Within the practically seven years since launching this collection, I’ve written about greater than 70 trails and parks inside a day’s drive of San Antonio. Whereas all of them have been price visiting, a couple of really stand out.
San Antonio’s path community has exploded since my first publish on April 2018 on the Medina River Pure Space, a chunk of open house on the South Aspect that gives mountaineering, biking, paddling and tenting. On the time, the greenway path that started on the car parking zone prolonged about 7 miles east earlier than stopping close to the south financial institution of the Medina River.
Since then, the greenway path community has grown by one other 7 miles, plus a 4-mile connector attaching it to the Mission Attain. Plus, the enlargement of the West Aspect Creeks greenway system has linked the Mission Attain to neighborhoods west of downtown.
These path expansions imply I can trip practically 30 miles from my home close to Woodlawn Lake to Medina River Pure Space nearly completely on concrete, off-street trails. Seven years in the past, I might by no means have dreamed that may be potential so quickly.
The Trailist has chronicled a number of adventures outdoors of San Antonio, akin to Colorado Bend State Park, the Llano River close to Junction and the Colorado River close to Bastrop. Nonetheless, I’ve labored laborious to set shoe, tire, or paddle to each scrap of path in Bexar County. That’s been a problem, because the variety of path miles had expanded considerably.
Other than the greenway enlargement, new parks have proliferated throughout Bexar County — the San Antonio River Authority’s Trueheart Ranch and Hendrick Arnold Nature Park and town’s Classen-Stuebing Park, to call a couple of.
All of that is crucial to a rising metropolis and county the place the general public more and more requires out of doors entry. Getting outdoors and being in nature is a primary human want, one which San Antonio’s longtime residents deserve and newcomers count on. Our native governments have prioritized including extra trails and public areas, and it’s as much as us to proceed stewarding these assets whereas pushing for extra.
One factor I hope Trailist readers have come to understand is Bexar County’s biodiversity — the delicate great thing about our softly shifting mosaic of landscapes. We don’t have any Grand Canyons or Yosemites right here, however in the event you had been take a couple of sq. miles of Bexar County and depend each plant and animal in that swath, you’d discover an unimaginable number of species. We dwell at cultural and organic crossroads of North America’s north and south, east and west, and I hope individuals can be taught to see and cherish this net of life we have now in our collective yard.
All that to say, the month-to-month Trailist function that I’ve been writing since I used to be a full-time reporter on the San Antonio Report has reached a stopping level.
Now that I’ve traversed a lot of the county’s path community, it’s your flip. You’ll be able to discover the entire previous Trailist articles — and see them in map type — right here.
Listed here are the highest Trailist posts that convey what’s particular about San Antonio and its environment. They don’t all signify essentially the most adventurous journeys, however they finest convey what readers can discover in the event that they’re prepared to discover.
(Be aware: With a current spate of violent crimes on the greenway path community, keep away from going alone, if potential. Additionally, let somebody know precisely the place you’re going, while you plan to return, and think about using your system to share your location with a cherished one).
1. Driving a 62-mile loop on San Antonio’s Salado and Leon creek greenways
This loop I name the Northern Crescent showcases the perfect of San Antonio’s long-established Salado and Leon creek greenways, which in October 2021 had been joined at Eisenhower Park on the North Aspect.
Seeing this a lot of town multi functional go makes me recognize how the dominant timber and crops shift. From Brackenridge Park, the route begins on roads that climb by means of the Broadway hall and previous Fort Sam Houston, the place it connects with the Salado Creek Greenway on Rittiman Highway.
The greenway part begins with the luxurious and forested areas alongside Saldo Creek, previous the boardwalk over wetlands close to Nacogdoches Highway, by means of open areas close to McAllister Park, and beginning to creep into rockier Hill Nation terrain north of Phil Hardberger Park.
The winding descent from Eisenhower Park previous the Rim takes that ecological journey in reverse, although all of Leon Creek is rockier and extra desert-like than Salado Creek. The journey ends within the closely urbanized panorama of the West Aspect Creeks and the Mission Attain, which returns you to downtown.
Presently, stitching this collectively as a loop requires about 15 miles of on-street using. Essentially the most harmful half extends from the Ingram Transit Heart alongside Ingram Highway beneath Loop 410 and thru a hilly industrial and residential space that’s not too bike-friendly.
However with plans to attach the West Aspect Creeks to the Leon Creek Greenway and Salado Creek to the Mission Attain, a time will come within the not-too-distant future the place I can trip some model of this loop all on greenway trails.
2. The higher Medina River in early fall will take your breath away
The day I spent alone on the higher Medina River in September 2018 is etched in my reminiscence as one of the crucial elegant out of doors experiences I’d ever had.
A number of comparatively wet years had left the river flowing with crystal clear water, and paddling alongside it felt like being held aloft on a present of flowing glass. I may see each plant, rock, fish and turtle beneath me.
I went on a weekday and noticed nobody all day and spent the 15-mile stretch listening solely to cicadas and the sound of the water flowing throughout limestone. On a day like this, there is no such thing as a higher place to be than a Hill Nation river.
The move that day was 300 cubic toes per second, an ideal stage to push me downstream over 6 and a half hours whereas creating some enjoyable mini-waterfall and riffles to splash me however not tip me over. I made the journey on my previous inflatable kayak, compact sufficient to pack on the again of my bike and trip again to my automobile.
That kayak is lengthy gone, with a leak sprung on a paddling journey again residence in Colorado, and the river hasn’t flowed constantly at that stage in years. I checked the gauge on Thursday and located the move at somewhat over 4 cubic toes per second, the place the move has been parked for many of the previous three years of drought. If we ever get some constant rain once more, you’ll know the place to search out me.
3. Medina River Greenway extends 17 miles by means of rural South Aspect
Susceptible to placing an excessive amount of Medina River on this checklist, the Medina River Greenway south of San Antonio deserves a point out right here. That’s as a result of it provides a connection from the Mission Attain to many of the finest out of doors areas the South Aspect has to supply.
A 4-mile connector path to the Mission Attain accomplished in 2020 passes by Cassin Lake, a big waterbody for the world. It then passes by TJ Maxx’s distribution warehouse earlier than ending at a crosswalk throughout Freeway 281. That is the worst a part of the greenway, because it’s only a sidewalk alongside Del Lago Parkway after which Membership Home Drive earlier than the path really begins on the trailhead at Mission Del Lago Golf Course.
From there, the path cuts by means of the course itself (be careful for flying balls) and previous a couple of neighborhoods on its method to Mitchell Lake. The previous sewage dump turned hen sanctuary is price a go to by itself, although guests will see loads of avian life from the path.
The path then crosses Pleasanton Highway and turns into really rural, departing from all close by roads because it twists and turns alongside the Medina River. Put together for a number of steep switchbacks, although you received’t see practically as many individuals as alongside the Salado and Leon creek greenways. The habitat ranges from river-side forests to prairies to South Texas brush nation, with lookouts on the tall, sandy embankments over the river. From Pleasanton Highway, it continues about 10 miles to the car parking zone of Medina River Pure Space on Palo Alto Highway.
I like this greenway as a result of it permits for lengthy rides by means of unspoiled surroundings with no crowds, with sufficient shade to make it accessible throughout summer season months.
4. Lose your self on Leon Creek’s mountain bike trails
I began mountain biking in San Antonio at McAllister Park, however Leon Creek Greenway provides the perfect path using within the metropolis.
The paths listed below are various and intensive, and within the near-decade I’ve lived right here I nonetheless don’t suppose I’ve seen all of them. I additionally nonetheless get misplaced nearly each time I trip right here, a testomony to what number of mini-loops and cut-through exist right here.
I sometimes begin my rides at O.P. Schnabel Park, which has its personal offroad path community, earlier than dropping into the greenway from the bluffs overlooking the terrain. Extra adventurous downhill riders take some harmful drops into the greenway, although I sometimes follow the simpler route on the southeast fringe of O.P. Schnabel.
From there, the paths wind each north and south, although it’s higher to move north. After climbing a small hill, the principle path reaches a small pump observe known as the Monkey Loops, then one other at Oxbow Park. It passes a pond at Buddy Calk Park that by no means appears to expire of water, then begins to department out into an even bigger community on the extra expansive Bamberger Nature Park and Fox Park.
The mountain bike trails branching off the greenway go all the way in which north to Loop 1604, with sufficient path to maintain me all the time coming again for extra.
5. Beacon Hill residents spent years pushing for stormwater channel’s rebirth as a park
The 0.6-mile path community in Beacon Hill, north of downtown, is the shortest path I’ve written about on this collection, however I add it to this checklist as a result of it’s additionally essentially the most inspirational.
The path extends from the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Backyard diagonally by means of the neighborhood to Hildebrand Avenue, slicing by means of streets and empty tons and crossing behind yard fences. It exists due to residents petitioning town to make higher use of a previously ugly stormwater channel.
I spent a day exploring the path with a longtime member of the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Affiliation, which spent years pushing town for funding. I think about what San Antonio seem like if all town’s neighborhoods had these small connections that create public house near individuals’s houses.
Hopefully, the path will someday hook up with the Martinez Creek path beneath Interstate 10, becoming a member of it to the bigger Westside Creeks community. These sorts of visions are making our metropolis higher, one path at a time.
