Pinacate Biosphere Reserve
Please contact these people about Rally Diabolico race
Please contact regional land and wildlife managers as well as Mexican delegates for the UNESCO WHS program. Remember these officials likely agree with you, so be respectful and constructive. Thank you.
Contact info for Permanent Delegation to UNESCO at this link
Regional and national CONANP managers:
Offroad race planned for Gran Desierto de Altar
(Update: this race has been put on hold, likely due to permit issues with the Mexican government.)
Southern California based off-roaders are organizing a "TRUE off-road" rally race across some of the most intact and undamaged land in North America. The exact route has not been released to the public or participants to prevent scouting. Most likely it will occur to the west or southwest of the El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve and potentially within the Alto Golfo de California Biosphere Reserve in western Sonora.
This area is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and part of numerous protected areas on both sides of the border together making one of the largest protected areas in North America. Beyond these designations it is incredibly beautiful and biologically rich. More than 540 species of vascular plants, 44 mammals, more than 200 birds and over 40 reptiles inhabit the seemingly inhospitable desert*. Noteworthy species include the Sonoran Pronghorn, an endemic subspecies restricted to the south-western Arizona and north-western Sonora and threatened by extinction.
Pinacate Biosphere Reserve, west side
This was a long weekend trip to the west side of the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve. We encountered no other humans. The trip went to Sykes Crater, MacDougal Crater, and Tinaja de los Papagos, among other areas. It was a somewhat dry spring.
I'd been wanting to go to the Tinaja de los Papagos for years. I expected a beautiful desert oasis that has harbored and sustained humans and wildlife for millennia in a sea of black rock, desert, and heat.