This post shares everything you need to know about hiking the beautiful Tabor Canyon in Loreto, Baja California Sur.
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About the Tabor Canyon Hike
The first thing you notice when you arrive in Loreto is the mountains.
The city is surrounded by the looming red-toned, rocky cliffs of the Sierra de la Giganta mountain range and they are just begging to be explored!
There are plenty of hikes you can do around the area, but many are quite technical and require a guide to navigate, leading you through water crossing and deep canyons.
However, one of the best hikes you can do without a guide is the Tabor Canyon (or Cañon del Tabor in Spanish).
This hike was one of the most beautiful walks we did in Baja California Sur, and we were absolutely blown away by the landscapes.
Heading deep inside the canyon with the jagged, multi-coloured mountains rising overhead was a magical experience, and a reminder of how big nature is, and how small we are.
If you’re up for some rock scrambling (and rock climbing in places!), you will love hiking Tabor Canyon in Loreto. Here’s everything you need to know.
🔔 Update April 2024: as you’ll see in the comments on this post, there were some very nasty and unhappy locals claiming this hike was on private ranchero property. When we visited, we didn’t encounter any signs, fences or gates indicating this, and would not have knowingly trespassed. A lovely reader confirmed with the Loreto Tourist Information Centre that according to them, the hike is on public land, and visitors are permitted to hike solo without a guide. Please do your own research to investigate this situation, and be on the lookout for any signs indicating this on the trail. Unless there are explicit signs that it is private property, I don’t see a reason you cannot do the hike in Tabor Canyon.
Tabor Canyon hike information
- 📍 Where: the trailhead is 20 minutes south of Loreto, see on Google Maps. You need to drive, take a taxi or join a tour to get there
- 🥾 Trail type: out and back, return via the same path when you’re tired
- 🗺️ Trail map: AllTrails
- 📏 Distance: AllTrails lists the hike as 2.4 km / 1.5 mi return, but you can hike much further into the canyon if desired
- 🪫 Difficulty: hard, it is rock scrambling the entire way, with sections of intense rock climbing with ropes if you want to proceed on the latter part of the trail
- 🎒 Bring: lots of water, snacks and sturdy walking shoes
Getting to the Tabor Canyon trail head
The trailhead is around 20 minutes from the centre of town, and the best way to get there is with your own car, via taxi or to join a tour. There isn’t any public transport around Loreto.
The trail is just off the main Highway 1, to the right. The turn-off is near the turn-off for Puerto Escondido and Trailer Park Tripui to the left, so you know you’ll close when you see those signs.
This side road leading to the car park is unpaved and gets quite rocky at certain points. We had our rental 4WD Jeep Wrangler and it was fine.
The road is do-able in a normal car too if you take it slow. If you feel at any point you don’t want to go further, you can always park on the side of the road and walk the rest of the way.
There is plenty of space to park on the shoulder, and it’s not too far from the highway to the start of the trail anyway.
If you drive all the way in, you will see an open space to park next to the rocks inside the wire cages. We even spotted a family of donkeys while we were having a pre-hike snack in our car!
🌞 Planning a trip to Loreto? Be sure to check out our Loreto Travel Guide, or our Things to Do in Loreto post.
Hiking Tabor Canyon Loreto
The trail is an out-and-back trail, where you walk as far as you want into the canyon and return when you are tired.
It’s listed on AllTrails as a 2.4 km/1.5-mile return track, but we walked for much further than that, and it looked like we could have kept going for a lot longer if we wanted to.
We spent 2 hours hiking out and back at a decent pace.
After you’ve parked your car, you need to jump down into the dry, rocky riverbed, through the small opening at the end of the wire barriers (you’ll see what I mean when you arrive!).
From there, you want to head straight up into the canyon.
There isn’t a trail as such, and the entire time you will be walking along the dry riverbed, and hopping between rocks and boulders of varying sizes. Some are small river rocks where you need to watch your footing. Others are ginormous boulders that you need to hoist yourself up and over!
To make sure you don’t get lost, some kind people have set up some cairns, or stacks of rocks, to direct you.
You can’t really go too wrong as you are bounded by the walls of the canyon, but the rocks help to direct you on the easiest route to climb and scramble and avoid running into dead ends.
The walk itself isn’t particularly challenging or strenuous, however, there is a lot of rock scrambling involved throughout the whole trail, and some very physical rock climbing if you go more than around 1 km / 0.6 mi into the canyon.
The rock climbing was a blast, but definitely a lot more full-on than we expected.
There are three different sets of ropes that require you to hoist yourself up and over to continue on the trail. You need to crawl and squeeze into gaps to find the ropes, have some decent upper body strength to pull yourself up, and use some guesswork with your footing on some dead logs jammed in as steps.
The first set of ropes is very obvious. You reach a point in the canyon where you are blocked by a huge wall of rock, and you can’t go any further without climbing over it. The climb with the rope was steep but relatively easy. No crawling or ducking is required and there are logs stuck into the rocks for footholds.
The second one is not so obvious. You need to kneel and crawl inside an opening in the rocks, and you will find the ropes. It is a relatively tight spot, so you are trying to place your feet and hoist yourself up against the walls of rock. It’s very fun, so don’t worry but just be prepared!
The final set of ropes is immediately after the second one. It is out in the open again, so not so tight or squishy, and the height isn’t too high. This one was a bit tricky with finding where to place your feet and hoist your hands up. But once you’ve conquered this there is no more climbing (until you come back down!).
Check out my Loreto highlight on Instagram to see some videos from our hike
We loved it, but it would not be accessible to everyone. We came across some other hikers who weren’t confident to tackle the ropes, but the point they got up to was still a decent walk.
Even if you don’t think rock climbing is for you, I would still encourage you to at least experience the first part of this beautiful hike.
Once you get past the three sets of ropes, you can see freshwater pools and sometimes a waterfall in the right season. We visited in February and there was only a small amount of water, but I can imagine how pretty it would be. This is a trail that looks completely different throughout the year.
The trail slowly inclines the entire time, and don’t forget to turn around and admire the stunning ocean views over the Bay of Loreto.
Please leave the trail cleaner than you found it. Pack out any rubbish, and even bring a bag to collect any litter you find along the way. Most hikers are respectful, but there’s always some careless people who leave rubbish behind.
Do you need a guide to hike Tabor Canyon?
It is not mandatory to hike with a guide. It’s up to you if you feel that you need one.
We didn’t feel that we needed a guide. With the map from AllTrails, and the rock stacks we knew would be there to guide us, we had no problem.
But we didn’t really know at what point we should turn around, and chances are we could have gone further if we had a local guiding us.
The rock climbing was fine for us, but if you are wary, having a guide to help you through this would be a good idea. Plus, they can give you a lot of information about local flora and fauna that we might have missed out on.
Furthermore, if you don’t have your own car to get to the trailhead and are going to need to arrange a taxi anyway, I would suggest a guided tour is the best option.
This tour run by Wild Loreto has fantastic reviews and is very reasonably priced. It includes transport from your accommodation in Loreto, snacks and drinks throughout the hike and an experienced guide.
Tips for hiking Tabor Canyon Loreto
If you plan to do this hike in the hotter months (May – October), I would recommend starting very very early in the day to avoid the heat.
As we were visiting in the middle of winter (February), the heat wasn’t too intense. But we were still hot and needed a ton of water. Some parts of the hike are shaded by the canyon, but a lot is out in the sun.
You need to be careful of rattlesnakes at any time of the year, but even more so in summer.
Bring a lot of water (more than you think you’ll need) as the hike is on a slight incline, and the rock climbing gets the heart pumping! There are no facilities on-site (toilets, water), so come prepared.
There is no phone service here, so if you are planning to follow the AllTrails map, I would suggest downloading it for offline use in advance, or at least having it open and pre-loaded on your phone.
It’s not really required to lead you along the trail (the cairns are there), but it’s helpful to know how far you’ve come and to confirm you’re in the right place when you’re first getting started.
Tabor Canyon hiking guide
Hiking Tabor Canyon is an absolute must-do in Loreto! It still goes down as one of our favourite experiences in Baja California Sur.
The landscape and scenery absolutely blew our minds and we were in awe at the sheer size of the mountains and nature.
This hike is a whole lot of fun if you’re up for some climbing and scrambling, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
MORE LORETO POSTS
OUR BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR TRAVEL GUIDES
The Comments
Louise
Such false information. And promoting a company that absolutely doesn’t care about loreto. Shame on you
Sally
LouiseHi Louise, thanks for your comment. I would be interested to know what you feel is false about this post? This was written based on my personal experience, and if you feel there is something incorrect, sharing the specifics might be useful to other readers. As for Wild Loreto, again, if there is some information you think I and other readers should know, I would appreciate if you could share it. The beauty of the internet is that we can share what we know, and it sounds like you might have some inside information. Thanks, Sally
Timme
Is this Tabor Canyon parking and hiking area part of ranch property owned privately that requires permission from the ranch owner to access?
Some visitors to the Baja, including hikers, campers, and off-road vehicle enthusiasts, have disregarded ranchers’ private property access rights.
Thank you for your excellent information, but please do not reveal my name or contact information to avoid backlash from lots of angry people out there.
Sally
TimmeThanks for your comment. As far as we could see, there was nothing to indicate that the Tabor Canyon hike (as well as the entrance/parking area) is part of private property. There are no signs to indicate this, and no fences or gates that we illegally trespassed through.
It is news to us that this is private property, and we would never want to violate the property of ranchos. We have encountered plenty of this type of property throughout Baja, and would never trespass where there is clear indication it was private property. Or, of course, we are more than happy to pay entry fees to access rancho property, like we have done on many other hikes around the state.
We visited in January 2022, and I get the feeling the situation may have changed since then. I will include some comments in my post to clarify this.
M
You forgot to mention that this hike is in private property and that you should get permission from the rancho before you trespass on their property. Loreto tours does this. Ranchos in this area here have been talking about closing off access to “self guided” tours due to vandalism by a very few people. If you decide to do a “self guided” your you should contact Cecilia Fischer who has a good relationship with all the ranchos in the Loreto/San Javier area. All Trails wasn’t written by anyone who got permission, and encouraging people to trespass isn’t cool.
Sally
MThankyou for your comment, and I appreciate the additional information. When we completed this hike in January 2022, there was nothing to indicate that Tabor Canyon was on private property. No signs, no gates etc. We would never knowingly trespass, and completely respect the property of the rancheros around Baja. Judging from the number of comments on this post, I get the feeling the situation has recently changed, and this is very helpful for me to know. I will include an update to this post alerting readers about this, and encouraging them to do their own research when they arrive in town and can get a better idea of the situation. Thanks again, Sally
Kurt
I like to do this hike on my own if possible. M writes about a Cecilia Fischer to contact. What number can I call to get permission?
Sally
KurtHi Kurt, I’m sorry, I don’t have the number. When we visited Loreto it was possible to do the hike independently, and there were no signs or information to advise that it was private property. I think this has changed since we visited, hence the comment from M. I would suggest chatting with your accommodation in Loreto to try and get some more information. I did do a quick Google search and found a possible email address on this page. Best of luck and enjoy Loreto, it is gorgeous! Sally
Kurt
I visited the Loreto tourist information yesterday and they confirmed that the Tabor Canyon is not private and not restricted. I hiked today and there were no signs that this is a private area. I did not encounter any ropes and I went far. I think that was because the canyon and the stones constantly change with every storm and thus, the ropes are no longer there. I encountered some pools of water and at one place, I had to wade waist-high through a pool to continue. The higher up you go, the more beautiful it gets. The tourist information remarked that going back is more difficult than going up as you don’t see where to put your shoes while climbing down. I can confirm this. 😉 Thus, better be on the safe side.
George
We were sceptical about this hike due to the comments we had read about needing permission, however after reading Kurt’s comment, we thought we’d give it a go. We hiked the canyon in April 2024, there were no signs of private property or indications we were trespassing. In fact we left at 07:30 and didn’t see a single other person. The walk is short but truly beautiful, I would really recommend it if you’re in the area. We reached the ropes detailed in the blog (they are still there April 2024).
Sally Rodrick
GeorgeHi George, thankyou so much for the update and sharing your experience! It sounds like you had the same experience we did. I would never want to openly trespass, but we didn’t see anything indicating private property either. I think there may have been a bit of exaggeration and upset in the Loreto expat community, but I think it’s fair to say this hike remains open to the public. Which is fantastic news for us as it is so beautiful, so glad you enjoyed it! Have a great trip in Loreto. Sally
Bob McMahon
Tabor Canyon is now in the new Loreto II National Park (August 2023) and has new signs at the trailhead (December 2024).
Sally Rodrick
Bob McMahonThanks so much for letting me know Bob, I’ll update this post shortly to reflect this. Very helpful.