George Bush Park

Named in honor of the 41st president of the United States George H.W. Bush.  The 7,800-acre park located on the far west side of Houston, serves as a major attraction and nature reserve.

Most of the attractions are located on Westheimer Parkway a major thoroughfare in the park. The park hosts a large soccer field, a shooting range, and numerous pavilions, playgrounds, ponds and jogging trails.

The park has a system of jogging trails, many surrounded by swamps, forest, and bayous. Many of the trails follow the Buffalo Bayou, and biking is popular year round. The trail is well known for its flexibility in biking, many speed bikers ride the trails. It is very similar to the nearby Terry Hershey Park in that both feature paved trails. A critical shortcoming of the trail system is that the sole paved trail does not form a loop, requiring cyclists to either ride in the traffic lanes of high-speed thoroughfares or retrace their route.

In addition to the biking trail, there is a large wooden bridge that crosses the Buffalo Bayou, dubbed "the Boardwalk" officially.  Capable of holding 5 tons (10,000 lbs.), the Boardwalk was built in 2004, mainly to cross the swampy, meandering Buffalo Bayou.  The bayou flows slowly and unsteadily in the area, spilling some of its water into swamps as it conjunctions with a second bayou.  The Boardwalk provides easy access across the bayou, seating, but no access to the Buffalo Bayou shoreline.

The park hosts two large, green soccer fields. These are commonly used for local-area teams to run practice drills. The first one is located near the western entrance, and the second, which is slightly smaller, is located near the baseball fields.

There are six baseball fields in the park. Four of them are reserved for the West Oaks Little League. The other two are public fields.

American Shooting Centers reserves 563 acres (2.3 km2) of land near the southeast entrance for shooting. The center is well-known for accumulating nine different awards from different organizations. The center provides different shooting fields, a gun rental/purchase shop and paid shooting lessons.

 Amenities/Activities:

• Restroom
• Dog Park
• Observation Pond
• Archery
• Horseshoe
• Rock climbing
• Model Airplane Flying
• Soccer
• Tennis
• Nature trail
• Volleyball
• Hike & Bike Trail
• Pavilion
• Picnic
• Playground

Park Rules:

• Pavilion must be reserved before use.
• No alcoholic beverages allowed.
• Pets are allowed (on leash).

Located in Harris County (Precinct 3)