Full disclosure here. I lived in south Austin from 2003-2005, and just about every weekend I (and Stoop) went and walked the Barton Creek Trail. A few times I started at the neighborhood off Scottish Woods Trail, but most of the time I parked at the entry point under the south Mopac bridge and headed “upstream” towards the dam, which was near the entrance to the neighborhood off Scottish Woods Trail. Once I walked through that very neighborhood and down the edge of 360 to get back to the south Mopac bridge entrance where I parked (with Stoop close by my side). When I was there, I don’t ever recall that area being called the “Hill of Life.” I’m going to say it was probably mentioned then, and I just don’t recall it now.
So since I hadn’t been able to use much vacation in 2020 (like many of us), I had some time to burn (since traveling anyplace was still out of the question). I decided a middle-of-the-week return to the Barton Creek Trail would be good. Back when I lived in south Austin, I ended up doing the entire trail all the way to Zilker Park as well as some side paths (over a few different visits, and making sure I’d gone in every entry point). It would be nice to revisit this, because I hadn’t been here in over a decade. Also, I just assumed the “Hill of Life” was an area I hadn’t explored yet, so I figured it was something new.
Parking in the neighborhood off Scottish Woods Trail looked new to me, but once I got on the main rocky hill going down I recalled that part. Oh, my dumbass. It seemed to me I’d been on the “Hill of Life” before and didn’t realize it.
When I came in to do this trail, instead of heading towards the dam, I decided to go downstream. There were a few areas I was able to walk out on rocks and get pictures of nice water. Those were some beautiful areas. Strangely (and very unexpected) as I followed the water down, the volume decreased until it was non-existent. None of the trail looked familiar to me at all, so I was amazed at how much it had changed in a decade. What surprised me more was the lack of water. Austin’s massive drought period was circa 2012-2015, and we’d gotten significant rainfall since then which had filled the lake back up. Why was Barton Creek so damn dry?
I did find the swimming hole area where I used to let Stoop frolic around, and that was bone dry. An area near that showed the five-foot drop-off which used to make up the main swimming hole. I even stood in the middle of what once was the creek. When I travelled this before, there was water all the way to Zilker. I got close to the south Mopac bridge, went up to the entry point, and even that section of the trail didn’t look the same. As far as I was concerned, this was a brand-new trail which I’d been on today. I enjoyed the hike immensely, but found it interesting and concerning at how much it had changed. What was the rest of the trail going to be like when I did that in the next day or two?
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