Hendersen to Mexicali
 

Brother and I are planning a ride south this January. Hauling bikes to Hendersen, NV. Ride south mainly on 95 to Mexicali & cross into baja. Im sure fellow riders here have done this route. How was it? Weather decent in January? Crossing smooth at Mexicali? Thanks in advance.

“Decent” is all relative. You won’t be ferociously hot, and if you’re lucky temps will be downright pleasant…during the day. It cools rapidly at night. I don’t know rt. 95, but one typical issue is elevation: climb over a minor range between one basin and another and you might get quite cold, or see ice or snow. In extreme cases, it can snow anywhere at all during January—I once saw snow, hail, wind, and 35/2 degree temps in Phoenix.

I crossed at Mexicali once and found it quick and easy. There are two crossings AFAIR, and I took the downtown one into Mexico and the other one (west of town) departing because I needed to cancel my permit there. You might want to look into banjercito locations.

Gratuitous advice: try to find some scenery between Las Vegas and Baja. You can make it breathtakingly boring, or you can find some fine riding and pretty countryside.

Hope that’s helpful.

Mark

Thanks Mark. Thats kind of what i was figuring, but always nice to hear other’s experiences. Decent to me is above freezing. Although i live and ride mainly in Canada, ive ridin more snow in Mexico and California… go figure.

I am Quite a bit late for chiming in on US 95 , but January is still not here .
Actually I think you don't have much to worry about when you speak of taking US 95 south from Henderson NV to Mexicali
You are basically going to follow the desert south along the Colorado River to Blythe no really spectacular elevation to worry about icing . It is high desert and can get nippy at night but that's about it .. But US 95 really doesn't take you to Mexicali ; it does run east to Quartzite then south to Yuma and the San Luis border crossing . The way to Mexicali would be to take Cal 78 south to the Glamis Dunes and Brawley in the Imperial Valley where you go south on Cal 111 to Calexico and Mexicali .
From Mexicali if you head south to the east coast it will be fine but if you run west on Mex 2 you quickly get into the mountain climb up to Rumorosa and there at the top it can indeed get a really wintery weather mix .This past January they had snow up there and that is the route favoured by the guys who want to go to the Mikes Sky Ranch sort of thing .

If in fact you do want to take 95 to the border the San Luis and Algodones border crossings can work well as entry points to Baja , and they are at low elevation .