3 day-trip adventures in Baja's high desert

Chances are you'll be luckier than I and you'll get a warm day when you visit the ancient paintings at La Trinidad Cave in Mexico's Baja California Sur.

But I was there in the cool of January and gritted my teeth as I dived into the cold river that meanders through a canyon of rock the colors of chocolate and cinnamon.

This is a rite of passage — quite literally — required to see the fascinating prehistoric images at La Trinidad, named for the three-peaked mountain above the canyon.

Guide Salvador Castro Drew's e-mail the day before was terse and slightly mysterious: "Meet at the town arch at 9 tomorrow and bring your swimsuit."

It all became clear after a bumpy, four-wheel-drive journey across the desert and a 20-minute hike during which we examined petroglyphs at trailside.

The river wasn't wide, but it was deep enough to require swimming to reach our destination. Giant boulders were conveniently placed to provide privacy as other tour-goers and I changed into our swim togs.

As we shook like wet dogs and climbed to the cave site, we saw that it was worth it.

Salvador, a 53-year-old native of nearby Mulege, has devoted years to learning about the paintings here. The paintings vary in origin from 1,500 to 7,500 B.C. Little is known about the original artists, but some were the indigenous Cochimi people, who fished in the sea and roamed inland for seeds and desert fruits.

White paint came from limestone. Black came from iron. Red and yellow from desert plants.

Some images are phenomenally well preserved, a credit to the dry climate and remote location. A red deer head looks as if it might have been stenciled on the wall last week.

Two fish shapes are next to what Salvador described, only half in jest, as "an ancient barbecue fork." A shaman figure perpetually holds his arms to the skies. White handprints dot the wall as if kindergartners had been playing with paint.

Children were given peyote and encouraged to add to the wall painting as part of ceremonies, Salvador said. Some, too young for peyote, would die. Others, who had hallucinations, might become shamans.

Nobody else thinks it's a big deal.

We're on our way to see more cave paintings, this time at "Cueva La Serpiente," the Cave of the Serpent. It's 35 minutes up the arroyo from San Javier, a village of 1,000 people in the craggy hills of the Sierra de la Giganta, 23 uphill miles from the seaside city of Loreto.

We stop at San Javier, where Jesuits founded their second permanent mission in the Californias in 1699 (the first was Loreto, two years earlier). Here, natural springs turn the desert hills green.

Building materials came by mule from Loreto. Out back, the missionaries planted orchards. An incredibly gnarled 300-year-old olive tree still bears fruit, its trunk twisted like the rubber band.

We stop to fill up at a nearby home where they sell gasoline from a bucket. Erika's husband, Luis, sucks on a plastic hose to start a siphon.

It is 5 degrees Celsius (or 41 Fahrenheit), the coolest all season, Erika announces as we head out of town on a rough road. We soon splash across the dribbling stream of Arroyo Santo Domingo.

Near the trailhead, we stop at Rancho Santo Domingo to meet the straw-hatted rancher, Humberto Verdugo Garcia, and his wife, Raquel Morillo Talamantes. Humberto will be our guide and, because the cave is on his ranch, will collect the 100 peso fee set by the government.

We drive behind him a few minutes, yielding momentarily to that tarantula, then rock-hop up a talus hillside to the cave.

There are fewer paintings here. Some have been obliterated or partially hidden by rockfall. There is a snake image, very faded.

But here there is a nice image of a spouting whale. The triangular whale spouts look like "early Margarita glasses," Humberto jokes.

"It is ranch coffee! With goat milk!" Ivette whispers to me.

The milk is rich and light yellow. There's a tub of coarse sugar. It's deliciously reviving. We leave with big smiles and lots of handshakes.

The next day I am on a mule.

I booked a half-day ride near San Javier with mule wrangler Trudi Angell, who came here from California in the 1970s.

For years she ran a kayak guide service called Paddling South. These days she runs a string of mules, with a new business name: Saddling South.

Mules are the hardy work animal of choice in Baja. Trudi sets her mules loose to fend for themselves in the hot summers here because they are so adept at finding food and water.

Trudi likes to take visitors to the small ranches near San Javier to meet the locals, who are likewise hardy. Trudi's "Goat Cheese Ride" is one of her most popular outings, with a stop at Rancho Viejo.

We stop in to meet the lady of the ranch, Maria del Rosario de los Santos de Romero. She just goes by "Chari." She shows us a batch of goat cheese in the works beneath a shelf weighted with big rocks to squeeze out the whey.

"This is where they will bring out the goats for milking and they give a cheese-making lesson," Trudi tells me.

Olivia shows me the ranch's old stonewalled corrals and a pen of bleating baby goats, which are among the more adorable creatures on the planet.

I'll end the day back in a cozy hotel at seaside in Loreto. Over a cold beer I'll tell strangers how I've fallen in love with the raw beauty of Baja's high desert. The giant spider, they can keep.

Guides: From Mulege, tour La Trinidad Cave with Salvador Castro Drew; $50 U.S. per person (http://bit.ly/2uXrzkj). A private half-day or full-day mule ride with Loreto-based Saddling South runs from $39-$99 U.S. per person (saddlingsouth.com).

Your base: Loreto is a delightful base for exploring central Baja. Locals say the city of 15,000 is among the safest, most peaceful towns in Baja. Alaska Airlines offers connecting service from Minneapolis.

Lodging: I enjoyed cozy Hotel 1697, with about four rooms right off the downtown plaza in Loreto, central to everything. Rooms start at $40 per night.