[3] It is located on the northern shores of the Sea of Cortez on the small strip of land that joins the Baja California Peninsula with the rest of Mexico.
The warm sea surface temperatures of the northern end of the gulf cause Puerto Peñasco to have a much warmer climate than coastal cities on the Pacific both in the Mexican and American Californias.
The Mar de Cortés International Airport serves Puerto Penasco, but currently has no regularly-scheduled flights in or out.
Development to date includes over one hundred restaurants, forty-two hotels and motels, and fourteen RV facilities.
[7] The new "Home Port del Mar de Cortés" (Sea of Cortez) cruise ship terminal began construction in 2014 between Sandy Beach and Cholla Bay (La Choya), northwest of the central city.
In 1826, retired Robert William Hale Hardy of the British Royal Navy was sailing in this area searching for pearls and precious metals.
[8] Prior to the 1920s, the area was just one of the safe harbors for wandering fishermen who worked the upper Gulf of California.
[9] In the 1930s, under President Lázaro Cárdenas, a railroad was built to connect Baja California to the rest of Mexico, passing by Puerto Peñasco.
[4][9] The railroad line created new population centers and the initial layout of the city and port of Puerto Peñasco was begun in the 1940s.
In 1952, Puerto Peñasco separated from the municipality of Caborca and comprised the localities of Sonoyta, Bahía La Choya, 21 de Marzo and Cuauhtémoc.
The municipality's pristine beaches with clear waters stretched for a hundred miles north or south with almost no development.
[9] The push to make Puerto Peñasco or Rocky Point a major tourism center was initiated in 1993, with the government joining with private investors to build condominiums and other facilities.
The local real estate market started to go bust in 2007 due to the economic slowdown in the United States.
[5] The base of the area is volcanic rock, much of it solidified lava flows from when ancient eruptions met the ocean.
[7] To promote tourism here, the city was declared to be part of the border “free zone” although it is about 100 km (62 mi) from the U.S.
[13] Puerto Peñasco is a popular destination for spring break, especially for high school and college students from Arizona and California for both its proximity and its 18-year-old legal drinking age.
[4] These institutions started as a joint project with the Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Arizona in 1963 to develop methods of desalinization of sea water.
In 1973 and 1974, the Unidad Experimental Peñasco was founded to research the raising of blue shrimp or Penaeus stylirostris.
It is located on the eastern coast of the Gulf of California approximately 60 miles south of the Arizonan border, only about a four-hour drive from Phoenix or Tucson.
[20] Though very rare, it is possible for a tropical storm or hurricane to reach the northern Gulf of California and cause significant damage.
As of 2020, the city of Puerto Peñasco has a total of 62,689 inhabitants, making it the eighth largest locality in the state.
Furthermore, about 36.73% of inhabitants over the age of 15 did not finish their primary education, and about 31.74% of the population is not inscribed in any government health service.