Choose Your Adventure:
By land, sea or sky, San Antonio has an experience for you

It’s easy to find outdoor adventure in San Antonio.

You might go hiking and bird-watching in beautiful parks on the edge of town, such as Government Canyon State Natural Area, Friedrich Wilderness Park orMitchell Lake Audubon Center. You could bike the Mission Trail linking the city’s five Spanish missions along the San Antonio River. You might try something fun and new, such as a Segway tour around the historic downtown and King William neighborhood. Or even get a bird’s-eye view of the city and surrounding countryside on a hot air balloon ride at sunrise or sunset.

And if you’re in the mood to hit the road, head for the hills – the nearby Texas Hill Country, that is – for even more outdoor fun. Here are just a few of the adventures that await throughout picture-perfect scenery.

Hiking & Volkssporting

  Texas Hill Country was made for hiking. Along with rolling hills and canyons, there are well-kept farms and ranches, spring-fed rivers and clear-running creeks, and fields blanketed with wildflowers in the spring. Among the best hiking areas are Lost Maples State Natural Area and Pedernales Falls State Park. In both, you can go wading or take a full-in dip to cool off in warm weather. When its maples turn flaming hues in the fall, Lost Maples is so popular it’s wise to go on a weekday.

Combine the best of town and country with volksmarsching, a German word for “people's walk.” Also called volkssporting, this walking club tradition is alive and well in many Hill Country towns with German roots, including Boerne, Comfort, Fredericksburg, Kerrville and New Braunfels, some of which periodically sponsor walking events on marked 10-kilometer routes. Many of the volkssporting clubs also sponsor self-guided 10K walks year ’round. Local hotels and tourist offices can usually provide information on these events and routes.

Bicycle Cruising & Mountain Biking

The San Antonio Wheelmen, a group of local bicycling enthusiasts, lead rides in San Antonio and the surrounding region nearly every weekend – and visitors are always welcome to join. Whether you go on your own or with a group, here are some of the best Hill Country rides:

• The Devil's Backbone on R.M. 32, a road south of Wimberley between R.R. 12 and Blanco. This 24-mile scenic road along a twisty, razorback ridge has spectacular panoramic views of the Hill Country.
• The 100-mile loop from San Antonio to Helotes, Bandera, Hondo and back.
• Mountain biking on the Hill Country State Natural Area’s 40 miles of trails, near Bandera.
• Fredericksburg is a hub for many popular bike routes, including the 13-mile Willow City Loop (especially beautiful in April and May, when the wildflowers bloom) and the 11-mile cruise to Luckenbach, where musicians show up to pick and sing \under the big oaks next to the old general store, which conveniently sells beer and other tasty beverages.

Finding Your Inner Cowboy

For those who don’t plan to bring their horses along, your best bet for saddling up for equestrian adventure is to stay at a guest ranch near Bandera – at last count, there were at least 10 dude ranches in the area. Daily rides, hearty chuck-wagon dinners around a campfire, family activities and Texas hospitality make these ranches a big hit with all who want to get in touch with their inner cowpoke. Other options include:

Horseback riding is offered at the Y.O. Ranch near Mountain Home, a legendary longhorn and exotic game ranch founded by Capt. Charles Schreiner, who became a Texas Ranger at the age of 16. Choose from one-hour, full-day, sunrise, sunset and even overnight rides. For some serious cowboying, you could even join the ranch’s three-day trail rides in May and October.
Diamond C Stables & Ranch near Boerne also offers horseback riding lessons for all ages.

 

Scaling the Heights

If two of the Hill Country’s top rock-climbing spots are any indication, climbers sure have a knack for unusual names that stir the imagination:

• “Cheap Wine Wall,” “Skunk Boulder” and “The Kingdom of Zilch” beckon at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, home to the second-largest monolithic dome in the country. The pink granite here offers myriad high-quality routes and good bouldering.
• Reimers Ranch Park has hundreds of climbing routes, including many that are parallel to a lovely stretch of the Pedernales River, where there’s a rope swing for those who want to splash in for a swim. And if “Dead Cats” and “Insect Wall” don’t make you want to join this gravity-defying sport, you could try mountain biking or hiking at Reimers Ranch instead.

Aquatic Adventures

The Hill Country’s rivers and lakes provide year-round fun. Here are some of the aquatic adventures they offer:

• Go scuba diving in Canyon Lake, one of the deepest in Texas. Its clear blue water draws divers year ’round. Eight public parks are scattered around its 80-mile shoreline, making Canyon Lake accessible for swimming, sailing, boating, fishing and other water sports, too. Other popular dive spots in the Hill Country include the Medina River and the Comal River.
• Take your snorkeling gear along to watch the fish when you go tubing on New Braunfels’ clear, spring-fed Comal River. At only 2.5 miles long, the Comal is the shortest river in the world. It also has a “City Tube Chute” that children and even adults enjoy careening down.
• Go tubing, rafting, canoeing or kayaking on the Guadalupe River near New Braunfels or in Guadalupe River State Park, which has four miles of river frontage. Vendors in both areas rent inner tubes and various watercraft, as well as provide shuttles for drop-off and pick-up service along the river.
• Reserve space on one of the new glass-bottom kayak tours at Aquarena Center, operated by Texas State University on the San Marcos River in San Marcos. As with the popular glass-bottom boat tours, you’ll see turtles, fish, blooming aquatic plants and nearly 200 artesian springs as you learn about the headwaters of the San Marcos River and its ecology. Tube rentals are also available on the river.