The Trailist: Stinson Field, San Antonio’s small airport on the South Side, has a 1-mile hike and bike trail

People riding bikes and hiking along the Mission Reach on the San Antonio River will often notice small planes circling the area, taking off and landing from the city’s tiny Stinson Field airport on the South Side. 

Connecting to the airport is a 1-mile concrete loop trail through a 63-acre patch of city-owned forested property. While the trail itself is short, its connection to Mission Road and the Mission Reach means it can be a segment of a longer run or ride, along with connecting people to an airport most probably haven’t heard of.

I had figured that Stinson Field was named, like so many things in this world, for some long-dead man who made a lot of money and donated some of it. I learned while researching this post that its namesake was instead a woman who became a pioneer in aviation at a young age. 

The airport was once a privately run airfield operated by the family of a former stunt pilot named Katherine Stinson, who was the fourth woman pilot licensed in the U.S. and trained U.S. military pilots at Fort Sam Houston in the early days of flight. Stinson, along with her mother and two siblings, moved from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and established their airfield and flight school on 500 acres leased from the city in 1916, according to Stinson’s website, which does a good job of telling the family’s story.  

Aside from her place in aviation history, I admire the young Stinson’s gumption and creative thinking. Apparently, her original plan was to use the money she earned from exhibition flights to pay for her to study piano in Europe. Of all the ways for a young person to earn money for the future, becoming a barnstorming show pilot doesn’t seem like the easiest path.

During both world wars, Stinson Field swapped hands between the city and military a couple of times before returning to city ownership in the 1940s. By then, what would become San Antonio International Airport was opening, and Stinson became what it is today: a city-owned general aviation airport, a public-use airfield and terminal for local pilots formally known now as Stinson Municipal Airport. 

Their airport’s current tenants also include the Texas Air Museum, two flight schools, a helicopter tours company, and a surprisingly good eatery (especially for an airport) called the Trailblazer Café, where you can watch the planes take off and land while sipping coffee.

The trail is a relatively new addition, completed in 2022. It doesn’t show up on city maps of the Mission Reach and can be a little hard to find on mapping apps. Don’t mistake it for Stinson Park, a traditional park with Little League fields on South Flores Street by Mission San José. 

I visited the 1-mile loop last week on my bike, accessing it via the Mission Reach trail connector just south of where Mission Parkway crosses over the San Antonio River at Espada Dam. The dam also marks the beginning of the Espada Acequia, a more than 300-year-old irrigation canal dug by Indigenous workers during the Spanish colonial era. The acequia, a thread of blue-green cutting through thick brush at this time of year, is visible from a bridge on the access path to the Stinson loop.

I rode the loop counterclockwise, and it took me only a few minutes at full speed to circle the entire property. With its gradual elevation changes and canopy cover, the trail would make for a peaceful but engaging running and walking loop. The loop also includes a trailhead along Mission Road across from the airport itself.

Just northeast of this trailhead, the concrete path makes a switchback before crossing over White Creek, a typically dry stream bed. The trail feature reminded me a bit of the switchbacks along the Medina River Greenway but on a small scale.

Plenty of cyclists pass by Stinson, which lies along a road biking route used frequently because of its relatively low car traffic and scenery compared to the rest of the city. The route also includes a new double-lane bike path that stretches north from Stinson along Mission Road nearly a mile to Southwest Military Drive.

Far fewer, I would guess, visit the Stinson trail, which has always been nearly empty when I’ve ridden it. I think it makes for a shady detour from the Mission Reach, which can get broiling hot in the direct sun due to lack of tree cover in most places.

Sad to say, however, that much of this shade along the Stinson trail comes from invasive trees, namely Ligustrum, or privet, and chinaberry trees. I frequently mention both invasive species from Asia because, once I learned how they grow fast and pilfer sunlight from our native tree species, I started noticing them almost everywhere. When I don’t see these trees in a patch of forest, it usually means people have been working hard to remove them.

It would probably take years of such work to remove them from the Stinson trail area, judging by similar efforts at Headwaters Preserve and Medina River Natural Area. Fortunately, the forest still had plenty of native species, such as some mature hackberry trees and some of the biggest palmettos I’ve seen along the Mission Reach.

If Stinson still had commercial airline service, the trail might be a popular place for people with long layovers to stretch their legs and get a little exercise. It made me wish that San Antonio International Airport had a mile-long trail through some shady forest.

For now, San Antonio’s only airport walking and biking trail remains an off-the-beaten path nook for locals. I’ll continue to whip through the loop on my bike to add mileage to Mission Reach rides while getting some shade, as well as a Trailblazer Café pit stop on a longer journey.