Eve Ewing On Exploring Baja By Mule

Eighty-four-year-old Eve Ewing made her first trip to Baja in the back seat of her father's plane in 1952. Her father, the legendary Scripps Oceanographer Gifford Ewing, would fly his plane down annually to perform an aerial census of the California Grey Whales as they calved in Scammon's Lagoon.

In those days, they landed right on the salt flats of Guerrero Negro. There was no town, just a grouping of five Quonset huts. Ewing's father would fly on to the village of Bahia de Los Angeles, where he would spend the night at Casa Diaz—owned by his friend Antero "Papa" Diaz. On one of his many trips, Gifford Ewing brought an important gift for Papa Diaz -the first short-wave radio in LA Bay. 

When the Meling-Alford mule train arrived in LA Bay, on their 1963-1964 north-to-south exploration of the Baja California peninsula -it was only their second stop from Tecate, but half the riders left the arduous expedition. Gifford Ewing, who had flown to LA Bay to meet the group, used that radio to call his daughter for reinforcements and needed supplies. My dad radioed me and said, "a whole bunch of people are pulling out of the expedition, do you want to join them?" Eve jumped at the opportunity and quickly began rounding up the 50 pounds of horseshoe nails, and the 25 pounds of dehydrated eggs, they requested. She packed her saddle, stirrup covers, chaps, and long underwear -and got down to Tijuana where the Baja legend, Francisco Munoz flew her to LA Bay to meet the remaining riders.

The Meling-Alford Expedition eventually made it to Cabo San Lucas. However, Ewing didn't make the entire trip. When the group arrived in La Paz, she learned that her mother had suddenly died, so she flew back to California to be with her family. She's returned to Baja many times over the years, leading over fifty mule trips and visiting scores of cave painting sites. Deciphering those paintings has become her life's work.

In this rambling conversation, Ewing reflects on moving to La Jolla in 1945, becoming a cowgirl, and the arduous 1963 -1964 Alford-Meling expedition. She says it was the warm and welcoming rancheros that kept her returning to Baja year after year -and the cave paintings. I have to say, with Eve Ewing's warm welcome and her trove of stories, I need to come back and record with her again very soon.

Listen to the podcast here.

For more on the cave paintings of Baja, click here.

For more on Eve's last mule ride in Baja, click here.

For more on Eve's father, Gifford Ewing, click here.