Spring Creek Greenway and the George Mitchell Nature Preserve

George Mitchell Nature Preserve

Nature preserve, about 1,800 acres, dedicated in 2007. Four trailheads; Flintridge Drive has the main parking lot.

2 benches and a picnic table.

Amenity counts come from The Woodlands Township’s public GIS map. An item that isn’t listed may still be there, and the map can lag behind new installs and removals.

The George Mitchell Nature Preserve is forest along both banks of Spring Creek, in Montgomery and Harris counties. It was dedicated on Oct. 19, 2007, the 33rd anniversary of The Woodlands’ opening, and carries the name of the community’s founder. Howard Hughes owns the land, and The Woodlands Township runs it as a public preserve under a long-term lease.

The preserve is one piece of the Spring Creek Greenway, a forest corridor along the creek that’s planned to run more than 40 miles from Highway 249 in Tomball to US 59 in Kingwood and protect more than 12,000 acres. Gray foxes, bald eagles, salamanders, old palmettos, sycamores and bald cypress all live along it. Inside the preserve are pine and oak forest, ponds, wetlands, grassy openings and creekside bottomland.

The official page, with the Township’s trail map and orienteering maps, is George Mitchell Nature Preserve on thewoodlandsparks.com. Park rules are summarized on Park Types & Rules.

Trailheads

The nature trail’s eastern end is the Montgomery County Preserve Trailhead in Spring, outside The Woodlands (nearby).

Trails in the preserve

The 2-mile loop from Flintridge is the easy walk most visitors take, with a mid-loop cutoff for a shorter one. The bike trails were designed by S&S Trails of Austin with an REI grant sponsored by the Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Association, matched by the developer and Montgomery County Precinct 3. Volunteers reopened them after Hurricane Ike knocked trees across them in 2008. Boardwalks built by Bayou Land Conservancy volunteers cross the wetter ground.

The Lookout, a bird blind paid for with a $75,000 grant from the National Recreation and Park Association, opened in early 2025. A permanent orienteering course has its own map and instructions on the Township’s preserve page.

Spring Creek Nature Trail

The Spring Creek Nature Trail is a natural-surface path of about 14 miles that follows the creek from Creekside Park West through the preserve to the Montgomery County Preserve. Bayou Land Conservancy built most of it with volunteers starting in 2017, linked it to Harris County’s Burroughs Park in 2019 and still maintains it. Hikers, cyclists and birders all use it, and a free TravelStorys audio tour narrates the route. Stops on the tour include Bedias Lake, Lori’s Boardwalk and the Spring Creek bridge, plus one about the Akokisa people. Sections close after floods and for repairs, so check Bayou Land Conservancy’s trail page before a long hike.

The paved greenway trail

A paved asphalt hike-and-bike path, the Spring Creek Greenway trail itself, is planned through the southern part of the preserve from Creekside Park West to Gosling Road. The Township put $5 million toward its bridges and crossings in October 2022, with Harris County managing the work. On the Harris County side of the creek, a 14.5-mile paved stretch from Dennis Johnston Park east to US 59 is already open.

Maps and visiting

Maps: Township GIS trail map, printable Spring Creek Nature Trail map (Bayou Land Conservancy).

Stay on marked trails, keep dogs leashed and away from the water, clean up after them and don’t feed the wildlife; alligators, beavers and feral hogs live here. No motorized vehicles.