I’ve been to Brushy Creek so many times, it was fun to explore the side trails. This was the Rim Loop, which I’d done before, but wanted to return to. Since the last time I was on this was summer (when things were green), I was curious to see if I could see any autumn colors (as it was November, and that’s the close to autumn it gets here). There was one area where I got to see some color variation, but that was it.
I had the opportunity to return to the Barton Creek Greenbelt, and this time the mission was to do the section I’d missed when I took the turn which brought me to the Violet Crown Trail. Now that I knew what to look for, it was much easier. I also bypassed the trail by walking along the actual riverbed. That was interesting to note that not too long ago this was flowing water which had some depth to it. That was reinforced as I came up to what had once been a swimming hole, as evident by the rope swings still on the trees.
Okay, this technically is northwest of the actual boundaries of Austin proper, but is somehow still considered part of Austin. Decades ago because of the massive flooding caused by the Colorado River, as series of dams were built which created what is known today as the “Highland Lakes.” Lake Travis is the last major body of water on the Colorado River upstream from Austin, although there are a couple smaller dams in between.
I’ve been to the Mansfield Dam Park a number of times over the twenty years I’ve lived in the area, and at some point I should present those in a chronological order to show how the water level has changed. It also meant I didn’t want to keep taking pictures of the same stuff over and over again. I did get one shot looking downriver from the Park.
The rest of the pictures were of Lake Travis itself taken from the back patio of St. Like’s on the Lake Episcopal Church. In a very surprising, and un-Austin-like manner, the resident pastor allowed me to venture around the grounds to take some pictures, even though I wasn’t a member of their church (much less part of their faith to begin with). Behind the church were some walking paths which descended down the hill, which the farther I went along the less my view of the lake became. Also as there was various religious idolatry along the path, it was not a comfortable space to be in, even though it was outdoors.
The area with the boat slips was part of the Marshall Ford Marina, and the area where the spotted low-water barrel is called Defeat Hollow (to the right). Defeat Hollow is also part of Tom Hughes Park, which was closed to public access at the time I was taken these pictures (as well as when I was writing this blog entry over a year later). The entrance to Tom Hughes Park was a winding road off of Route 620, but the park entrance was blocked off. That really wasn’t worth taking a photo off. But at some point in the future when the public is allowed to venture back to that area, I’ll see what I can see from there.
Even though the GRC 2020 Summer Tour had ended on Labor Day, I was still keeping that mentality of finding new places to hike (and to take pictures of). Honestly I haven’t spent a lot of time on the south side of the city, so I know there’s a lot of things there I hadn’t explored yet. This one I came across on a map, and figured it was worth a look. Warn you that the driveway for this area wasn’t well-marked so I drove past it once before I was able to locate it when coming from the other direction.
This was primarily a walking trail with few treed areas, but a lot of informational historical signs along to way to describe the settlement which once was here. The trail was well-marked, and there were a few area trail-runners out here too. Much of the terrain looked the same, so I ended up taking few pictures. And many of the historical areas only have some stone walls as remnants. Still worth seeing.
One thing which was odd was at the parking area there was an abandoned stone house. It was hard to tell the age, if it was an original building which had been updated, or something meant to look part of the settlement. It was fenced-off so you could get close to it, and there were no signs associated with it. Just an interesting unanswered question portion.
Hardly a new place for me, as I’d been here a number of times within the past decade or so. But since I hadn’t been up here in a few years, I was due for a return visit. And this was the first time for my current car to handle going up the steep grade I needed to drive up to get here (which was no problem, thanks to my car’s German engineering). There were few people present in the middle of the day, so I was able to park right at the bottom of the steps.
