What is the difference between the expedition route and the national trail?
The expedition route is the corridor that Anza followed to recruit and lead settlers to Alta California, select sites for the presidio and missions at San Francisco Bay, and explore the East Bay of San Francisco. It begins in Culiacán, Mexico and could be said to begin in Mexico City, where Anza, a string of pack mules with supplies, and undoubtedly several of the muleteers who went to California, started. The 1200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail commemorates that expedition route in the United States, beginning in Nogales, Arizona. It does not include all the places Anza went on his journey. It provides opportunities for visitors to experience landscapes similar to those the expedition encountered and to visit sites associated with the expedition, its members and descendants, and the American Indians who allowed the expedition passage and are here today. The Trail was designated a national historic trail by the U.S. Congress in 1990. There is an auto tour route mark
