Ford is a freelance writer located in San Diego. He can be reached at johnpatrick.ford@sddt.com.

Local wags in Alaska, called “sourdoughs,” like to tell you that cutting the state in two still makes Texas the third-largest. That gives a perspective on how vast this northern wilderness compares to the lower 48.

A strange sensation of history stirred me as I stepped into the original ruts of El Camino Real approaching the mission of San Antonio de Padua in the remote Salinas Valley. The reality swept over me that I was treading in the footsteps of the 18th century Franciscan padres and hundreds of Spanish soldiers and Native Americans who walked from mission to mission along the California coast.