South Texas Destinations: Alamo Plaza and Bamberger Nature Park, San Antonio, Texas

So, since I’m not sure how to tackle over the 200 parks that I haven’t covered yet (many of which I haven’t even visited yet), I guess I’ll do this alphabetically.

First of the ones I’ve visited, I guess, is Alamo Plaza.  I didn’t even realize that Alamo Plaza was a park until I saw it on the San Antonio Parks and Recreation website.  While Alamo Plaza has a fair bit of history — it was part of the mission complex for Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo’s original name). Today, though, there’s really not much to Alamo Plaza.  I don’t think that the Alamo itself is actually part of the park. The Alamo is owned by the Texas General Land Office and not the city.  The plaza itself is largely paved with limestone. People gather there to socialize and street vendors (notably, if I recall correctly, raspa (sno-cone) vendors) sometimes have carts set up there. There’s a gazebo and the cenotaph, which is a giant monument listing the names of those who died in the battle of the Alamo. Also, Alamo Plaza is where the city sets up the city Christmas tree.

2015 San Antonio Christmas Tree
The 2015 city Christmas tree for San Antonio, Texas in Alamo Plaza.

Bamberger Nature Park is in a completely different part of the city — the northwest side. At nearly 71 acres (28.7 hectares), Bamberger is considerably larger than Alamo Plaza. I seem to recall that seeing a sign saying that before it was a park, Bamberger was a part of some family’s farm.  I thought I took a picture of the sign but can’t find it now.

There isn’t a whole lot more to Bamberger Nature Park than there is to Alamo Plaza, only in the other direction. Where Alamo Plaza is all built up, Bamberger Nature Park is largely unimproved. The only real change made to the park are 2.5 miles of hiking and biking trails. These trails connect to the Leon Creek Greenway. I’ve been there twice, once intentionally in December of 2014, and the other one in the spring of 2016 when I made a wrong turn on the Leon Creek Greenway. Both times, it was a very nice place to take a nature walk.  Even if it was a little chilly in December.