The Mission at Tumacacori

Mission at Tumacacori

About an hour south of San Xavier del Bac (and just south of an immigration checkpoint) is the Mission at Tumacacori, abandoned and crumbling in spots, but otherwise a still beautiful site with several outbuildings surrounding the main mission. The original mission was established in 1691 is now maintained by the National Park Service. There is a small admission fee; it's well worth the cost. One note: there was restoration/repair work being done on one end of the mission and I had to be careful to not include a blue tarp in some of the pictures. Again, I found a polarizer to be helpful for many shots, especially with the blue skies, which were just a bit more saturated with a little effort.

I spent a couple of hours wandering about the mission and took photos of the exteriors of the main mission. Shades of brown are the dominant colors, the adobe being much more subdued than the stark white of San Xavier.  It also had much less traffic; there were only a handful of visitors when I was there. You won't have to worry about sightseers stepping into your frame.

The mission deserves more time than I had to devote. One could easily spend a full day and take interior photos and more abstract images. It's well worth the trip from Tucson and is a unique setting: stark, quiet and beautiful.