Elevation gain: 580'
Trails used: Joe Johnston Route, Overlook Trail.
Apparently, after our hike on Thursday doing Guadalupe Peak in west Texas, my brother had the hiking bug. He wanted to do something while his wife was at work Sunday, so he looked online for hikes nearby and found this hike. Saturday night I could feel myself coming down with some sort of cold or allergies but I wasn't feeling too bad to hike on Sunday so off we went. The weather was perfect as well; sunny, in the 80's with low humidity and no chance of precipitation.
Government Canyon State Natural Area is located in Bexar County and right outside San Antonio, Texas and has about 40 miles of hiking and biking trails. Its is also a nice place to go bird watching and you can camp in the Natural Area on designated nights.
The main draw for a lot of hikers we saw today was the roughly 200 dinosaur tracks about 2.5 miles up the Joe Johnston Route. The dinosaur tracks are fenced off so as to preserve them and also for continuing studies on them but quite a few are visible from the trail.
Go here for more information for the Government Canyon State Natural Area including park hours, fee's for the park, trail maps and a brief history of the park. Pets are only allowed in the front country area; not in the back country area where a majority of the Natural Area is located.
To get to the back country trail heads you have to go past the Government Canyon State Natural Area visitor center and head across a bridge. This is the scenery from the bridge of the hill country.
We started our walk along the Joe Johnston Route, which is an old road that went from San Antonio to Bandera and is remnants of the old ranching history in the area.
Although the Joe Johnston Route is pretty flat for most of the way, there is still a lot of scenery to see. Most people think Texas is a desert but this spring it has rained quite a bit more than usual so the flowers and fields were green as can be.
My brother Tim walking along the Joe Johnston Route on the way to most peoples objective of the day: the dinosaur tracks. It is roughly 2.5 miles on way to the dinosaur tracks from the Joe Johnston Route Trailhead.
Eventually we reached the dinosaur track area, which you can somewhat see in this picture. The wire in the bottom part of the picture is the only barrier that keeps people out of this fragile area. These tracks have been here for millions of years so the longer they remain, the better off we are understanding our history.
A different view of the dinosaur track area with some really cool cliffs (no climbing allowed) and the base of the Canyon Overlook.
More dinosaur tracks along the Joe Johnston Route and this riverbed, which you can clearly see in the mud/rock. These are active research areas on the day the Natural Area is closed.
A neat little spanish moss area hanging from live oak trees as we walk along the Joe Johnston Route just past the dinosaur tracks and on our way to the Overlook Trail.
The Zizelmann House, which was built out of limestone block by a family of German bakers in the late 1800's. It is believed that they had a bakery in San Antonio and traveled to and from the city to this house.
Right around the Zizelmann House, we decided to take the Overlook Trail to see what views would be had from the view point.
The view from one of the Canyon Overlook along the Overlook Trail of the surrounding area.
A look through the tree's of the Joe Johnston Route from the Overlook Trail.
You can see the dinosaur tracks with better definition from the Canyon Overlook.
A zoomed out view of the dinosaur track area and riverbend from the Canyon Overlook. The Joe Johnston Route goes through this area.
A view of the Joe Johnston Route from the Canyon Overlook.
Hiking back out the way we came in. A nice 6.5 miles of almost flat level walking was in the books for a nice pleasant Sunday.
During the hike, my brother talked about future hiking so I hope he follows through with it. This was a nice hike overall. Flat terrain walking with nice views and places to stop. There are benches along the trail so you can rest as you hike along. The 40+ miles of trails would make for decent hiking as you could string together a lot of different routes to take, both in the front country and back country. I would imagine this would be a hot hike in the summer though, so bring plenty of water regardless.
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