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Thursday, February 19, 2015

The San Antonio River Walk

We've settled in to Travelers World RV Resort in San Antonio, TX for a week. We've got a spacious pull through site and the added benefit of a fellow blogger who lives here at the park: Travel Bug Susan. I've enjoyed reading Susan's stories of things to do around San Antonio for years so it's great to be able to spend some time with her in her "backyard".

One of the key activities here for both tourists and locals is to get out and explore the San Antonio River Walk. This 15 mile long path system has a lot to offer including a vibrant downtown scene with many shopping, eating and drinking opportunities, access to museums and art, gardens and the zoo, quiet sections of river walking for birding and exercise, plus access to several historical missions. In the four days we've been here every day has been spent exploring a different section of the River Walk.

The San Antonio River has been manipulated and abused for decades. In 1929 developers first began to consider cleaning it up and making it a park-like oasis through the city. The latest beautification efforts commenced in 1998 and continue today. San Antonio can be proud of its river now. Even though it will never flow as nature intended, it now provides a beautiful ribbon of park through the center of town and a man-made nature preserve through the edges of town.

The day we arrived, Sunday of Presidents Weekend, we braved the downtown crowds so we could go to the visitor center...which happened to be across the street from The Alamo and close to the bustling downtown portion of the River Walk.

It was impossible to get a shot of the Alamo without lots of people in it!


I didn't even bother to take a photo of the busy part of the River Walk...we hustled right through it because it was so crowded!
As soon as we walked North of the downtown hub, the River Walk turned into a calm oasis in the middle of the city.


This charming area has seating tiers on one side of the river and a stage on the other side.
What a neat venue for music!

On our second day in San Antonio we walked a portion of the River Walk right from our campground to the Mission Concepcion, about five miles round trip.

You can see a couple of RV's from our park on the left, backing up to the River Walk.

We spotted new-to-us birds,including this Egyptian Goose.
It's a non native bird that does not compete with native birds.

Turtles enjoy random rays of sunlight on a cold day.

Mission Concepcion was built in the early 1700's and is still used for church services.

Though the river no longer flows a natural course due to man's decades of intervention, the most recent rejuvenation projects include riffles and weirs and other efforts to bring back a natural environment for wildlife...and it's working!


On another very cold morning we joined Travel Bug Susan and her friend Susan on the River Walk from Mission San Jose to Mission San Juan and back.

At Mission San Juan there is a section of the San Antonio River that has never been manipulated by man
(it's so small in its natural state!) you can see it behind Susan, Hans and Travel Bug Susan.

Mission San Juan

Ibis and Egret along the river.

Mission San Jose was beautifully preserved.

The Indian converts were housed in small rooms built in to the Mission compound walls. 


Mission San Jose chapel.





Another day we strolled through Brackenridge Park at the North end of the River Walk and when the connecting trail to the Pearl District turned out to be under construction, we drove to Pearl and resumed our walk along the Museum Reach section of River Walk.

Brackenridge Park is a huge multipurpose park that includes picnic areas, sports fields, the San Antonio Zoo, museums, a Japanese Tea Garden, and an outdoor theater.

Trail art.

Sun bathers.

Bridge art.

The Japanese Tea Garden was a hidden gem!
In 1917 this former rock quarry was turned into a park and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Here is a close up of the pagoda.

Moving on to the Pearl and Museum Reach portions of the River Walk we enjoyed some art along the trail. The Pearl District is currently in the midst of several massive construction projects. It was easy to see that this neighborhood was well on its way to being the hip, happening spot for urban living. We enjoyed a tasty, healthy lunch at Green Vegetarian Cuisine.

Love the fish hanging under the bridge! They light up at night!


You can find tiny art pieces all along the trail...this is only a few inches tall.

We've been fortunate to land in San Antonio at the same time as Eric and Brittany of RV Wanderlust...though for them it's a repair stop for their beloved motorhome, Meriwether. We met up with these two over Maars Pizza, including pizza with brisket (we are in Texas, you know!). It was great fun getting to know them and we just might meet up again as we both head to Austin.





27 comments:

  1. The pagoda is really cool! Who knew San Antonio had such neat stuff?

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    1. We even have one more section of the River Walk to explore!

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  2. What a great time & looks like great weather, too. I like the idea of you walking from your camp. Driving & parking downtown is a mess so I am glad you had none of that. Enjoy!

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    1. Yes, the park has a good location for accessing the River Walk, you can easily reach Missions in either direction!

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  3. Fun times with new friends and bloggers! We stayed at that RV park too, which is really very accessible to the river walk,downtown and the Missions. It must have been very cold as you guys are really bundled up.

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    1. Yes, the temps are up and down a lot during our stay.

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  4. We were just in San Antonio. We loved it and could've spent another week. We weren't able to visit the missions this time. Enjoyed your pictures. Love the gargoyle (?) faces. We are now headed towards NM.

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    1. Gotta make time for the Missions, especially San Jose. We are not religious, just enjoy the history and architecture!

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  5. What a great post Lisa. Your pictures are terrific. I love that you. an walk to the walk (LOL) from the campground. It's nice to see how my h San Antonio values its river now. Perhaps in future they will return more and more sections to. its natural state.

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    1. Thank you! It's tough when a city has to fix the drastic mistakes of its unknowing predecesors.

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  6. The River Walk is such a unique place. I love that you have to go down to it and it sit below road level. We had some super food while there on a long weekend many, many years ago. We had two free plane tickets so we decided to take a long weekend little trip:)

    The Tea Garden is so beautiful. Love that pagoda!

    That Egyptian Goose is so cute! Great color design. The egret looks like it is freezing all hunched down:)

    Hope it warms up some for you. Looks like a few cold days coming.

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    1. THe cold is actually ok for us...we can actually wear our cool weather clothing! No sweating while hiking!

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  7. In all of our walks on the Museum Reach we have never seen the small art. Maybe it's new?? With my computer problems, your photos are not loading. I could only see four of them whole, one as half a photo and the rest never loaded. Arrrrgh!

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    1. That tiny art was under one of the bridges on the West side of the river. We also saw some similar art under one of the bridges closer to downtown...maybe a dozen of those little pictures under one bridge.

      Now that's a drag, you are in one of the shots!

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  8. Great pics of a really diverse "trail". The tiny art is so cute, and I imagine often missed. They've done a wonderful job of providing space for both people and wildlife with a mix of restoring the old and adding the new - love the fish under the bridge! Is the walk dog friendly?

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    1. Yes, I believe the entire walk is dog friendly, though I'd probably avoid the super busy downtown part with a dog...it was very crowded on that Sunday!

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  9. We loved SA and spent a couple weeks in the same park over Thanksgiving a few years ago. Loved having the paved trail into the city right outside our door. We were there for the holiday parade on the river, what fun! Wish we would have known about the Japanese Tea Garden. It looks lovely. Enjoyed all the missions and was surprised on how small the Alamo was. Great photos Lisa. :)

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    1. We sure do have the same taste in RV parks every where we go! :-)

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  10. I love the River Walk. We have only visited once...it snowed and sleeted so we moved on thinking we would revisit again when the weather was better... Beautiful photos Lisa!
    That was some yummy looking pizzas!

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    1. That would have been some cold walking in snow and sleet! I hear the summers are brutally hot and humid here...this was a good time of year to be here.

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  11. Nice! Loved seeing the Egyptian goose!

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  12. Wonderful photos of the River Walk -- the tea garden is especially lovely. We spent only one night in San Antonio several years ago -- just long enough for a stroll along the Riverwalk in the downtown area. Seeing how much there is to do and all of the art along the trail, I'm looking forward to returning. Thanks for the tip on the perfect place to stay!

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    1. You're welcome! There is so much more to River Walk than just downtown!

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  13. I've never considered visiting San Antonio, but you make it look very tempting!

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