Hike Along The Bayou!

This is my third visit to Terry Hershey Park.  I came back to finish hiking some trails I was unable to hike on my previous visits and this time I struck GOLD!  What a nice, unexpected Valentine's Day gift from Mother Nature!

My previous visit was a walk along the Bayou.  This was a hike along the Bayou!  I started my hike at the Parking Lot off Memorial Drive near Eldridge Parkway.  I walked down to where Eldridge crosses over Buffalo Bayou.  There, I caught the bridge over the Bayou and then took the Anthills trail south.  It's a dirt trail that forks at many different points and is popular among mountain bikers.  My intent was to take the Anthills trail to the long loop (known as Robin Loop) between S. Dairy Ashford Road and Kirkwood Road, but while going under the S. Dairy Ashford bridge I inadventently took the trail down along Buffalo Bayou.  There is a paved path (known as Robin Trail) that runs parallel to the bayou, but is higher in elevation than the bayou trail.

Not a problem for me, though.  The bayou trail is really nice and gives you a much more satisfying experience than walking along it on the other side of the bank.  I kept hiking this trail until I passed under Wilcrest Drive.  After passing the clearing where the high voltage power lines are, the trail became very difficult to follow.  What I did find, however, was a really cool improvised dirt bike course featuring a number of jumps and berms.  I asked some of the biker dudes if the trail continued on towards Beltway 8 (and indeed Googlemaps shows it does), but they didn't think it did and I could not discern where the trail went at this point.  It seemed to end and it was late in the afternoon so I decided to turnaround so I didn;t run out of daylight.

On my way back, I did find the long loop that I described earlier and walked it down to Whittington Drive and back.  I saw a few white herons fishing in the drainage stream.  It should be noted that this particular loop path crosses Briar Forest Road, which can be very busy at certain times of day.  Exercise caution.

In summary, if you want to do some actual hiking or mountain biking, the dirt trail that runs along the south side is the one to take.  The paved path on the north side of the bayou is nice and takes you all the way to Beltway 8, but that is not a hike, but rather a long walk in the park.