Park 189 San Antonio Missions National Park, San Antonio Texas

Date of visit:  Sunday, March 4, 2012

Drove up to San Antonio today from Corpus Christi, about a two hour drive- 
There are four locations to this park, one of them was closed. 

They also count the Alamo as a part of the park, even though it doesn't officially count. I started at Mission San Jose, which is the main visitors center, and saw a 24 minute movie-  then, I was told that the ranger at Misson Conception was going to be out to lunch from 12-1.  I went there next anyway, and actually watched an actual Mass being held in the church, complete with mariachi players singing beautiful music.  I waited until 1:30 for the Ranger to show up, then said the heck with it and headed down to Mission Espada, since I was told that the Visitors Center for Mission San Juan was closed, but I could get the stamp for there at Espada.  I also tried to get 4 stamps for the Rio Grande de los Tejas trail, but only got one of them, as two of them were "broken" and San Juan was closed.  Wound up getting a total of 8 stamps, including 4 bonus stamps, and got a pin and a hiking medallion also.

Even though I had been to San Antonio probably 20 times before when I was in retail, I never before visited these sites-  Very impressive.  This essentially is a continuation of the El Camino Real Story, the story of the Spanish Mission influence in the great Southwest-  California has the 21 missions, and these were part of the South Texas Story.  Today also happened to be the best weather day we've had on the trip so far.  Temps today were 73- no wind, no humidity-  just a perfect day!!!