The Trailist: Miller’s Pond is a popular fishing spot with two trail loops on the Southwest Side

This month, I thought I would check out a park I had never visited before on the Southwest Side, an area that could use more of them. 

At about 42 acres, Miller’s Pond is small but still vital to a part of San Antonio where public lands are scarce. The only other major park nearby is Pearsall Park, a former landfill that has some decent trails, a disc golf course and a brand-new bike park, among other features.

After more than three years of drought, I expected Miller’s Pond to be extremely low but was pleasantly surprised on a Halloween evening visit. The pond is a popular fishing area, with groups of young men, couples and older folks hanging out and casting lines along the banks while we were there. The pond is the highlight of the park, with trees along parts of its banks and a fishing pier near the parking lot.

Unfortunately, many of its other amenities are looking bleak and in need of more investment from the city and civic groups. One positive note is that I didn’t notice any trash littering the area, which is a problem at many other local parks. 

The park is home to one event that seems to draw big crowds — the San Antonio Water Lantern Festival, where attendees get kits to make their own floating paper lanterns they can push out onto the lake. This year’s event took place in September and may have been worth checking out. However, it’s run by a for-profit company that tours the U.S., and tickets start at more than $28, which seems a little steep to me. The company says the cost covers the lanterns and their collection at the end of the event so they don’t end up littering the pond and affecting the wildlife habitat.

Miller’s Pond has about a mile of asphalt walking trail. This includes the 0.75-mile Loop Trail that circles the pond. Its best section is along the pond’s eastern shore, where bald cypress and other trees cast shade over spots where visitors can set up chairs and fish. We saw all kinds of ducks dabbling in the water along this area and near the parking lot, along with a few feral geese that strutted around with a haughty attitude.

Texas Parks and Wildlife stocks the pond with channel catfish and rainbow trout. I was surprised to see the two stocked together — channel catfish are native to the eastern U.S., with rainbow trout originally being a Pacific U.S. species that has been introduced all over the country. I learned that Texas Parks and Wildlife stocks them together fairly often, including at Southside Lions Park in San Antonio.  

The Loop Trail on the northern side of the pond is sun-exposed, though it has a few shade pavilions. The park overall offers little shade and would be pretty miserable during a scorching afternoon from July through September.

North of the lake is an open area dotted with mesquite trees that cast little shade over patchy, struggling grass and bare dirt. The area seems under-used and could benefit from native pollinator plants and walking paths, at least.

In the park’s southwest corner lies the 0.25-mile Small Loop, another asphalt trail that circles a baseball diamond. This area had several desert willow trees in bloom, with bees plunging into their pink flowers streaked with purple.

The city has owned the park since 1976, when it purchased the land from a private company. It used to be called Valley Hi Park until City Council approved a name change the following year.

The city’s 2022-2027 includes $800,000 for Miller’s Pond, marked for “general park improvements” that “may” include expanding and improving the restroom and parking lot and adding more shade to the tiny playground, which I’m sure gets wickedly hot in the summer. The city estimates the work will take place from spring to fall 2025.

The park also includes a community center with a multi-purpose meeting room and an indoor gym for basketball and volleyball. According to the city’s history of the park, credit for pushing the city to build the center belongs to two neighborhood groups — People Active in Community Effort and Southwest Community Association. They also were instrumental in getting the city to build the playground, sports fields, lighting and picnic facilities.

Overall, Miller’s Pond is clearly important to surrounding neighborhoods as a place to fish and relax by the pond, though Pearsall Park has clearly drawn more resources from the city. I hope that can change, as the park could be better with a little more investment.