Adobe Springs Tour - celebrating Anza

March 4, 2026

ALPS Board Members led a tour of the Adobe Springs property, a five acre preserve with an active spring.  The tour was part of the 250th Anniversary of the Anza Expedition activities put on by the Atascadero Mutual Water Company.

On March 4, 1776 the Anza expedition camped along the Salinas River near the preserve.  It was fitting for us to give a tour of Adobe Springs exactly 250 year to the date!  Although there is no mention of the spring in expedition diaries, the location Asuncion is located directly across from Adobe Springs.  This begs the question, did the Anza expedition drink from this fresh water spring?

From the diary of Juan Bautista de Anza on March 4, 1776:

Monday, March 4 -- At a quarter past nine we set forth from this mission (San Luis Obispo), going northeast for about a league and a half, in the course of which we climbed up a spur of the Sierra de Santa Lucía. Then, having traveled an equal distance or a little more to the north, we passed the site and river of Santa Margarita. This we followed downstream toward the northwest and west-northwest, in which direction it runs, until we came to the site of La Assumpción, where we halted, having made in the whole march about seven leagues (21 miles) in seven and a quarter hours.