San Juan Capistrano

San Juan Capistrano: Have some sips, watch for swallows

You can’t talk about San Juan Capistrano without talking about the historic Mission and the swallows that return every year. Mission San Juan Capistrano was permanently founded by Junipero Serra on November 1, 1776, as the seventh of 21 missions to be established in California by the Spanish. The bells in the Mission tower ring seven times at 9:00 am each day to commemorate its place as the seventh California mission.

Fun wine fact: Starting in 1779, grapes were grown and fermented into wine by the mission for sacramental use and also for trade. The specific variety of grape, called the Criolla or "Mission grape", was used to produce wine from San Juan Capistrano's winery starting in 1783, and by 1850, Mission grapes represented the entirety of viticulture in the state.

The American cliff swallow is a migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the 6,000-mile trek north to the warmer climes of the American Southwest in springtime. According to legend, the birds, who have visited the San Juan Capistrano area every summer for centuries, first took refuge at the Mission when an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests. The Mission's location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, and the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.

Not-so-fun bird fact: From 2009 to 2017, the cliff swallows did not make their famous annual springtime return to Mission San Juan Capistrano, instead migrating to the Chino Hills, north of Capistrano. The swallows changed their route because the Mission is no longer the tallest building in the area due to urban sprawl, and thus stopped attracting the swallows for nesting. Mission San Juan Capistrano embarked on a program to facilitate the return of the swallows, first by using swallow calls to attract the birds and then by building artificial swallow nests for the birds to use.

As of 2017, the swallows have returned home to Mission San Juan Capistrano and are still celebrated each year at the town's annual Swallows Day Parade and Mercado Street Fair. In 2018, the town celebrated its 80th annual Swallows Day Parade and Fiesta de las Golondrinas (Spanish for Festival of the Swallows). The event holds the title of being the longest-running and largest non-motorized parade west of the Mississippi.

Our walk takes you through Capistrano’s Historic Downtown area, past rustic shops and restaurants, around the Mission itself, and back again. It’s a relatively flat, short walk, with a lot packed into a small area.