Anchorage· Isla del Carmen· Mexico

Bahía Salinas and Salt Works (Isla Carmen)

25° 59.4′ N · 111° 6.3′ W · approximate

The largest anchorage on Isla Carmen, off a mile-long white beach on the island's east side, where the ghost town of a salt works—San Francisco's main salt supply from 1850, worked until 1983—slowly returns to the desert.

Practical

Coordinate is approximate: in the bay south of the old pier, near OpenStreetMap's 'Bahía Salinas' node (25.98706, -111.10886), checked in-water against the OpenStreetMap coastline. Large and roomy but open to the south (SAIL); room for many boats (Practical Sailor). Ashore: remnants of the old pier, beached vessels, a pristine one-room mission-style chapel and a hunting lodge whose two rooms can be rented by bighorn-sheep hunters. Offshore a buoy marks the wreck of a fishing trawler that sank in the 1980s—good snorkeling. Float in the hyper-saline salt pond. The La Salina walk (8.7 km loop) needs prior authorization because Carmen is private. CONANP protected-area fee applies: a Loreto Bay National Park day pass (bracelet) was MX$215 per person in 2025, and the annual Conservation Passport (MX$3,620 in 2025) covers every federal protected area; buy online at descubreanp.conanp.gob.mx or from the rangers at La Dársena in Loreto, and carry proof aboard. Anchoring: 14-16 ft over sand, with a sandbar rising to about 14 ft; good shelter from north and west, partial from east, none from the south—an evening southerly swell sometimes runs in (Live Free 2 Travel Slow, 2021-2025). In southerlies move round the corner to the Painted Cliffs anchorage. Keep clear of the buoyed wreck on the east side of the bay—great snorkeling, poor anchoring. The resort/lodge has run a generator at night; anchor away from it (BlueJacket, 2012). Note: BlueJacket's published waypoint for Salinas reads 25-50.45N, evidently a typo for 25-59.45N, so it is not used here. No cell service.

Best for

History, a wreck snorkel and a salt-pond float

Season

Northerly weather; avoid in southerlies

Nearby