Beaches of Baja California Municipality seats in Baja California