We wanted to get an early start, so instead of visiting Cora’s Cafe again, we tried breakfast at the hotel. Well, that was a miss … unless you like soggy prepackaged danishes and mealy apples. The coffee was like brown dishwater. We ended up eating one of our own bananas from the grocery store (no sloth included). Then we headed south toward Tumacacori. I-19 is lined with cactus and other trees and the coolest of all are the bright purple prickly pears with yellow flowers!
We had no idea what to expect but our plan was to check out the mission at the historical site and then hike part of the Anza Trail. The Western National Parks Assn right now is offering pins for competing certain hiking challenges. The one at Tumacacori is to hike at least 4 miles, proof is a photo of yourself at the Adobe structure halfway up the trail to the neighboring oak to the north, Tubac Presidio. Sounds straightforward enough!
Before we even entered the park we took a quick look for an NGS bench mark near the parking lot. Supposedly it was found in 2010 and 2011, but now the area is covered with compacted gravel and we had no way to dig through. Rich did spot an Arizona Highway Department bench mark right near the entrance to the visitor center, so I documented that one.
The mission was so much more than we had expected. We started with a little tour of the garden and then watched the short video about the creation of the mission in this area, beginning with the arrival of the Black Robes (Jesuits) and subsequent gray robes (Franciscans). Wandering outside we viewed the church from a distance, planning to go inside once the hordes of schoolchildren were gone. Many outbuildings to investigate, and we even found an NPS benchmark in the dirt lawn in front of the church. We thought st first that the ants we see the we’re fire ants so we avoided the area but they were also on the sidewalk and didn’t seem aggressive so later we got brave and documented the benchmark. No bites! We saw a roadrunner here, dove into the cactus and then up onto the Adobe wall.
After checking out the church (so cool! - remember how they admitted that the darkness, symbols, etc were to establish the church as a sacred place of mystery that only the converted could understand) we headed toward the trail.
First part was dark and atmospheric, gentle floral scent in the air. Reminded me of a Florida trail! Trail is mostly level and winds through many different environments. We saw some orange-red birds that led like Cardinals but are a different color from ours. There are several stream crossings of the Santa Cruz river which is basically just a little creek now. We eventually checked the gps and could see we were about halfway or a little more but had not seen any adobe structures. We kept going thinking that supposedly we can’t miss it, so we must not have gone far enough yet. And we kept going and going! Soon it was clear we were far more than halfway. Some bird watchers appeared before us on the trail. They confirmed the cardinal sighting and said they had never seen an Adobe structure along the way. All they had seen were some benches just a “little way up the trail.” Rich needed to tend to a growing blister on his fit so a bench sounded great. Needless to say we never found the bench, and we went more than a “little way.” We did find two nice wooden chairs in front of a private residence so we stopped there for a little rest, and made that our turnaround point as well.
Along the way back we ran into three women hiking who actually knew about the adobe structure! They told us it was about a mile back and was visible but behind overgrowth. We continued on and eventually YES there it was! It was easy to see going southbound but not northbound since in that direction it’s heavily overgrown and a fence partially surrounds it, making it look lie private property. But we had found it!
Back at the visitor center we claimed our pins for doing the hike and bought some goodies like a roadrunner hat for dad, desert-themed socks for me, and prickly pear licorice and a prickly pear flavored energy bar.
Somewhere along the trail Rich mentioned that he had heard of a local brewery that made a prickly pear beer. I was really intrigued and asked if they had food. He didn’t know but at this point or desire for a brewpub dinner was born.
On the way back from the park I did some searching and found that most of the breweries in Tucson, including Borderlands, the one with the prickly pear beer, don’t serve food! Bummer! Some more searching led me to Barrio which had great reviews for both beer and food. We had to try it—and it was a great find!
It’s an old (barely) converted warehouse that we eventually decided to call retro-industro-grunge style, or something like that. We sat outside, which is the easy choice for quieter dining. Inside was a nice open bar/pub feeling, dark with Christmas lights and TVs and much louder than the patio. It also seemed to be popular with larger groups. We started with beer, of course. Rich had the Copperhead ale and I had the Citrazona, a citrus IPA that is a replacement for their Rae’s Ruby Red IPA, my original choice that’s currently unavailable. The food was fantastic! Rich had a cheeseburger with raw onion (“a nice thick slice of raw onion. Got it?”) and fries with no salt. I had the pub fried fish tacos with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and habanero cream sauce. Fish was awesome flaky cod with perfectly crispy coating. It was served with whole pinto beans and a nice Chipotle salsa. All that for $28! We were pretty shocked how cheap it was, actually. A quick trip to Walmart for a few supplies rounded out the evening. Note: they don’t sell cactuses in this Walmart but they do sell African violets. Makes sense I guess! I had to restrain myself from taking a cutting from one of the purple prickly pears in the parking lot.