la purisima state historical park

By all means take the tour with excellent docents at 1pm. But be sure to leave time ahead of and behind the tour to see the whole place. The small museum is a good starting point. Outdoor tule Chumash village is fine and the animals are pretty neat. Bring carrots to feed them. We spent four hours here and didn't see it all. The gift shop is cool and reasonably priced.

Very well worth the visit. This is one of California's pristine missions to visit. Hiking is great and the grounds are beautiful. Do the park a favor and pay to park in the lot instead of being a local and parking on Mission Gate Road and walking in. They could use the donation.

Wow! what a beautiful, fun and educational mission to visit. We've visited several missions in California,m San Juan Capistrano, Santa barbara and San Gabriel to name a few but none share the details and interesting info on the "way of life" back in the day. Really enjoyed the visit and will come again. There was also some great info on the California Conservation Corps that helped restore the mission back in the 30's.

I feel that this attraction is worth the time to take in. Set in the hills around Lompoc, it is beautiful!

La Purisima State Park is a beautiful place to spend the day. There is so much to see at this mission. Many buildings, fountains, animals and great information center with great history about the mission. The setting is very peaceful and educational. Many trails surround the mission that are worth exploring where you may see wildlife, deer, bunny, coyote or even bobcat. .If your are looking for a truly beautiful place to spend the day relaxing, exploring, hiking and see nature at it's best then come visit the mission. There are even great places to have a picnic lunch. Don't forget to bring some carrots for the horses too! Lived here most my life and this place is a Jewel!

many buildings... Many more than other missions. So much quieter and educational than others. You can really get the feeling of what life on the mission was years ago. There are animals and many buildings, not just the chapel but the blacksmith, pottery barn, dormitories, etc. the herb garden and fountains are nice to see too!

La Purisima is a wonderful state park - great for families, hikers, runners, nature enthusiasts. Fee for parking, check out mission days for re-enactments of mission life,

the Mission was abandoned and fell into disrepair around the turn of last century, so what is there today was rebuilt during the '30s; unfortunately, only the foundations and a few sections of the walls (typically near the base) seem to be original. It is an excellent reconstructions job, but it is nevertheless a reconstruction, not an original.Most of the artifacts are period-appropriate but donated by outside agencies.This is the only California Mission which is not an active church, inasmuch it is owned by the state. It sits inside a State Park and the admission fee is for the whole park. After (or before) visiting the buildings, it is definitively worth spending another hour (or more) wandering the trails and taking-in the countryside.Included in the admission is the docent-led tour. It is interesting but very slow-paced. The main reason to suffer through the tour is the opportunity to actually get inside the Mission. Without an escort to unlock the gates, you are otherwise limited to peek at the room from the thresholds. I would recommend a visit.

My family and I visited the La Purisima Mission for my child's 4th grade mission project and thought they they did a great job of restoring this mission.The mission is located very close to the city of Lompoc, near the Santa Barbara area.There is a $6 parking fee, but no cost to tour the expansive mission area and buildings.The building have been restored beautifully, and lots of signage explain what the rooms/buildings were use for during the period with the mission was running.There are also lots of animals; a longhorn bull, pigs, turkeys, horses, donkeys, and other live stock.All of the staff we spoke with were very nice, informative and professional.They have a small, but well stocked gift shop and an education center.If in the area or doing a project on missions, I would definitely visit this mission again.

We went to the mission because it was close to several wineries where we planned to do tastings. It was a beautiful and rustic mission...much different from the one in Santa Barbara. You can tour it by yourself and at your own speed. There is some walking involved but it was a worthwhile trip.

This was our second time there and it has really changed -- really nice museum and visitor center which adds to experience. We wandered around the grounds and the restored buildings and could have spent more time there. This would be a good place for a picnic as well. Next time we will plan for a longer visit.

Every few years for the last forty years we try to make a stop at La Purisima Mission in Lompoc California. On each new visit we see that the California State Park system has made great strides since our previous stop. Now there is a new interpretive center which clearly had a lot of thought go into it. It does a good job of covering native Americans of the region, life under the Spanish missionaries, California/Mexico land grant system and the ultimate recovery of the mission by the CCC. Great presentation! Well worth the stop and do take time to enjoy Lompoc, a very active community.

The docent tours are well-worth scheduling your trip for. They start at 1PM at the museum and can be joined or left at any time. Generally these take about 90 minutes, and include ringing the original bells made in Lima 200 years ago. Each docent focusses on different characteristics so you could literally learn about five totally disparate aspects of this mission and the system in general if you showed up over multiple days (If your fourth grader can take it and you are staying in the area for this purpose, catching a couple of these would basically write the project). Purisima is the only mission owed by the state rather than the Church, so it has less of a religious character to it, though once a year Mass is held in the church… December 7. Not many people come through here in comparison to Capistrano, Santa Barbara, SLO, etc., and so you have the grounds to yourself most of time. These include not only the church and bell tower, but a replica Chumash village (some interesting politics involved in that… ask them), gardens, livestock, farm, original aqueducts that brought water onto the grounds, and an actual stretch of the Camino Real running along the front of the main mission structures. The superhighway of late 18th and early 19th century California! There is also an excellent, modern museum that goes through the history and culture of the pre-colonial era through restoration in the 20th century. You only have to pay for parking, which is about $5. The docent-led walk is free as is access to the mission grounds itself. For $1 you can purchase a guide map and do it on your own. A nice thing about this mission is that it could be a sweet little 30 minute side trip or a bigger 3 hour experience. There are also hiking trails on grounds. This is the second of the Purisima missions, as the first was destroyed in an earthquake, the ruins of which can be found at the end of F Street in Lompoc. This newer version dates from the early 19th century and was designed specifically to withstand earthquake destruction and loss of life, and therefore is completely different from the architectural design of the other missions (It is long and linear rather than build around a courtyard). Try Floriano's Mexican restaurant in Lompoc afterwards to reward yourself.

We made a quick run through. It was almost closing time so we just walked around the grounds. It's beautiful and we'll preserved. There were signs pointing out things and describing points of interest. Other than the restrooms, we didn't go inside but it looks like a nice place for a day trip, especially with kids. The outdoor areas are dog friendly which was a big help to us. They charge $6 to get into the parking lot by car. We were feeling cheap and knew we'd only be there a short time so we parked across the street and walked.

This is by far one of my favorite missions though I haven't been to all of them just yet. There's a $5 fee for parking since it's a state park. The grounds are very well preserved and you feel like you've stepped back in time. The restoration brings to life the rich history of the mission, the location, and life back in those days. Make sure allow time to go though each room as there's so much detail put into restoring this place. We also enjoyed visiting the animals especially the horses and the burros. They were very friendly. Also, don't forget to visit the gift shop. The volunteer staff was very friendly and we picked up some great souvenirs from our visit. Would definitely visit again!