The rolling valleys around Lompoc are famed for their production of flower seeds, and consequently the fields along Hwy-1 are often ablaze in brilliant colors. Apart from colorful murals adorning downtown buildings, Lompoc as a town is not up to much, despite the unusual nature of the area’s two main nonagricultural employers. One is a minimum-security federal prison; the other is Vandenburg Air Force Base, site of numerous missile tests, the aborted West Coast space shuttle port, and the $60 billion “Son of Star Wars” National Missile Defense program.
With its long arcade reaching across the floor of a shallow, grassy valley, Mission La Purisima (daily; $4 per car; 805/733-3713) gives a strong first impression of what the missions may have looked like in their prime. Four miles northeast of Lompoc, between Hwy-1 and US-101 on Hwy-246, the mission here was originally built in 1812 but fell to ruin before being totally reconstructed as part of a WPA make-work scheme in the New Deal 1930s. During the restoration, workers used period techniques wherever possible, hewing logs with hand tools and stomping mud and straw with their bare feet to mix it for adobe bricks. Workers also built most of the mission-style furniture that fills the chapel and the other rooms in the complex. Also here: a functioning aqueduct, many miles of hiking trails, and a small museum.
