La Purisima Mission grounds
La Purisima Mission State Historic Park The mission of La Purisima is quite an elaborate set up these days with a giant visitor center full of displays showing what once stood here and details about life, and buildings around the place appointed like they might have been while it was a working mission. We are skipping all of this for the trails around the buildings today. The trails are a wide dirt road and a lot of sandy tracks that are generally named. First, we head up the hill toward the cross. Today, the sand is wet and generally holds together well under our feet as we climb. It is not consistently sand, but quite a lot is, so the little bit of extra firmness is quite nice. A few of the mission buildings and the wide road that goes past them to the grounds further. A large cross on the hillside above. We quickly turn off the wide and solid road to climb the hillside toward the cross. It is a short, steady climb to get to this viewpoint. Halfway up and th...