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| San Xavier - Guevavi - Tumacacori with SMRC, AZ | |
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| | San Xavier - Guevavi - Tumacacori with SMRC, AZ | | | |
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San Xavier - Guevavi - Tumacacori with SMRC, AZ
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| partners | | Written 6-8-2023, the last of my catching up on everything. Wendy and I met up with the other tour members at Mission Garden at 8:00 a.m. (https://www.missiongarden.org/visit) for our all day tour. It would be a rather nippy and windy day. While at Mission Garden, Kendall Kroesen and archaeologist Allen Denoyer gave us a tour and talked to us about this special place; definitely worthy of another visit. SMRC served us a light breakfast after and then we loaded up in be two vans for our drive to Mission San Xavier del Bac.
I have seen pictures of Mission San Xavier del Bac but had never been so I was happy to check this place out. The current Church, the oldest European structure in Arizona and the finest example of Spanish colonial architecture in the United States, was constructed in 1783 and was completed in 1797. Of course the story of the Mission is fascinating and I cover that in my video.
Whenever I do these SMRC Tours it's always hard to wrap my head around the fact that a lot of these missions were formed as the USA was becoming a country! It reminds me of when in 1975 I saw the Coliseum in Rome and felt like my history book was coming to life; I'll never forget that moment. There is a lot of restoration going on and it's of note that they are trying to work with native materials which actually work better and last longer than modern materials. The place is quite photogenic as well; both inside and out, in spite of the restoration work. I would advise if you go, be mindsome of the details of the facade and inside. There are lots of little things I missed in retrospect.
Next we headed to Tumacácori to have lunch at Wisdom’s Café; not as good as I thought it might be but the restroom was worth the visit . However, the margarita was good. The tour pays for the lunch. You always eat and drink and snack well on these tours. After lunch we traveled to the ruins of Mission Guevavi, where Park Ranger Rick Collins talked to us. You can only access these ruins via the Park Service. We checked out the area above the now dry Santa Cruz river. It is quite the area and has a lot of history because of its location. You can see the Patagonia Mountains to the southeeast from here as well.
You walk about 1/4 mile to where the old Guevavi Mission melting ruins are and on the way, the Ranger spoke to us about what was here and of course, is no longer. It would have been nice if he would, at least, had a picture of what the Mission looked like back in the day. But have no fear, I included the Park Service movie in my video and you can see what it was like before it started melting back into the dirt.
The Santa Cruz Valley was an incredible place back in the day as was the Guevavi Ranch which we pass through on our way. It is now leased out to ranchers as the Ranch is owned by the city of Nogales. You pass by the Guevavi Ranch Gate House area that is also slowly deteriorating. The ruins consist of the main house, a bunkhouse and the gate house.
After we headed to Mission Tumacácori where I continued to enjoy great views of the Santa Rita Mountains. I've been to Tumacacori before when I did the SMRC Mission Tour to Caborca, Mexico in Nov 2018. This time we walked around the Courtyard Garden before headng over to the Kee and Storage Room and Church. I took advantage of the short National Park Service audios from their website https://www.nps.gov/tuma/index.htm and added them to my pictures and movies so that worked out really well. The NPS did a great job with this particular historic park website.
On our drive back to Tucson, the sun was lighting up Elephant's Head below the Santa Rita Mountains. I forgot to mention that on the way down we drove by some interesting views as well; I labeled as much as I could in the Part 1 video. As usual, I added as much info as possible and thus why it takes me so long to put them together.
Mission Garden and San Xavier del Bac [ youtube video ] including drive
Guevavi Mission Ruins [ youtube video ] including ranch grounds and drive
Tumacacori Mission [ youtube video ] including drive
If you want some more info on the Missions of this area https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/pd ... 23-no2.pdf provides some great pictures and details.
My 3-day SMRC tour in 2018 [ photoset ] |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
. However, the margarita was good. The tour pays for the lunch. You always eat and drink and snack well on these tours. After lunch we traveled to the ruins of Mission Guevavi, where Park Ranger Rick Collins talked to us. You can only access these ruins via the Park Service. We checked out the area above the now dry Santa Cruz river. It is quite the area and has a lot of history because of its location. You can see the Patagonia Mountains to the southeeast from here as well. 