Next Stop San Antonio Texas

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Continuing west on I-10, we decided to make San Antonio our next stop. From Beaumont, it's a little further than we typically like to travel in a day so we decided to try our luck with a Texas rest area as an intermediate stop. Unlike lots of other states, Texas permits overnight parking and some of them have wi-fi. The one we were considering, just west of Columbus Texas, has the truck/RV parking on the far side of the of the rest stop further from the interstate.

So how did it work out? We didn't need to have windows open so the noise wasn't too bad. We also got lucky and didn't have a truck park right next to us (which often have engine running all nite). The wi-fi was marginal if you were in the rest area building but unusable in the parking lot. If we need to stay at one as we head into western Texas, it should work out okay.

The plan to travel through Houston on a Saturday and get into San Antonio on a Sunday seemed to work out okay. Houston definitely wasn't fun to drive through but we didn't get stuck in heavy traffic. This isn't our first time in the San Antonio area. We happened thru here just under 2 years ago when we bought our current motorhome in Dallas and we're heading south to avoid the cold weather up there. That time we stayed in the Canyon Lake area - over a 50 mile drive north of downtown. This time we are in River Walk RV Park about 5 miles from downtown. The campgrounds are acceptable with decent wi-fi. Even though "river walk" is part of the name, it isn't like it's on the river or within walking distance of it. But it is much more convenient for exploring the town.

One of our day trips was to Government Canyon State Natural Area. The park's name is a mouthful and doesn't even show up on some maps as the typical green of a park color. It's just outside the outer loop, northwest of town.  Being part of the Texas State Park system, we got to use our pass to gets us in. It will take a few more of these parks to make our pass a worthwhile investment, but we are well on the way.

At the Visitor Center

The main claim to fame of this park are its dinosaur tracks. That sounded interesting plus there is a lot of hiking, mountain biking and a few geocaches. The area is very beautiful and the day we went was picture perfect. The Joe Johnston trail leads to the tracks and from what Chris read of the trail, we opted to go with mountain bikes instead of hiking. In hindsight, that was probably the wrong choice. The ups and downs were not too bad and the trail was dry, but the stones and rocks that covered much of the trail  made it difficult to ride and forced us to walk the bikes often. Plus I had brought along my good DSLR and lens, so I was being very conservative in my riding style.

Some of the Rocky Joe Johnston Trail

It is about 3 miles out to the area of the dinosaur tracks and when we got there we were more than just a little underwhelmed. The tracks were mostly under half a foot of water and could have been the impression made by anything. The only thing that even drew your attention to them was the fact they were roped off so they would not be disturbed. Maybe if I were a paleontologist, I would have been interested. Or if I were 45 years younger, I would have been fascinated. The trail was definitely worth a hike just for the beauty of the area but I wouldn't do it for the tracks.

Sign Near Geocache - "Caution Rattlesnake Area"

Barney and Friends Came Thru Here

Since we were having some very nice weather, we decided to spend a day to see the missions in the area. We had visited the Alamo during our last visit so we didn't check it out. Since all these missions are part of the National Park Service and the main visitor center is at Mission San Jose, we made that our first stop. There was a 20 minute video describing the people of south Texas and the history of the missions. This turned out to be the largest of the missions and likely the one in the best shape. In fact there was a crew working a building next to the main church entrance. Between the saw and jack hammer, it was anything but peaceful.

Mission San Jose

Entrance to Mission San Jose

Big Church

Elaborate Church Entrance

Church Interior

Endless Doorways

Old Well

Mission Concepción was our next stop. This one was pretty as well although much of the ornate features on the outside have weathered over the centuries. The outdoor shrine was pretty and the interior of the church was impressive with a large dome over the altar.

Mission Concepción 

Front Entrance of Church

Inside of Church

Shrine

Mission Espada has most of its outer walls and former buildings down to just a few feet. It appears they have been reinforced so that they won't suffer more damage but a lot of the visual impact that once was there is now gone. The church itself is in decent shape with its three large bells on the front face. The interior is much less grand than the first two we saw but no less beautiful.

Mission Espada

Church Entrance

Church Interior

Remaining Exterior Walls

Our last stop was Mission San Juan. The church is much less ornate than all the others and the interior was pretty small.

Mission San Juan

Exterior of Church

Church Interior

Looking Thru Old Building Window

Now that we got our does of "culture" in. We headed to the nearby Acequia Park with the small dam on the San Antonio River. There wasn't a lot to see here so we moved on to our next plan for the day. Head into downtown and check out the river walk area. Tuesday is the day the city opens up its parking garages for free after 5 PM and we pulled in a few minutes after that. We walked walked the area for a bit as the sun set and then headed to a restaurant a friend had recommended. We sat outside watching all the people and boats go by while we had a nice dinner. Then we did another hour of just walking along the river taking in all the sights and lights. We suspect some were special for Christmas while others are permanent.

We were starting to get tired and thought we might just head back to the car when we stumbled upon a sign for the Briscoe Western Art Museum stating that it was open for free on Tuesday evenings. We figured we at least needed to give it a chance since the price was right. We were glad we stopped and ended up spending over an hour exploring the museum. Besides the large amount of western art, there was one whole room with a special exhibit of Ansel Adams photographs. The collections of spurs (that jingle, jangle, jingle), guns and saddles were all impressive.

Spur Collection

Fancy Saddle

Old Guns

Original Red Bull?

It ended up being a tiring but quite enjoyable day of exploration. And since rain is in the forecast for later in the week, I'm glad we fit this all in while the weather was great.