Three Days in San Antonio – Day 2 – Walking the Mission Trail
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We had a plan as we left our hotel room bright and early on a brisk San Antonio morning. We’d park the car at the main visitor center and walk south to our furthest destination at Mission Espada. We’d rent bikes there and return to the visitor center via a stop at Mission San Juan. Then walk to Mission Concepcion and ride back to the visitor center. If we had the time and energy, we’d drive downtown and park, bike out to Mission Concepcion and walk back to our car. If not, we’d complete the walk another day. Sounded like a complex, but reasonable plan. And off we went.
We parked at the Visitor Center and walked the ~5 miles to Mission Espada, the furthest south of the missions on the trail. It was cool when we started out, but once we began walking, it warmed up considerably and we were in short sleeves in no time.
The walk along the San Antonio River is scenic with lots of picturesque spots to photograph. Waterbirds and hawks were especially fond of this riparian area.
Instead of heading directly to Mission Espada, we walked a bit further along the River Walk to take a photo of the 10.2 mile marker, then backtracked to the mission.
Mission Espada is the furthest south on the Mission Trail and the most remote.
Since we’d visited Mission Espada the day before, we didn’t spend much time there, but did take a moment to note the historic aqueduct system built by the mission community ~150 years ago.
We had already signed up with BCycle, so it was a snap to rent bikes at Mission Espada. We’d never ridden e-bikes before and were surprised at their heft. We almost felt like it was cheating to ride them, but in reality, they only provide a boost if and when needed. Otherwise, there wasn’t much difference in the ride. We made sure our bikes were charged and off we went back down the trail, past Mission San Juan, ending our first bicycling excursion at the Visitor Center once again.
The rules of the bike rental required us to ‘check in’ each bike, each hour at a BCycle station. Day users can drop off bikes and/or check-in at one location and choose new bikes at the same location or another location. We opted to drop off our bikes and walk the 2.5 miles to Mission Concepción.
Renting bikes was easy… all done via mobile.
There’s so much more to see when you’re walking than when you’re driving. The walk along the San Antonio River was an absolute delight… easy walking, lovely day, not too crowded and lots to see.
The missions aren’t always on the Riverwalk, but rather a few blocks up or to 1/2 mile off the trail. On the way to Mission Concepción, we learned a bit about Teddy Roosevelt’s visit here with a couple of his Rough Riders.
Mission Concepción was in exceptionally good condition and very picturesque. Since this was the only mission we’d missed seeing previously, we spent some time wandering the grounds and visiting the church.
It surprised us that the locations of the missions, once isolated, are now in the middle of neighborhoods.
The mission churches are simple and basic and still active parishes.
It certainly was a lot quicker riding the miles between missions versus walking. We opted for a slightly different route on our return to the Visitor Center and came across an interesting sculpture.
Arbol de la vida - Margarita Cabrera
Close-up of the Arbol details
By the time we returned to the Visitor Center, it was mid-afternoon and our thoughts of finishing the walk to the downtown terminus had vanished with our energy. We were enjoying the area and the walking and decided another day in San Antonio wouldn’t be the worst thing we could do. Why hurry when you can slow travel?
Join us next time when we finish up our walk and do a bit more exploring in San Antonio. See you then.