Yellow building with cream arched doorway and brown door with brick walkway and garden in front, national park shield on outside wall, labeled Tumacácori National Historical Park

Tumacácori National Historical Park (Weekend Coffee Share #5)

September 11, 2021 /

Happy Saturday morning! Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share! Grab your drink of choice, pull up a chair, and let’s talk.

It looks like monsoon season is over here in Tucson. It’s supposed to be sunny and 103F today and triple-digits all week. But I promise I won’t spend this post complaining about the heat like I did last week. It’s hot in Arizona. We know. Instead, let’s pay a visit to a small but fascinating national park site less than an hour south of Tucson: Tumacácori National Historical Park, which includes the ruins of three missions from the Spanish colonial era. The site also does a good job of honoring and representing the O’odham people, who were in the area long before the Spanish showed up and took over.

We visited Tumacácori last Sunday and had a blast taking pictures. It’s quite a photogenic place! Before we get to the photos, though, I have a bit of news to share:

  • I’m still waiting for the Storyteller Series episode featuring my story. Should be any day now (she said impatiently… while reloading the page every 5.3 minutes)
  • I learned earlier this week that my second novel, Delta Dawn, is a finalist in the Arizona Authors Association annual literary contest! I’ll learn how I placed at the awards banquet on November 6 (if the banquet happens. Damn Microbe that Must not be Named.)

OK, back to Tumacácori. Let’s start with the garden in front of the Visitor Center, and its flamboyant stars, the monarch butterflies. Dontcha just love the photobombing spider in the last pic? I can just picture it cackling to itself, “I’ll get you, my pretties…”

The Visitor Center has a courtyard garden that’s just lovely:

The next stop on our little tour is the church. It’s not in the best of shape, and much of the original artwork has worn away or been vandalized, but it’s still an impressive structure. It dates from 1800-1820 (older structures are closed to the public).

Behind and beside the church are the grounds, which include a mortuary chapel and cemetery. I had fun taking black and white photos there with the noir setting on my iPhone. The high contrast monochrome created some interesting effects.
And finally, here are a two pics of the same areas in color:

So, how about y’all? What’s new in your world? What are you doing this weekend? Let’s chat!

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