08/16/2026
https://www.facebook.com/61591485450533/posts/122123002563382848/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
Before Tijuana became the primary border crossing, travelers and traders moving between Baja California and San Diego used a rougher, older route — a stagecoach road that wound through the backcountry mountains and crossed the international line at Tecate.
In the 1880s, the Ensenada-San Diego stage ran approximately weekly, carrying mail, passengers, and commercial goods between the growing port of Ensenada and the booming American city to the north. The route climbed through chaparral-covered ranges, descended into the Tecate Valley, crossed the line at a modest customs station, and continued northwest through San Diego's backcountry.
The crossing at Tecate was little more than a marked boundary — a far cry from the major port of entry that eventually replaced it. Merchants, miners heading to Baja gold country, and settlers moving in both directions used this road as their primary link between two nations.
The route largely follows what is now Highway 94 and the Tecate crossing — one of the quietest and oldest land borders in Southern California, still open today.
