Mission San José de Tumacácori
A really pleasant find on our Thursday drive!
NIccy had the day off so we had made plans to go down to the Tubac, AZ Festival of the Arts. We'd gone once before Covid reared it's ugly head and thought it would make for a nice relaxing day. Boy, were we wrong.
I knew that it was going to be a problem when I saw a sign on the interstate saying Festival Goers USE THIS EXIT. The exit is about 2.5 miles from where the festival was being held. Well, we took the exit, went about 1/2 mile and abruptly stopped thanks to the traffic jam on the siding road we were on. We slowly creeped our way down to where the parking area was and once we saw the sea of cars Niccy said "Oh hell no, I'm not paying to park in that mess!" so we went right on by.
We got down past the mess and decided to get back on the freeway, head north and go check out the Historic Canoa Ranch, a place we hadn't (and haven't) been yet.
About that time we came up on the Tumacacori Historic National Park, another place we hadn't been before. Since it's a national part and I've got a national park veterans pass we decided to stop there instead.
They have docent led tours but we decided just to wander on our own. It wound up being pretty interesting looking at the old mission church and outbuildings. There weren't many people when we got there but it did get a bit busy as we were leaving.
I'm glad that Tubac was such a mess, it gave us a chance to check out the mission and have ourselves a really nice picnic lunch!
If you'd like to learn about the park:
If you'd like to learn a bit more about the church:
www.nps.gov/tuma/learn/historyculture/the-church.htm
As a side note the weather was fantastic today, 65 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze!
Mission San José de Tumacácori
A really pleasant find on our Thursday drive!
NIccy had the day off so we had made plans to go down to the Tubac, AZ Festival of the Arts. We'd gone once before Covid reared it's ugly head and thought it would make for a nice relaxing day. Boy, were we wrong.
I knew that it was going to be a problem when I saw a sign on the interstate saying Festival Goers USE THIS EXIT. The exit is about 2.5 miles from where the festival was being held. Well, we took the exit, went about 1/2 mile and abruptly stopped thanks to the traffic jam on the siding road we were on. We slowly creeped our way down to where the parking area was and once we saw the sea of cars Niccy said "Oh hell no, I'm not paying to park in that mess!" so we went right on by.
We got down past the mess and decided to get back on the freeway, head north and go check out the Historic Canoa Ranch, a place we hadn't (and haven't) been yet.
About that time we came up on the Tumacacori Historic National Park, another place we hadn't been before. Since it's a national part and I've got a national park veterans pass we decided to stop there instead.
They have docent led tours but we decided just to wander on our own. It wound up being pretty interesting looking at the old mission church and outbuildings. There weren't many people when we got there but it did get a bit busy as we were leaving.
I'm glad that Tubac was such a mess, it gave us a chance to check out the mission and have ourselves a really nice picnic lunch!
If you'd like to learn about the park:
If you'd like to learn a bit more about the church:
www.nps.gov/tuma/learn/historyculture/the-church.htm
As a side note the weather was fantastic today, 65 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze!