Small, But Sweeeeet!
User:
Blaze - 12/31/2013
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Distance: 4.50 Miles
Duration: 2 hours, 16 minutes
My friend and I hiked Friedrich Wilderness Park in the morning and Eisenhower Park in the afternoon. Friedrich was small, but challenging. There are some fairly steep hills that were fun to climb, but unfortunately they weren't very tall. Still, it provided a good cardio workout.
My sense is this is one of the more popular spots in San Antonio. We were there on a weekday and there were a lot of people hiking and running the trails, so there wasn't much solitude.
Tougher than expected, which is good
User:
Austin Explorer - 8/12/2012
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Distance: 3.00 Miles
Duration: 2 hours, 31 minutes
Coppertone and I arrived at Friedrich not entirely knowing what to expect in terms of the roughness of the terrain. Things were a little bit tougher than expected. In this case that was a good thing.
The Vista Loop on the back of the park provided the most undulating terrain and the fewest people. The parking lot was packed with cars though and one didn't have to travel far on the main loop before running into another set of hikers.
Our schedule and the heat didn't allow us enough time or energy to hike every mile of the park, so we'll have ample reason to visit again.
Nice bit of wilderness in the city
User:
rodavenport - 4/20/2010
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Distance: 5.30 Miles
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Nice little piece of wilderness. Its a shame that more of it couldn't have been rescued from the developers. Really noisy however due to plane traffic , automotive traffice to the east and barking dogs from the residental neighborhood on the north side. I was surprised at the number of people in the more rugged portions of the trail.
Its a nice bit of hiking and it has a few spots in it that will make your legs burn. The lack of solitude is a real turn off for me however.
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jeblake1974 - 1/10/2010
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Distance: 4.50 Miles
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Went on a Sunday morning and there was no one else in the park until we finished the hike. Vista Loop trail can be a lung buster in certain areas. I like the fact that they made some trails accessable to those in wheelchairs. Overall, a nice park in the city and a great place to spend a couple of hours to get your legs burning and heart pumping.
Great hike close to San Antonio
User:
mc2522 - 4/25/2009
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
Duration: 2 minutes
Friedrich Wilderness Park is a great park located close to San Antonio. The hiking trails are very well marked and there is some great scenery once you get to the summit.
Wonderful hike in the evening
User:
cadenaang - 4/19/2009
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Distance: 2.70 Miles
Duration: 55 minutes
It was a last minute decision to go on this hike and I was racing the sun to get back to my truck before dusk. Since I had not been on these trails before, I had to rely on the signs and my view of the map online. There weren't any brochures and the signs are faded. The trails are extremely well-kept, but I opted out of the Fern Del loop because of the darkness. I will have to go again to try and catch it since it is supposed to be the most difficult part of this trail. Saw a few people, at the beginning of my hike but had absolute wonderful solitude for the majority of my hike.
LOVED the fern del and vista loop area!
User:
bingobaby - 12/27/2008
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Distance: 5.00 Miles
Duration: 2 hours
the first time i went, i didn't care for it. i had my baby in the backpack and didn't want to venture to the fern del area - glad i didn't. but i did today w/o her and it was gorgeous! steep climbs at times and beautiful views.
i will definitely go back but like i said i don't think i could do it with a baby packed.
One of the best
User:
RMA - 3/21/2008
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
Duration: N/A
If you don't need solitude than you will enjoy this hike.
User:
M High - 3/18/2008
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
Duration: 2 hours
The trails at the front of the park are very easy, level, graded and sometimes paved (for wheelchairs), but further back in the park along the Vista Loop there are some pretty steep, rocky sections with a little bit of huffing and puffing. Nothing particularly impressive, just a normal walk through the woods. Constant highway noise (it's right off a major freeway), that does die off to just a faint background hum in the back half of the park. Trails are extremely well marked and maintained (almost to the point of overkill).
too much pavement and gravel
User:
fatcat57 - 10/7/2007
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes
I was very disappointed with the amount of paved trails in the park. I was also very disappointed that the city of San Antonio has put down gravel on a lot of the natural trails. You shouldn't find trails "graveled" in a natural area.
Great way to spend an afternoon
User:
J.R Moore - 5/15/2007
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Distance: 3.00 Miles
Duration: 2 hours
Great park for being so close to a city.
Nice Slice of the Hill Country
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jjnipp769 - 6/15/2006
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Distance: 2.00 Miles
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Good and close to SA, this park offers some good glimpses of the Texas Hill Country without having to travel too far. Not very dirricult. Solitude depends when visited, of course.
Great for kids
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skydvrboy - 5/29/2006
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Distance: 5.50 Miles
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I often take these trails with my 3 year old boy and 1 year old girl. It is nice to have a park like this so close to the city. My son has now hiked every trail there, under his own power, so I don't know why anyone would rate the difficulty as 4 stars out of 5. Even with 50 lbs of gear and children, one can hike the entire park in an afternoon and be home for supper. Almost all trails are shaded.
Lovely area, just outside the city
User:
Riff Raff - 5/7/2006
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Distance: 3.50 Miles
Duration: N/A
Took a trip here with my father, while I was in town. I took basically the outer loop of the whole park, starting with part of the (paved) Forest Range trail then heading into the entirety of the Juniper Barrens trail before meeting up with the Main Loop. Continued around the park on the Main Loop and Vista Loop trails.
There's a wide range of trails here for various activity levels, and they're all extremely well marked. The Forest Range trail is paved and can be done by anyone, while the Vista trail had some definite rock scrambling involved. The Main Loop takes you to the top of the ridge and then the Vista trail takes you around another canyon type area. The short Fern Del trail looked interesting (for another time), as easily the most strenuous hike in the park. Will have to come back sometime and hit up some of the side trails and such.
The parking lot was about half full on this sunny Sunday afternoon, and I encountered perhaps twenty people on the various trails. Obviously the farther out you get (e.g. the Vista Trail) the less people you run into.
Great Hike
User:
twcavazos - 4/17/2006
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
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We started out on main loop and headed straight up to vista loop to get to fern del (best trail in the park). We went with full packs so it was an especially good workout. Do a few laps around fern del and I promise you'll enjoy it. After that we finished the last half of vista loop and main loop. We wanted to check out juniper barrens but we were out of daylight.
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germhunter - 8/6/2005
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Distance: 5.00 Miles
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You forget you're in the city when in this park and you don't see that many people along the way. Very enjoyable hiking within the city limits.
First hike, really enjoyed.
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AshleyNicole - 5/16/2005
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
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Good for those who live in San Antonio and want to do a short hike after work or something.
Not bad for being inside city limits
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leemark45 - 1/14/2005
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Distance: 5.50 Miles
Duration: N/A
Forget solitude. Park gets crowded almost any time. Best time seems to be middle of week before 12noon. Weekends are worst. Trails range from paved to what the park calls a level 4 (rocky, uneven paths with some narrow ledges along ravines.) Best time to experience the park is winter, especially with frost on the ground (very rare around here.) Opening/closing hours should be expanded to be more like other city parks (7am - 11pm, for example.)
Great Hill Country Park
User:
figment - 11/6/2004
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Rating: N/A
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Distance: 4.00 Miles
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The trails here are very well marked, there are a range of trails from wheelchair-accessible to very steep and rocky, and it is not too crowded. Very enjoyable for all skill levels.
User:
carl - 7/28/2004
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Distance: 3.00 Miles
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Started the hike at 6 in the evening. The park has 4 rating categories for its trails,1-4, with 1 being the easiest and 4 the most difficult. Followed the Main Loop Trail for about 1/2 a mile until it intersected the Juniper Berry Trail. This section of the Main Looop Trail is relatively easy. The Juniper Berry Trail takes you into a more rugged portion of the park but there are very few elevation changes so it is pretty easy hiking. The Juniper Berry Trail again intersects the Main Loop Trail. Followed this trail for about another 1/2 mile. At this point the Main Loop Trail becomes much more difficult as you now are ascending a relatively steep hill. I had to stop a couple of times going up the hill to catch my breath. Finally this portion of the trail reaches the top portion of this hill. It levels out and once again becomes an easy hike. About 100 yards down this portion of the trail, you will run into the Vista Loop Section of the trail. This portion of the trail is about a mile in length and takes you further up the hill. It was the most difficult portion of my hike. It is very rugged and you really have to watch your footing. This trail intersects the Main Loop Trail once again. At this point I was really rather tired and stayed on the Main Loop Trail until I reached the exit point. This poriton of the hike was rather easy. Total time of hike 2 hours.
Nice Day Hike very pleasant & close to home.
User:
Ernie - 7/23/2003
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Distance: 3.96 Miles
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This hike was scenic,peaceful & very well maintained great place for bird watching saw some common South Texas wildlife.