Confluence Park in San Antonio, Texas (#13 for #SA2020Resolutions)

Confession time: Confluence Park (located where the San Antonio River meets San Pedro Creek near Mission Concepción) isn’t really a park. Yet. But my kids and I visited it one Saturday in September anyway. We decided to call it park #13 for our #SA2020Resolutions quest to visit 20 parks in San Antonio in 2014 for three reasons:

1. The San Antonio River Authority held it’s inaugural River Arts Fest on the site that day. The festival featured art created from reused and recycled materials; hands-on activities for kids; food trucks, a fashion show touting clothes made entirely from recycled materials; live music; and educational presentations. So while the park is really just a three-acre field right now, the festival was a good reason for us head just south of downtown to enjoy the outdoors on a cool, gray, misty day that would have otherwise kept us indoors.

2. Confluence Park is located along the banks of the San Antonio River (in the Mission Reach section). After we strolled around the festival, we walked down to the river to explore and play.

3. Confluence Park is going to be a real park one day…a really cool park. Planning is complete for what will eventually be another jewel added to San Antonio’s impressive crown of city improvements: an indoor / outdoor learning center where kids and adults alike will learn about the River and the life in and around it.

The completion of Confluence Park is a few years off with a projected timeframe of 2017 for the park’s opening. Right now, the San Antonio River Foundation, headed up by Estela Avery (wife to James Avery), is busy raising funds for the park (Avery’s own family foundation donated $1 million to the project).

Just over a year ago, The Rivard Report detailed the plans for Confluence Park:

Eleven educational play zones will introduce students to an equal number of learning experiences: soil ecology, gardening, hydrology, solar energy, plant biology, sustainable practices, wildlife, river and marine biology, stream bed topography, sustainable dwelling, and composting. It’s education disguised as outdoors play in nature – sure to appeal as much to the inner child in adults as the busloads of children who will find their visits to Confluence Park far more inspiring than science studies in a traditional classroom.

– Robert Rivard, The Rivard Report

For now, the best part of the park is its easy access to the river where you can walk, run, and bike along it.