BARTON CREEK GREENBELT
The entrance trail starts by
descending in elevation a bit to get you close to the water level of Barton
Creek, and then forms a T. Going right (which is upstream) will pass a
nice wide area for swimming, and then an area which becomes an open field.
The cliffs here are what you see when looking south.
There’s two other smaller trail
heads along here, once which brings you close to Walsh Tarlton Lane (near
Barton Creek Mall), and the other which deposits you in housing development.
As long as you stay on the trail, and keep the stream to your left,
you’re not going to get lost.
From the initial T intersection if
you go left, you’ll have a muddy path which takes you under the Mopac bridge,
and the trail starts to get obscured. But if you wanted to continue north
on the Greenbelt, the park map will let you know of a couple other nearby trail
heads (one at 360, one off Barton Skyway, and a hidden one off a Lamar side
street). Each of those will bring you on to different points. It
took me a couple different days of exploring each of the trail heads, to see
which one I liked the best. But if you follow the trail far enough,
you’ll end up in Zilker
Park
A RETURN TO INNERSPACE (GEORGETOWN , TX
It was starting to get hot in the
late spring of 2004, and we hadn’t even hit summer yet. After a
discussion about the Underdark, it occurred to me that Brian had never seen
InnerSpace Caverns. That made a good weekend trip for us to go.
Even though I’d been there the previous year, it was nice to see this
again. And as I’d heard the explanation before, I didn’t have to stand
next to the tour guide to hear the story again, although we tried to get close
so Brian could get the full benefit.
As the history of InnerSpace was
detailed in a previous entry of this blog, I’ll only hit the basic highlights
here (for someone who may be just stumbling on this). Up in Georgetown , back in the
1960’s, a new overpass for Interstate 35 was being constructed. The drill lost a couple bits, so work halted
as the crew needed to investigate how big this space was they’d found. Work
crews had found little cave pockets before, and as long as there was no impact
on the Edwards Aquifer, they’d get filled in with concrete.
The newest member of the crew got
sent down the hole with a tiny flashlight and found a place as large as a football
field. Geologists were called in to check the area, and quickly
determined they’d found something extraordinary. Plans were redrawn, and
the interstate was then sent over the most narrowest point of the cave system,
and the part which would cause the least disturbance.
This cave (today known as the “Discovery Cave
During the exploration, many side
tunnels were found, some which lead to other chambers were bones of mammoths,
camels, and sabretooth cats were found. No human remains were discovered.
The bones from these are animals are in a display case, and there were
some paintings on the wall to show what the creatures were. The paintings
were done by the modern cave explorers, but in the manner of “cave man art.”
Brian initially got really excited about the wall art until I pointed
that fact out.
As this is considered a “living
cave” (which means its still growing), no one is allowed to touch anything in
the cave. There are oil secreted by humans which can keep the minerals
from bonding with the stone. One hand isn’t going to do any damage, but
many hands over a succession of time will. So in order to protect the
cave for future generation, InnerSpace has a strict no touch policy.
Other than the metal hand rails that line the cement walkways, touch
nothing inside the cave. As it had rained recently, the inside of the
cave was very slick, and there was a lot of water dripping from the
ceiling. Those are considered “cave
kisses.” I stuck my tongue out and happened to catch one. It’s a drop of water with a high mineral
content, so not very tasty, but certainly pure.
No matter how hot and humid outside
is, the cave stays at a constant comfortable temperature. In order to be
a commercial cave, an entrance was dug on the far side to allow visitors
access. The design of this opening keep the cool air inside the cave, but
now an occasional bat or insect may find their way in. Not much can be
done to keep them out, and the impact they’ll have on the cave’s ecosystem is
pretty minimal.
Even on the second time through
when the guide pointed out the names of some of the formations, I still didn’t
see where they got it from. It’s all perception and imagination. It
was a great excursion for Brian and I, because as gamers, it’s sometimes very
difficult to describe an environment that humans aren’t use to seeing.
The subterranean realm of the Drow (known as the Underdark) is one such
place, and this gave an indication of what those areas would look like.
The views were awe-inspiring, and no matter how cool these pictures look,
I don’t feel I’ve done this justice. You need to come out and see this
for yourself. I consider this a “highly recommended place.”
As I had Friday’s off, I took the
opportunity to explore various areas around the city (and that’s when I did
most of the area parks). I’d seen Austin ’s
skyline from the river or an overpass, but I wondered if there was a way to get
a view from some elevation within the city. There are a number of tall
buildings around, but none are open to the public. I needed something I
could simply stroll in without any one asking me any questions as to why I was
there.
The tower
at the University of Texas at Austin
seemed like a good target. There was absolutely no pun with that
statement, as back in 1966 that some nut simply strolled in, went to the top of
the tower, and opened fire on the student body.
But as this was a college campus
with a lot of people wandering about, no one thought anything of it when I
walked into the building, went directly towards the elevator, and pressed the
button to the top. The highest floor I could go had a security door which
I didn’t have a key for. The floor immediately below was similarly barred
from me accessing it. I dropped one more, and then was able to enter into
a hallway. Most of the tower is offices
for administrative personnel, so other than some narrow windows with thick
glass, there wasn’t much to see. The view might’ve been better from one
of the offices, but I wasn’t really in a position to knock on a random door.
That would go over real well, as it wasn’t a student there. I
dropped down one more level, and saw the same thing, so there was really no
reason to continue checking subsequent floors.
I had
another reason to be on the campus today, as I wanted to visit the college
radio station (KVRX) to see if there was a way I could worm my way into doing a
show for them (much like I did at Adirondack Community College). I spoke
to a few random people, who directed me to where the station was, but I wasn’t
able to access the facilities. No one gave me any information about who
the adviser was, so that put the kibosh on that.
I still had a good day getting
lunch at the student union, and doing some people watching. I didn’t meet
anyone who would be added to my circle of friends, but nothing ventured nothing
gained. I read a number of bulletin boards for upcoming events, none
which I was interested in, but the architecture of the campus buildings was
worth looking at.
While I didn’t visit them
specifically, I noted the presence of the Texas Natural Science Center (and
Memorial Museum), the Harry Ransom Center, and the Blanton Museum of Art as
future places I could take my parents to when they next came for a visit.
Ever since I first visited Austin , I’d heard about
the city’s fascination with bats. A colony of free-tail bats flies up
from Mexico
to spend the summer in the area, and since natural habitat had been destroyed
by human progress, new dens had been created for them. Underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge
So one night I went down to check
this out. I parked over by Butler
Park
As the sun went down, and there was
still some lingering daylight left, the bats started to emerge; first a few,
then more, and then even more. Within a few minutes there were thousands
in the air, moving in union like a black swarm against the night sky. Since most of the dens were at the parts of
the bridge over Town
Lake
Being in a position below the level
of the bridge allowed the sky to serve as a good backdrop for the pictures.
On another night I stood on top of the bridge and looked down at the bats
as they emerged. This wasn’t as good of a position, as the darkness of
the sky reflected off the water, and served to camouflage the bats. Only
when the flash of a camera briefly illuminated the area could a good look at
these critters be seen.
The bats fly around all night
eating what ever bugs they find, and then return to their dens in the morning.
From what I was told, the return is no where near as spectacular, as they
simply trickle back to the bridge. Considering the area of the sky the
bats take up when they emerge, you don’t have to be next to the Congress Avenue
bridge to witness this. Both the Lamar pedestrian bridge and Auditorium Shores Austin
should see at least once.
For current information on the places mentioned:
Barton
Creek Greenbelt : http://www.austinparks.org/our-parks.html?parkid=206
InnerSpace Caverns: http://www.myinnerspacecavern.com/home.php
UT Tower: http://www.utexas.edu/tower/
UT Tower Shooting: http://www.texasmonthly.com/topics/ut-tower-shooting
Tracy Gallagher: http://www.tracygallagher.com/
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