Santa Cruz Mission (Santa Cruz)
Misión la Exaltacion de la Santa Cruz was the 12th mission built in California. It was completed during the 1790s. Damaged by several earthquakes, it collapsed in 1857. A portion of the mission has been restored and makes a fun informative destination. Other attractions in the Santa Cruz area include the Mystery Spot, the Beach Boardwalk, the Santa Cruz Pier, plenty of shops and good food. Santa Cruz is a fantastic trip for the day or a weekend.

San Juan Bautista (San Juan Bautista)
San Juan Batista mission was one of four established by Fr. Lasuen in the summer of 1797 and the fifteenth of the twenty-one missions in Alta, California. It is also the largest of the California missions. It has been beautifully restored and offers a full day of fun and learning. The town around the state park offers shops, and good food. San Juan Batista is the closest mission to Merced.

San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (Carmel)
Carmel mission is a monument to the great missionary of the Cross who left his home and the comforts of a conventional life to travel to a diatant wilderness to preach the Gospel of Christ and to teach California's Native Americans. This man was Padre Junipero Sera of the Order of Franciscan Friars. The mission is located in Carmel. Other attractions to the area include the beaches of Carmel, the 17 mile drive, Point Lobos State Park, and shopping at Carmel By The Sea. Though the tour of the mission may only take a couple hours, it is easy to make a day of the area.

Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Soledad)
Father Lasuen dedicated the site to "the Solitude of Most Holy Mary, Our Lady". It was a dry, windy plain that was very hot in the summer and freezing cold on winter nights. It was through the missionaries irrigation of the Salinas river that the area was transformed to allow the growth of crops and livestock herding by the missionaries.

Santa Clara de Asís (Santa Clara)
The mission of Santa Clara was established on January 12, 1777. To the dismay of the missionaries a large group of colonists arrived from Mexico about six months later. Keeping the mission separate from the Mexican pueblo, The result was the growth of twin cities, Santa Clara and San Jose.

San José (San Jose)
Located at the western approach to the Central Valley, with its many war-like Indians, San José proved at first more strategic militarily than a fertile field for mission endeavor. At the end of the first year there were only 33 new converts, yet success came eventually. By 1830 there were nearly 2,000 Indians at the mission, making it one of the largest in the north.

San Rafael Arcángel (San Rafael)
Originally Mission San Rafael was an outpost chapel of the San Francisco mission. Also, it was known as the first sanitarium in California. For many years the Indians at Dolores had suffered from white man's diseases, aggravated by the damp and foggy climate. It was thought the sunny hillside north of the Golden Gate would be a far more healthful location. Thus the sanitarium was founded on December 14, 1817, and named for Saint Raphael, the angel of bodily healing.

San Francisco de Asís (San Francisco)
In 1782 Father Palóu decided to move the mission to a more favorable site. In 1791 a beautiful new adobe church was dedicated. The Neophytes (Christianized Native Americans) built this church so well that it withstood the famous 1906 earthquake. Spared the earlier destruction of so many other California mission churches, it has been carefully preserved and today is the oldest intact building in San Francisco.

San Francisco Solano (Sonoma)
Discouraged by declining opportunity at Dolores, a zealous young padre founded Mission San Francisco de Solano, at Sonoma, on July 4, 1823, without the knowledge of his superiors. He was encouraged by the governor, who wanted a buffer between the prosperous Bay Area settlements and the Russians, who had advanced down the California coast as far as Fort Ross.