page_title: Timeline of the Portolá expedition
section_title: Month by month in Alta California
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of the Portolá expedition / Month by month in Alta California
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of Oso Flaco Lake, near Guadalupe CA
context_page_description: This timeline of the Portolá expedition tracks the progress during 1769 and 1770 of the first European exploration-by-land of north-western coastal areas in what became Las Californias, a province of Spanish colonial New Spain. Later, the region was administratively-split into Baja and Alta. The first section of the march was on the Baja California peninsula, and the northern section of the expedition's trail was in today's U.S.A. state of California.
  Missionary Juan Crespi kept a diary describing the group's daily progress and detailed descriptions of their locations, allowing modern researchers to reconstruct their journey. Portions of other diaries by Gaspar de Portolá, engineer Miguel Costansó, missionary Junípero Serra, army officer Jose de Canizares, and Sergeant José Ortega also survived. When analyzed as a whole, they provide detailed daily information on the route traveled and camping locations, as well as descriptions of the country and its native inhabitants.
caption: Oso Flaco Lake today, with sand dunes beyond
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