Restrooms Along Brays Bayou Trail

For those of us who have been saying that we won’t live long enough to see the Brays Bayou Greenways Trail completed, let’s get our affairs in order, because the contractor is about to break ground!   Survey stakes marking the center of the pathway are going in now.  Brays Trail will be extended West from Braeburn Glen Park to Arthur Storey Park (west of Beltway 8) and then will continue West through Alief all the way to Eldridge Parkway.   The trail already meanders through ArchBishop Fiorenza Park and continues across Hwy 6 to the headwaters of Brays (not to be confused with the headwaters of the Nile, but that is another story!).   

One of the agencies that operate the trail got ahead of itself..   There has been, for several years now, a sign on Brays Trail, at South Gessner, pointing to Arthur Storey Park.    OK, so sign painting is a little less intensive than bull dozing and pouring concrete.    Along that line, let me offer a tour of restrooms to be found along the trail, including that part that has yet to be constructed.

I am a 69 year old, fat diabetic on a bicycle.   I make it a point to know where the closest restroom is, at all times.

Following the bayou almost to the ship channel, Mason Park offers restrooms in the community center.   The park itself is a very nice place to play and relax with friends and family.   Several miles upstream is MacGregor Park.   It also has a community center, but I have never found it open.   There are clean porta-potties in the parking lot.   There is also a B-Cycle station there.

Hermann Park has a number of restrooms, but the one closest to the Brays Trail is on Almeda on the East edge of the park.    Cross the Bill Coats bridge, take the Columbia Tap trail South to Dixie.   A very pleasant detour.

I have not found another public restroom for some distance, but many of us believe there is a city ordinance requiring all cyclists to stop at 3 Brothers Bakery, 3036 South Braeswood and buy a Hamantaschen, a delicious cookie shaped like a three-cornered hat.Everything else is good, but very filling!   Once you buy a cookie, you can use the restroom without guilt!

West of 610 Loop, construction is wrapping up on the South Rice and Chimney Rock bridges.  I estimate that the trail will be whole again this Spring.

Stein Family Park is a hidden gem, across the bayou next to United African Seventh Day Adventist Church on Brays Bayou Drive.   Clean restroom, about 20 parking spaces.   

Braeburn Glen Park, at the current Western end of Brays Bayou Trail. I think there are restrooms by the tennis courts

Now, assuming you are adventuresque, or don’t mind driving, Arthur Storey Park is one of the more used parks in Southwest Houston, located just South of the Home Depot, on Beltway 8.   Restroom is at the entrance to the park.

All the way West, and a wonderful gem of a park, is ArchBishop Fiorenza Park.   I am talking about the one West of Eldridge Parkway.  Restroom.   Extensive system of trails, in and outside the park.   There is a short stretch of trail on either side of the bayou, just Northeast of the park.   

I don't claim these are the only restrooms along the trail, but, aside from the bakery, all are open to the public. With the exception of Mason Park, I have used all these restrooms.