Tumacacori National Monument

Visiting Tumacacori National Monument | Hiking the Anza Trail from Tubac to Tumacacori | December 2023

For our time in Arizona this month, we obviously wanted to spend time with friends and family around Tucson and revisit some favorite places, but I also had a short list of places that I wanted to visit that we somehow overlooked back when we lived here. Two of those places happened to be national park sites: Coronado National Memorial, and Tumacacori National Monument. And so on one weekday morning, we took a road trip down I-19 to visit Tumacacori.

In some ways, revisiting these areas we used to frequent feels familiar — like being able to recognize mountain ranges and pick out the peaks that we hiked, but in other ways it felt like I was seeing it all again for the first time. Like I didn’t remember how big and wide the mountain ranges extended, or what the neighboring ridges looked like on the other side of the interstate. We were also reminded of how fun it is driving on I-19, where the mile markers are in Kilometers and we get to imagine a simpler world where we all use the metric system.

As we neared Tubac, we exited the interstate and drove to a county park which was a trailhead for the Anza Trail. In order to earn the “I Hike for Health” pin, Curtis needed to hike the 4 miles from Tubac to the Tumacacori Mission, so I offered to let him start and hike South while Charlotte and I drove down and met him there. We arrived at the park and Curtis set off on his hike. I let Charlotte wander around a little at the park and chatted with some other visitors before driving down to Tumacacori.

Curtis: The hike along the Anza trail was simple and scenic. It followed the course of the Santa Cruz upstream for its entirety, and had many cottonwoods and sycamores in peak color with the occasional vista to the West of Tumacacori Peak. The trail itself commemorates the two overland expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza from 1774-1776. After coming up from Sonora, Anza set off from the presidio in Tubac (near where I had started hiking) and crossed the Sonoran and Baja deserts to reach the California coast, going as far North as San Francisco. While there is not a footpath that goes the whole length of the trail, there are many modern roads and auto tours that approximate the original route, and it’s been fun to see more and more signage and historic information be set up since we last lived in Tucson.

After navigating some free range horses, and crossing a ‘river’ on a 2×8, I eventually arrived at Tumacacori. This mission, founded in 1691, was an O’odham community, managed in the Spanish style, with the intention of teaching the O’odham people how to live and farm in European type communities. The church formed the center of the community, with the priest filling the role as spiritual and agricultural leader and the surrounding land was cultivated. As rebellion and raiders occurred, Spanish soldiers were garrisoned at places like the presidio in Tubac. But as governments and religious organization changed, the mission eventually was deserted, and the church (completed in 1820) was abandoned.

Very similar situations existed in the Tucson area as well with the Mission San Xavier del Bac and the Tucson presidio. They were even founded by the same man, Father Eusebio Kino. But whereas Tubac and Tumacacori were abandoned, Tucson and its missions continued to be used, albeit not necessarily as Father Kino had originally intended.

I walked the grounds and through the ruins of the church, impressed at the skill and craftsmanship, even after over 200 years. I then passed through the visitor center, where the Ranger immediately identified that I had walked in and immediately gave me my ‘I Hike for Health’ pin unprompted. 3 down, 3 to go. I met Jess and Charlotte in the parking lot and we swapped places; Char and I napping in the shade of a mesquite tree, Jess touring the grounds.

When Jess returned, we enjoyed a brief lunch and then returned back down the valley to Tucson.