Missions,
sand dunes, and superbloom in the San Luis Obispo area, California (March &
April 2023)
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This page shows pictures I took on two
short trips in the San Luis Obispo area, some 320km south of my home at
Stanford, in mid-March and mid-April 2023. It features photos of:
- Three missions, San Antonio de Padua,
San Miguel Arcangel, and San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, which belong to a series of
21 California missions established between 1769 and 1833 by Franciscan friars
along a path ranging from San Diego to Sonoma, to convert Native Americans to
Christianity. (See here
for photos of other California missions that I took on other trips.)
- The surprisingly large, desert-looking
sand-dune area located south of San Luis Obispo, near the small town of Oceano.
- The extraordinary flurry of flowers in
and around the Carrizo National Monument, east of San Luis Obispo.
Mission San Antonio de Padua:
View of the mission with snow-covered
Junipero Serra Peak (1785m), the highest summit in the Santa Lucia Mountains,
in the background.
Left: Brick facade of the mission's
church. Right: Mural in the entrance of the church celebrating a first marriage
at the mission.
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Inside the church: nave and altar.
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Left: Baptistery. Center: Statue above
the baptistery. Right: Wooden statue.
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Fountain in the mission's cloister.
Left: In the covered walkway of the
cloister. Center and Right: Doors in the walkway.
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Paintings and ornaments in the walkway
of the cloister.
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Mission San Miguel Arcangel:
This mission
is located 55 miles north of San Luis Obispo. It was established in July 1797 near the Salinas River in an area also
inhabited by Salinan people. (The ancestral territory of the Salinan consists
of the Santa Lucia Mountains and the southern part of the Salinas River valley.
Today, Salinan work to get federal tribal recognition from the United States.
They call themselves Te'po'ta'ahl, which means ˝People of the Oaks˝.)
Multi-story brick bell tower on the
southern wall of the mission compound. (It was added to the mission in the
1950s.)
Main entrance of the mission.
Another entrance of the mission.
Fountain and arcade made of 12 arches of
slightly different sizes and shapes seen from the entrance of the mission. The
mission's church is partially visible on the right.
Another view of the arcade.
In the covered walkway of the arcade.
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Left: Fountain in the cloister of the
mission. Right: Decorated door in the walkway of the cloister.
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Interior of the mission's church. Note the
numerous Roman-style columns (some real, others painted on the walls) decorated
with blue stripes.
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Left photo: Altar and retable, with San
Miguel (central statue), the Eye of God (above San Miguel), San Francisco de
Asis (statue on the left, with, above it, the Franciscan coat of arms
representing two arms crossing each other over a cross), and San Antonio de
Padua holding the baby Jesus (statue on the right).
Right photo: Portion of a side wall in
the nave. The painted wall is original. The two paintings hanging on the wall
depict the Archangels San Gabriel and San Rafael.
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Left: Close-up of the statue of San
Miguel. Center: Christ. Right: Saint Mary holding Jesus.
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Left: Statue of Saint Joseph. Center and left: Wall pulpit with a wooden relief of
Saint Mary holding Jesus on one of its facets.
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Left: Life-size polychrome wooden statue
of San Miguel conquering the devil, exposed in the mission museum. Right: Bell
wall (called a ˝campanario˝) of the church; it is built in adobe
covered with river rocks.
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Another view of the bell wall, with a
portion of the mission's cemetery on the left.
Images depicting the building of the
mission (left) and a friar teaching music to Salinan (right), exposed in the
museum.
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Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa:
This mission was established in
September 1772. It is located in San Luis Obispo.
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Paintings on the side walls of the nave.
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In the sand
dune ˝desert˝ of Oceano:
This large sand-dune area is located some 15-20km south of San Luis Obispo. These pictures
were taken at the end of an exceptionally wet winter, just a couple of days
after a rainstorm that probably affected the appearance of the dunes, by
creating darker sand patches, unusual shapes of sand patterns, and unexpected
ponds.
Only dunes.
Dunes with some vegetation.
Pond.
Sand patterns
and features.
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Superbloom in and around the Carrizo Plain
National Monument:
After the wet winter of 2023, the
hillsides in and around the Carrizo Plain National Monument (located some 45
miles east of San Luis Obispo) enjoyed an extraordinary
flurry of flowers and were exploding with colors. The views were truly
spectacular.
[Flowers next to deposits
of sulfates and carbonates where water has evaporated, near Soda Lake.]
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