Last week, I paid a go to to an often-forgotten park alongside Salado Creek northeast of downtown.
The parking zone of John James Park isn’t crowded and regardless that I had been there earlier than, I didn’t understand till lately that it had a small path community.
The park is a 90-acre piece of public land with roughly 2 miles of paved and pure floor trails. It additionally presently represents the southeastern end-point of the Salado-Leon greenway community. From the Holbrook Road trailhead throughout Salado Creek from the park, the path extends an uninterrupted 38 miles in a counterclockwise loop across the metropolis’s northern half, ending on the Dora Jordan Trailhead on the Leon Creek Greenway.Â
John James Park, situated adjoining to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, received its begin in 1973 as a 43-acre reward from the federal authorities. In 1974, town renamed the park after a Nineteenth-century land surveyor and rancher who moved to San Antonio from Nova Scotia in 1837.
John James Park
Offers: Walking, operating, biking
Location: 3910 Rittiman Rd., San Antonio, TX 78218
Trail miles: Approximately 2 miles of asphalt, crushed gravel and pure floor trails
Restrooms: Portable bogs and consuming fountains on the park’s entrance
James had fought within the Battle of Salado Creek in 1842, when roughly 200 Texas Rangers and native militia defeated 1,600 Mexican Army troopers and Cherokee warriors, successfully halting a Mexican re-invasion of Texas. A historic marker commemorating the battle sits alongside Holbrook Road solely about 1,000 ft north of the park.
The proximity of the Battle of the Salado would possibly clarify why officers renamed this park alongside its banks after John James somewhat than protecting the park’s unique title, Fort Sam Houston Park. The reality is that many locations in Texas may bear James’ title, as he was probably the most outstanding land surveyors within the state’s historical past, serving as chief surveyor of Bexar County, based on the Texas State Historical Association.
He was paid in land and used his work to build up numerous it. His surveys outlined the unique boundaries of San Antonio’s land grant from the king of Spain, and he platted the cities of Bandera, Boerne, Castroville, D’Hanis and Quihi.
I had solely visited the park that bears his title a handful of occasions, first to park and entry the Salado Creek Greenway throughout the bridge. The park has a community of unofficial dust trails extending from the parking zone downhill towards the creek after which alongside the west financial institution of the creek for a lot of the park’s size. Countless facet traces department off this predominant community, which I’ve not mapped right here. None are quite a lot of hundred ft lengthy, and so they all have a tendency to attach the creekside path to the Nature Trail, one of many park’s two official trails.
In this space, Salado Creek is usually filled with trash dumped domestically and washed down from upstream. That’s why most of my current visits to John James Park had been to select up trash with River Aid San Antonio, a neighborhood volunteer group centered on caring for our rivers and creeks. We used the unofficial trails as hauling pathways to carry one loaded contractor bag after one other up the hill to the parking zone space.Â
One day, we received notably bold once we discovered a large plastic pipe that simply weighed 700 kilos. A gaggle of us used what I name the ant methodology to haul it out — everybody grabbing a nook of the heavy pipe and utilizing our collective energy to maneuver it. While I nonetheless noticed trash within the creek at John James on my go to final week, it wasn’t as dangerous as we used to see earlier than these common River Aid cleanups there.
After spending a lot time slipping round on the muddy trails alongside Salado Creek, I used to be curious to stroll the park’s two official trails. My spouse, Jess, and I began out strolling the 0.9-mile Nature Trail, an asphalt path that heads south from the parking zone, previous the playground space, and into the woods.Â
The woods had been a pleasing mixture of principally giant mesquite timber and cedar elms. I solely noticed a couple of of the invasive timber similar to Ligustrum and chinaberry that may so simply take over our native parks and depart them overly shaded and ecologically stunted. The open cover of mesquite feels extra genuine, with the brown and golden pods crunching underfoot.
However, the path could be fairly sunny throughout summer time months with out a lot shade aid.
We had been the one individuals there throughout the late afternoon on a weekday. If it wasn’t for the sound of vehicles alongside Rittiman Road, we might have felt like we had been deeper within the forest. At 5 p.m., the whooshing of the vehicles was joined by the sound of a recorded bugle enjoying Retreat at Fort Sam, signaling the tip of the day’s responsibility. We noticed no animals on our stroll apart from snails perched on the ends of grass blades after a drizzle earlier that day.
The Nature Trail doubles again on itself with a loop on the finish, and we observed a closely used single monitor path branching off. We adopted it a bit farther by means of the woods till we got here to the fence line, the place we may look out on a large, low drainage space. This clearly appeared just like the property line. Another, smaller single monitor path looped left and adopted the within of the fence line, but it surely additionally finally appeared to move off the park property.Â
We rotated and headed again north, taking a roughly quarter-mile single monitor shortcut that put us again on the parking zone. We then circled the half-mile Ball Field Trail, which types a wobbly body of crushed gravel round an open, mowed space the place individuals play soccer. The path additionally options a number of train stations.
Overall, the park makes a great neighborhood nature getaway, one I’d in all probability go to to path run if I lived close by. I don’t know if I’ll revisit the Nature Trail or the Ball Field Loop within the near future, however I do know I’ll be slipping alongside these muddy singletrack trails carrying baggage of trash once more quickly sufficient.Â
