The Mission Trail, South of El Paso, Texas.

The Mission Trail is south of El Paso, Texas. Three wonderful missions to enjoy.

At one of the intersections there were these wonderful tile murals representing the 3 missions.
The problem was they were at a very busy intersection so I tried but could not get the whole mural in one shot. There was no place to pull over, so this is all I got :(....

Mission Socorro Established in 1682 home of the Piro and Manso Indians, and also the Spanish settlers. This Mission was flooded by the Rio Grande River twice.

This plaque explains the history, and how this mission was constructed.

Official State of Texas Historical Marker.

This is the Mission, out of the three this one is the most decorative one.

The church had a simple altar, until you look around and notice the wood, how beautiful are the carved beams.

I just love the carved beams, notice the smaller logs going crosswise on the ceiling of the church. I asked what type of wood did they use, and I was told it was Cottonwood trees.

The Statue of St. Michael. Legend has it in 1845 this Statue was being transported by oxcart from Mexico City to Santa Fe but the oxcart became stuck in the mud. The parishioners took this as a sign that the statue of St. Michael wanted to be in Socorro, and from that time has been their patron Saint.

I am not sure who this statue represents, but it was very interesting, very old, not sure what the halo with the cheribs represents....I assume this could be the Blessed Mother..

On Holy Saturday they will carry this coffin of Christ thru the streets of the town, it is always in the church for everyone to remember the life and death of Christ.

On the ceiling above the altar you can see the painted beams, can you imagine how colorful they were when they were first painted.

These are the lamps in the church, representing the mission.

If you are a resident of Texas you can get a specialty license plate designed by artist Reyes Mata III, depicts a Tigua Eagle Dancer in front of the Missions. It cost $30 and $22 of that goes directly to support the Socorro mission restoration, which is the earliest spanish mission founded in the American Southwest.

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Mission Yslera del Sur

Thru the break in the wall you can see the mission's dome in the background.

This mission was built in 1682 by the Tigua Indians.

This is the front of the mission, quite a different style.

The altar inside the church, the statue were covered because of Lent.

This is a statue of Mary of Guadalupe notice how ornate this is.

This was a shrine outside of the church.

This was the yard between the Church and the outside wall, I assume they would gather here during festivals, it was nice and shady under the wooden ceiling.

They also had an adobe oven, I can smell the bread now, can you?

We walked around the mission so we could see this painting at the intersection near the church it is of Mary of Guadalupe.
When we visited the gift shop the women said we had to see it, she said when she passes by it each day the eyes seem to follow her..

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Mission of San Elizario

The Official Plaque for the mission.

And here it is, I love the bells, wish I could have heard them ring!

A beautiful mission on the outside.

But once you go in you realize how much work is needed here, serious water damage on the walls. I do hope they can save this building.

This is a statue of Mary of Guadalupe, simple but beautiful.

Wonderful iron benches to sit on.

This is the court yard in front of the mission. Notice the benches.

This is the visitors center, and museum, notice the shade porch on this building.

It was made with rows of small branches, cris crossed and then plastered on the top.

This shows what the building looked like inside, this room is original, I just love seeing the open beams, look at the beautiful patina the wood has.


The first Thanksgiving was here in 1598, a bit earlier than Columbus in Plymouth, Ma.

This building faces the mission with a wonderful court yard in between.

This building is new, was built for live dinner theator, but it failed...They had hoped it would help tourism, but I guess they just didn't have the local support either.

We decided to walk around the town a bit, another wonderful mural that someone painted.

El Molino a grist mill used during the eighteenth century, for grinding corn or wheat meal.

And here it is!

I just love taking pictures thru ornate gates...

This is one of the oldest homes in the area. Notice how they created shade for the house, all made out of different sizes of wood surrounded by catus, no grass here to mow!