Paseo de la Resaca Wraps Trails Around Brownsville's Water

Resacas, the old, cut-off river channels that still hold water, wind all through Brownsville, and Paseo de la Resaca is the trail system built to follow them. It opened in 2000 inside a planned community on the former Hudson Ranch, where the water became the centerpiece instead of getting filled in for more lots.

The system runs to 128 acres of parkland, 4.1 miles of resacas, and seven miles of paved hike-and-bike trail, plus marinas and playgrounds. Sections lace past Central Parkway, the Texas Trail of Trees Park, the North Park and Tennis Center, and the Brownsville Events Center.

Spend a morning on it and the city starts to make sense. This is why water and trails keep surfacing inside Brownsville neighborhoods instead of being paved over, and the paved surface and the loops between parks make it as much a way to get around as a place to exercise.