Isla San Francisco - Sea of Cortez
24°49.28N
110°34.27W
Anchoring - Snorkeling - Hiking - Beaches
Overview
Isla San Francisco is NNW of La Paz by about 42NM and about 18NM from Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida. This is a very popular spot because of its beauty and wind protection options. The main anchorage is the large crescent shaped bay.
Google Maps Link: Isla San Francisco
Anchoring Options
There are three main anchorages at Isla San Francisco Where you can find protection from most wind and swell conditions.
The large crescent bay provides good protection from the North, South, and East. It is not well protected from the coromuel winds that blow up from La Paz, or overnight westerlies. If you want to have protection from the coromuel winds you need to tuck in as far as you can inside the southern tip where it curls in. We arrived just before sunset on a calm afternoon and dropped anchor in the middle of the anchorage on a 50’ catamaran. The winds came up in the middle of the night and even in a large stable cat we didn’t sleep well after about 3am.
The east anchorage provides protection from coromuels, but isn’t as pretty of an anchorage. If you use the north anchorage you have dingy ride of just under a mile to get to Isla Coyote. Fishermans cove is pretty tight for a bigger boat unless you use a stern anchor. It is about 250’ wide 250’ from the beach.
Beaches
The beaches are a mix of soft white and and pebbles.
Hiking & Snorkeling
The main hike on the island is up the south ridge that overlooks Crescent Bay. There are also plenty of trails connecting the anchorages and climbing the vista points.
Improvements & Links
Please email me or leave a comment if you have valuable information to add to this post. I’ll continue to improve the information on this page as I learn more about this spot. Please send me any relevant links that you think would be good to share here.