White Oak Bayou Trail

Dogs Leashed

Houston may be infamous for its freeways, but hidden along the major drainage channels, the region is quietly building up an extensive network of urban trail connections. This trail along White Oak Bayou is one of these paved routes connecting neighborhoods in a much more pleasant way than bumper-to-bumper traffic. You can hop on and hop off from north of Jersey Village all the way to downtown, where there are links to other Houston trails. With only a handful of at-grade crossings, you can walk or bike to parks like Stude, T.C. Jester, Clark Henry and Westwillow, reach community centers like the White Oak Conference and Lionel Castillo as well as the University of Houston-Downtown. The accessibility to services, shopping and employment centers makes this route the "Northwest Expressway" for active transportation.

White Oak Bayou is one of nine major drainages that run into or through the City of Houston. In November 2012 Houston voters approved $100 million in bond funding to develop trails along the drainages Some of the earliest development activity was along White Oak Bayou and it now extends significantly into unincorporated Harris County.

Beginning at the Ranchstone Detention Basin the route follows the right bank of White Oak Bayou as a wide concrete path with several undercrossings until passing under West Road. The route then uses a crushed-rock segment to reach a motor-vehicle bridge over the E135-00-00 drainage on Rio Grande Drive. There is a narrow sidewalk on the west side of the bridge, but if you're on a bicycle there isn't much traffic on Rio Grande Drive. The short WHC MUD Bridge Access is a wide concrete path and bridge to reach the wide concrete path on the left bank of the bayou. Continuing downstream the route stays to the left on the Jersey Village Bypass Channel to pass under the ferocious roar of the Sam Houston Tollway and continues downstream to use a sidewalk along Windfern Forest Drive to then run to the Jersey Village Bypass Channel Trail. Many of the Jersey Village neighborhoods are accessible from this trail segment on quiet residential streets, along with some businesses along Jones Road.

A relatively narrow sidewalk along the west side of the Gessner bridge brings the trail to the right bank of White Oak Bayou proper. The wide concrete path continues downstream with road underpasses and connections to the Fairbanks and Hollister detention basin loops. There are connections to the neighborhoods, particularly to the south.

The Houston city limit is located just east of the Hollister Basin Loop, and from this point on, the trail is operated by the Houston Parks Board. The wide concrete path continues downstream on the right bank until moving to the left bank using the bridge at Watonga Blvd. Other than at-grade crossings at W. 43rd. St., Burlington Northern Rail and W. 34th St., the trail arrives at the underpass of the I-610 loop unimpeded. Key access in this segment is to the Inwood Forest and Vogel Creek areas to the north.

With just one at-grade crossing at Ella, the trail continues on to W. 11th St. where a bridge carries it to the right bank. Continuing downstream to the second intersection with the MKT Trail, using that trail's bridge to move back over to the left bank. Primary access is to neighborhoods to the north, including the Heights.

The trail continues on to enter downtown at the University of Houston-Downtown. At this point at-grade street crossings are common, with the trail leaving the bayou bank to end at Commerce Street.

The trail dates from 2015 when work started on the downstream end, linking up some limited pre-existing trails associated with parks. All portions of the trail inside the Houston city limits are operated by the Houston Parks Board and they have documented the history of those segments: houstonparksboard.org/white… Subsequently, Harris County leveraged flood control work by the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to build connected detention basin circuits and link them upstream to existing trails by municipal utility districts like HC MUD 9 and HC MUD 11 to realize a complete multi-use path from Jones Road north of Jersey Village to downtown Houston.