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Austin Explorer

Barton Creek Greenbelt

Trail (4.10)
(2.45) (2.95)
8.00 Miles N/A
N/A No
Yes Yes
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Austin Travis
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Barton Creek

Getting there: From south MoPac, take the Loop 360 exit and head east.  The first light includes a left turn lane which leads you into a parking lot for the office building next to the trail entrance.  Try to park as far to the left, close to the greenbelt entrance as possible.

The Hike: The Barton Creek greenbelt is the grand daddy of all hiking trails within the city limits of Austin. While the start of the trail begins not too far from downtown, it winds its way for about 8 miles through sometimes rough terrain. At times you will be surprised that you are still in Austin.

Most folks tackle Barton Creek in pieces, so we'll present hikes here in bite-sized chunks. As usual, all of the hikes include a topo map with track and GPS points, commentary on the trail, photos and more.

Photos

No photos have been uploaded for this location.

Log Entries

User: Ollie - 4/12/2010  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 1.00 Mile Duration: N/A
User: Ollie - 4/2/2010  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 1.00 Mile Duration: N/A
Searching for the Cox Ranch
User: Ollie - 3/24/2010  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 2.00 Miles Duration: N/A

I started from the MOPAC entence and backtracked down stream along the north side of the creek.  I ran across little to no people along the path.  There was a rockslide right at the MOPAC bridge and a few windfalls further down the trail but the condition is decent in most places.  Still could find no indication of the Cox Ranch site.

User: Ollie - 3/15/2010  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 2.50 Miles Duration: N/A
Great section of Barton Creek
User: Ollie - 2/16/2010  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 2.00 Miles Duration: N/A

Hiked from MOPAC south turnaround and really enjoyed the hike... lots of need things to explore and look at including an old stone wall.

User: marakristina - 1/27/2010  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 7.00 Miles Duration: N/A
User: Kim Skotak - 12/21/2009  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 6.00 Miles Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Beautiful area in the middle of the city...
User: sitac - 11/18/2009  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 8.00 Miles Duration: 4 hours, 35 minutes

We entered at the Camp Craft Road entrance at 11:30 on a Wednesday and went down the "Hill of Life"...The trail and creek were beautiful and we saw only a few others, mostly with thier dogs, on this part of the trail.  Our idea was to try and walk all the way to the Zilker Park entrance, as we had left one car there.  Not recommended as once we got to the Gaines Creek entrance off of Mopac, the trail got hard to follow under MoPac and beyond, until we got to the 360 entrance area.  We did it but had to make our own trail in some spots and had to cross over the creek twice.  It was a nice day so we were okay with that; and we stopped to eat our lunch.  Also, we saw a sign that said "Trail Closed" but it was from the direction we had alredy come from, and no sign before that.  So, that mile and a half or so between Mopac and 360 is the most difficult. ...Remember also, that this entrance is in a neighborhood area,so there is limited parking, and you probably cannot park there on a busy weekend. 

Great Hike
User: goffree - 8/3/2009  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 5.00 Miles Duration: N/A

great hike with my dogs this evening!  Ran into few runners and cyclists.  Started at Mopac access road.  Went past Sculpture Falls and sign for restrooms.  Looped back around on other side.  Still bone dry down there.

No water, lots of cyclists, very green
User: jessicab - 5/25/2009  [View Log Page]
Rating: Difficulty: Solitude:
Distance: 3.00 Miles Duration: N/A

We hiked the east greenbelt today with our dog from 360 down to Fruh Pool thinking there would be some water after the rain we had this weekend. Not a drop. It was a lovely hike though, relatively easy, although there were a ton of cyclists to watch out for.


Only showing last 10 log entries. View All Log Entries

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