Mission San Luis Obispo, California

The mission in San Luis Obispo is named after Saint Louis, the bishop of Toulouse, France. It was founded by Junipero Serra on September 1, 1772, the fifth of the twenty-one California missions. Serra chose the area for a clean creek running nearby and for the friendly natives, the Chumash people. The Spaniards called the area La Canada de los Osos, in English "Valley of the Bears." The valley was pockmarked with small holes where the grizzlies would dig up roots to eat. In 1772, the other four missions were facing starvation, so Serra sent some people to hunt the bears for meat. They managed to collect nine thousand pounds of meat (salted or smoked to preserve it). They also traded meat with the Chumash for edible seeds. The mission flourished until secularization in the mid-1830s. The mission property still functioned as a church, but the other parts of the mission were converted to a school, a jail, and a courthouse. The mission was restored in the 1930s and still serves as a parish church in downtown San Luis Obispo. 

The exterior has the bright whiteness of many missions with the bells built into the main body of the church (no separate bell tower).

Mission San Luis Obispo

The back entrance

The museum has a room dedicated to Chumash history and culture.

Display on native culture

We were amazed to see that some of the ceiling tiles were used for art projects, painting images like the mission on the insides. 

Pictures of the priests and items made from the mission

Music played a big part in the mission and some books and instruments are on display.

Music from the mission

Mural of the Chumash lifestyle

After secularization, immigrants moved in. Some of their clothing and items are on display.

A different sort of residents

A lot of artifacts from the church are on display or recreated in the museum.

Recreation of the altar

Triptych

The missionaries taught many crafts that they plied themselves.

Various work items

Dining room

Original doors of the mission

The church follows the usual style, with a long nave and an altar, though here the saintly bishop is on a side, not in the center above the altar.

Main altar

Ceiling

Bishop on the side

View down the name from the altar

Stations of the cross

Outside are some fun decorations.

Guidance to get to the next missions

State bear in the fountain

An old-west style house

The mission is in the heart of downtown, so it is easy to get to. We arrived early and spent some time in the local library a few blocks away.

Mission San Miguel, California

Old Mission San Miguel Archangel was founded on July 25, 1797, by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen as the sixteenth of the twenty-one missions. In 1806, a fire destroyed most of the buildings and the mission was rebuilt from 1816 to 1818. In 1834, the Mexican government secularized the mission, turning it over to William Reed. The Reed family moved in but were massacred two years later by bandits. After that, the buildings were converted to commercial use (a hotel, a saloon, shops). In 1859, the U.S. Government under President James Buchanan returned to property to the Catholic Church. It was slowly restored though it retains its 1818 appearance.

Like other missions we visited, it is a functioning parish and also a historical landmark. The entrance to the museum is suitably dramatic and evocative.

Entrance to Mission San Miguel Archangel

The museum covers the culture of the indigenous Salinan people.

Salinan exhibit

Recreated settlement

Songs from the Salinans

Many original parts of the mission survive and are displayed in the museum, including this piece of the original cross establishing the mission.

The true (mission) cross

Recreated mission

Also like the other missions, the Franciscans worked hard, teaching (often by example) the trades they knew like farming, candle-making, metallurgy, and even wine-making.

Making candles from animal fat

The monastery's original wine vat

The courtyard of the mission was used as a garden and a pasture. A sheepgate allowed in the adorable animals, typically for shearing. 

Sheepgate

The museum leads through a lot of the practical rooms of the mission, including the kitchen, dining room, and bedroom.

A small oven

More of the kitchen

Shelves in the dining room (the picture of the table didn't come out!)

Bedroom

Gray robes in vogue at the mission

Several liturgical artifacts survive.

Hymn book

Statue of Saint Michael

The courtyard has a garden, large fountain, and some statuary that came later in the mission's history.

Olive tree

Fountain

Statue of Junipero Serra, the founder of the missions

The heart of the mission is the church which is in a corner of the courtyard. 

The mission church

The original painted walls from 1818 are extant. They were painted by Esteban Munras with help from Salinan neophytes. The size is amazing: 144 feet long, 27 feet wide, and 40 feet tall.

Nave

Main altar

All-seeing eye of God over the altar

Pulpit for preaching

The sanctuary includes several statues including the Sacred Heart, a Madonna and Child (where the Mother of God looks like a Salinan), and Saint Joseph.

Sacred Heart (which was the feast day we happened to visit)

Madonna and child

Saint Joseph altar with original wall painting

12th Station--Jesus dies on the cross

The cemetery has many people, including over 2000 Native Americans.

Cemetery

Pinnacles National Park, California

We visited Pinnacles National Park in California on our way south from San Francisco. The Pinnacles are the remains of an ancient volcano that was split as the Pacific Plate moved north along the San Andreas fault. The rest of the volcano is 195 miles southeast, the Neenach Formation, near Los Angeles. The Neenach Formation has had a lot more weathering, reducing it to rolling hillsides with occasional outcroppings. The Pinnacles Formation is very dramatic, almost an otherworldly landscape that has been visited over the centuries.

We found the landscape amazing, with stark vistas of rough-shaped rocks all over. In late June, all the creek beds were dry, so we did not have to make any difficult crossings. The many spires and outcroppings have created hazardous trails, with fallen boulders creating caves out of slot canyons. So much fun to explore!

Pinnacles in the distance

A jutting rock

The ranger warned us about an active beehive on the trail we chose. We saw the sign and were surprised to see that the bees had their home up high in a tree. We felt fairly safe walking under the branch that must have been twenty feet up. We saw a small cloud of bees and heard their buzzing.

Avoiding engaging with nature

The bees did not come out in the picture

Walking further down the trail

Walking in the heat

Some of the fallen rocks look like they are ready for more movement or would provide locations for a fantastically hard game of hide and seek.

Not allowed to explore over there

Not wanting her picture taken

How do trees grow in such a harsh environment?

Crossing a dry creek

We spotted a few geckos and squirrels, including the one in the picture below.

Good camouflage, eh?

The big feature here is a cave scramble that we did not do since one of us had an injury and at least one other person was very reluctant to do rock scrambling in the pitch dark.

Gateway to the cave

Cutting through the cutout

A little bit of railing to keep us on the right path

Sunshine trying to make it through the tumbled down rocks

Another surprising tree

Tight rock formation

Blocking the path...almost

We got close to the entrance but then lost the trail. We backtracked to the car, which always goes much faster (or at least seems to).

Following a riverbed

Not well-camouflaged squirrel

Last view of the rocks

We did feel like Star Trek (the original series) must have filmed in this area. I expected a Gorn to pop up at any moment for a fight.