Government Canyon St Natural Area - San Antonio, TX

We had planned to visit our son at his home to spend the night with his family in San Antonio, Texas.. Since the trip is about an hour and half from where we are staying we decided to take in a nice drive along the Guadalupe River on the way there. We had already toured this route with our son but our daughter hadn’t been on the scenic drive. We also wanted to visit Government Canyon St Natural Area while visiting San Antonio as well…

The drive from our park east along state road 306 first brought us to the Canyon Lake Dam where we then turned onto the Old River Road which follows the Guadalupe River. There are also multiple bridge crossings that provide great views of the beautiful clear river and its scenic adjacent canyons. We found that traveling this route on a weekday was best since it is always packed  on weekends with cars and “toobers” enjoying the river by using truck tire inner tubes or rented “toobs” to float down the lazy river. This river after rainfalls will pick up speed as the water runs off the surrounding limestone landscape filling the river quickly…

The Guadalupe River is quite low this year as the area is still under drought conditions and we are also noticing the Canyon Lake Campground we are staying at is quite dry as compared to the previous time we visited here. Nonetheless it was a nice and leisurely drive along the river which meanders to the city of New Braunfels.

After continuing on to San Antonio and after visiting our son we headed over to nearby Government Canyon St Natural Area. We stopped at the ranger station to use our Texas Parks and Wildlife Pass to escape the $6.00 per person admission. After talking with the ranger we chose to hike a three mile loop that took us up over a hill and to an overlook. A pleasant hike but as dry as it has been many of the wildflower looked spindly and the real beauty was consumed by the cacti flowers in hues of yellow and orange.

This natural area was set aside as recently ds 2005 primarily to preserve the habitats of the Golden-cheeked Warbler and the Black-capped Vireo, both of which are classified as endangered. I was able to hear both the Golden-cheeked Warblers and the Black-capped Vireos but didn’t spot any of these elusive birds as they flitted from thick brush to even thicker brush.

We saw several  joggers and hikers as well as some ranger guided tours for school kids in this park.  There are several trails of varying lengths so It will be a place we will definitely return to the next time we visit making good use of our annual Texas Parks and Wildlife Pass…