The Trailist: Medina River Greenway extends 17 miles through rural South Side

My first Trailist post in April 2018 covered Medina River Natural Area. Back then, the Medina River Greenway came to an abrupt halt at the river’s edge a little more than 6 miles in. 

Since then, the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department has built new trail connections that now make it possible to ride up to 25 miles from downtown to Medina River Natural Area — almost all of it on greenway trails away from streets.

First-timers will notice how much less crowded and urbanized the Medina River Greenway is compared with San Antonio’s other greenway trails. Those interested in the area’s long and sometimes quirky history will appreciate some of the stops along the way.

I typically enter the greenway from the Mission Reach and consider it to begin at the Roosevelt Avenue/U.S. 281 trailhead, where the 4.1-mile connection between the Mission Reach and the Medina River greenway ends (though the city officially considers that connection part of the greenway). After that extension trail opened in 2020, the Texas Department of Transportation built a bare-bones crosswalk over U.S. 281. Crossing that road leads to a wide, greenway-like sidewalk on Del Lago Parkway, passing a Circle K that makes a nice snack stop to prepare for the miles ahead or recover on the way back.

The trail — still in sidewalk form — hooks left on Club House, bearing a straight line south through the new subdivisions surrounding the Mission Del Lago golf course. The course’s entrance and clubhouse are right next to tiny Mattox Park, with its small tennis court, playground and trailhead, where the sidewalk becomes a concrete greenway trail again.

The next 3 miles offer an interesting juxtaposition between the area’s past and future. The greenway meanders between construction sites for housing developments with relatively affordable lots alongside the golf course. All this development with nearby recreational amenities is going in within only a few hundred feet of San Antonio’s historical sewage dump.

Some consider Mitchell Lake one of only two natural lakes in the state, though it was probably more of a shallow wetland. Spanish settlers had named it Laguna de los Patos, or Duck Lagoon, and it still draws thousands of migrating birds. But for decades, the lake was San Antonio’s sewage disposal area. 

The trail traces the lake’s eastern shore, with egrets and herons wading in its shallow water visible beyond the high fence. The San Antonio Water System still owns the lake, which it has for years leased to the Audubon Society, creating the bird paradise known as the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center. The center is worth its own visit for one of its bird tours, though the entrance is on the other side of the lake, off Pleasanton Road.

From Mattox Park, the greenway winds 3.4 miles southwest through the forest surrounding the lake until it reaches the Pleasanton Road trailhead, which offers a portable toilet and drinking fountain. The crosswalk over Pleasanton is the greenway’s last real street crossing when heading from west to east. The trail parallels Pleasanton Road for less than a half-mile before hooking right and plunging into the deeper woods along the Medina River.

This section marks an end to the wide-open skies of the first 4 trail miles and sets the tone for the winding path that alternates between the brushy, more desert-like uplands and the greener woods with massive pecans closer to the river’s banks over the remaining 10 miles.

Those 10 miles also include about a dozen switchbacks, some of them with steep curves tight enough that riders have to slow to a crawl to eke their handlebars around the corners. Less experienced riders might want to dismount and walk some of these sections. It always surprised me how many hills this greenway climbs just to follow the Medina River.

Far upstream, above Medina Lake, the Medina River — when it actually flows — can be a crystal-clear, spring-fed stream flowing across a limestone landscape. But south of San Antonio, the river is a twisty, shallow green snake cutting through ranchland and quiet forests and carving its way through vast earthen banks.

A couple of times, I’ve kayaked the river from Medina River Natural Area. I wouldn’t recommend it. First, there are the frequent fallen trees that form snags across the channel, forcing paddlers to pick up their boats and portage around them. Then there are the low-hanging branches that dropped their loads of spiders all over my head and boat as I scraped my way through them. Much better to experience the tranquil beauty of the area by bike.

About 3.5 miles from where the trail leaves Pleasanton Road, visitors will see the fences of Land Heritage Institute, a 1,200-acre nonprofit preserve with 20 miles of trails on its property. The site is part of a former ranch condemned in order to dam the Medina River and create the Applewhite Reservoir, a plan San Antonio voters rejected in the 1990s. It also hosts an 1880s farmhouse and the remains of several older ranch buildings and a herd of longhorn cattle. See this previous post for instructions on how to visit.

Three miles west of the preserve, the trail passes a trailhead at Applewhite Road that also offers a portable toilet and drinking fountain. The road crosses the river and heads toward the Toyota plant less than a half mile north, a world of heavy machinery that feels remote from the quiet greenway. Shortly after that bridge, the trail crosses the remains of Old Applewhite Road and the Donkey Lady Bridge of urban legend. 

Most of what I know about the Donkey Lady myth comes from reading, but there are apparently several variations of the cryptid that allegedly haunts the Old Applewhite bridge. One of the most popular versions seems to be that her husband burned her alive, disfiguring her face and leaving her with a donkey-like appearance. I’ve never visited at night, as some do, listening for brays in the night and looking for hoofprints. I will confess to having called the Donkey Lady hotline set up by local artist Marisela Barrera, known for bringing the myth to life in her work.

The greenway continues west through Medina River Natural Area, a 511-acre property that the city acquired after condemnation for the failed reservoir. A network of paved and unpaved trails branch off in this area, with the Rio Medina trail following the river more closely. The greenway passes the ruins of a jacal, a simple structure made with local materials, believed to have been built in the 1700s. A fence blocks visitors from getting too close.

For now, the Medina River Greenway ends at the Medina River Natural Area trailhead, which offers plenty of parking, pit toilets and a drinking fountain. Plans eventually call to extend the Leon Creek Greenway south from Pearsall Park to connect to the Medina River system, though the city has made no announcements about such a connection recently. 

Still, I’m grateful for all the trail connections that have been made over the past six years and wonder how much closer the city’s greenway network will be to completion in another six.