Wrapping Up a Week in San Antonio

While most of our time in San Antonio, TX has been spent exploring various sections of the San Antonio River Walk, we did manage to check out a few of the local natural areas. San Antonio lies at the Southern edge of the Texas Hill Country and the Northern edge of the plains region so there are a couple of different ecosystems to explore.

One day we drove to the North end of the city hoping to hike in Government Canyon State Natural Area...unfortunately I missed the fact that they are closed Tuesday through Thursday so that didn't work out for us. But, just a few miles East are Crownridge Canyon Natural Area and Friedrich Wilderness Park.

Both of these parks are in Hill Country, and the landscape consists of rolling brush covered hills atop a bed of limestone, Texas Live Oaks provide welcome shade. Both parks have a few miles of paved trails and a few miles of natural trails. Friedrich Wilderness Park had one especially challenging trail, the Vista Loop, which traversed rough, exposed limestone shelves that provided a great workout.

The brush was so thick on these trails that photos were pretty much impossible!
Here,the trail is the limestone shelf upon the hillside.

Another day we headed South of town to the Medina River Natural Area. Again, there were several miles of paved trail and a few miles of natural trail. The vegetation was very thick (though still winter brown) and river view points were very few.

Typical view along the Medina River Trail, this would be a great place to ride your bike.

In my last post I described several days worth of exploring we did on the San Antonio River Walk, but we weren't done yet! Only a couple of miles from our RV park (Travelers World) is the lovely King William Historic District. Several blocks of elaborate homes built in the late 1800's are a treat for the eyes and interesting shops and restaurants are nearby on South Alamo Street and just across the river in the Blue Star Arts District.

Historic buildings along River Walk.

These beautiful old homes back up to the river.

Many of the old homes were built using local limestone like the one on the left.

A few fun eateries and art shops are in this complex.

The King William District was so convenient to our RV park and so inviting to stroll we returned there late one day to walk in the cool of the evening and enjoy the waning light of the day.

In search of a public restroom we continued our walk into downtown...the busy part of River Walk.
Saturday evening crowds were out in full force, every restaurant was packed and we were thankful we'd already eaten!

We enjoyed several meals with Travel Bug Susan and Bob, and had a great time getting to know them and their adopted city. On our dark and dreary last full day in town we went to Random Beer Garden, a unique venue in Boerne, TX with 80 craft beers on tap, several food trucks on any day you visit, indoor and outdoor seating, an in-ground jumpy thing for the kiddos, games (like corn hole) for the adults, live music on Friday and Saturday nights...a really neat place to hang out.

Getting goofy with Susan and Bob.

We've had a terrific time in San Antonio and found the weather to be very interesting! The city sits on the Southern edge of the Northern (cold) jet stream and the Northern edge of the tropical (warm) jet stream...so daytime temperatures went from quite cold to very warm more than once during our stay. So while Saturday was 80 degrees and humid, our travel day Monday is forecast to be in the 40's and rainy.

We're off to Austin tomorrow where we'll meet up once again with some RVing friends and some longtime friends of Hans.