Hike And Learn About The Spring Creek Ecosystem
By Blaze on 2/18/2013
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Distance: 15.20 Miles Duration: 5 hours, 30 minutes
The Spring Creek Greenway Trail is currently a 7.6 mile trail that travels along Spring Creek between the Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center and Pundt Park. Along the way, you will also visit the Stahl Preserve which is not accessible by any other trails (although you can canoe there). If you hike up and back like I did, it's a litle over 15 miles round-trip. If you don't want to loop back, you can have someone pick you up at either Pundt or Jesse H. Jones Park, depending on which direction you're going.
The Spring Creek Greenway is an ambitious project by Harris County, Precinct 4. It will eventually be expanded to 33-40 miles of trails, which is a hiker and biker's dream.
One segment (Phase 3) will be about 4 miles long and take you from Pundt Park out near the Hardy Toll Road. Construction on this may start in the next year or so. Another segment (Phase 4) will be about 2.5 miles long and will take you from the Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center to the San Jacinto River near Highway 59. There is no firm date for this phase yet. Eventually, the Spring Creek Greenway will go all the way to Spring Creek Park west of SH249, but this is a longer term proposition. These future segments are currently not developed and hikers should not attempt to hike these until they are finished. For now, please stick to the 7.6 mile trail that is open.
As a resident of Harris County, I am proud to say they did a good job with this trail. It has excellent signage and distance markers every 1/2 mile. 6 out of the 8 miles of trail are freshly paved asphalt and in excellent condition. It is used by hikers/joggers/pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians. There are numerous educational signs sprinkled along the way teaching you about the vegetation, landscape, creek and early American indian settlers, which makes it a great place to take your kids.
I caught the Spring Creek Greenway trail from the Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center. You can park in the Pavillion Parking Lot adjacent to the Playground. The trailhead starts off as the Judy Overby Bell Trail for 1.2 miles. The trail is poorly paved asphalt that has essentially disintegrated to gravel/dirt, but still easy to trek. You will cross a sturdy concrete bridge as it becomes the Spring Creek Greenway Trail.
You are afforded some nice views of Spring Creek, but eventually the trail breaks inland and takes you through a wooded area. You'll pass behind the Cypresswood Golf Course and then head out to the Stahl Preserve about 5.5 miles or so from the Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center. A dirt equestrian trail will branch off and parallel the paved trail. This is good for controlling traffic amongst hikers, bikers and equestrains. When the trail is shared, the trail courtesy is that both hikers and bikers should yield to equestrians and bikers should yield to hikers. Along the way, I saw a lot of beautiful wildflowers, numerous bird including a majestic blue heron, and leaf cutter ants.
At the Stahl Preserve, there are some incredible bald cypress trees growing in the creek, complete with "knees". Some of them are an impressive 400 years old. It gives you pause.
After leaving the Stahl Preserve, it about another 2.5 miles to Pundt Park, which has other small trails you can hike. After you cross another sturdy concrete bridge, the last mile of the Spring Creek Greenway to Pundt Park is dirt. You can read my log entry of Pundt Park here. You can also read my log of the trails in the Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center here.