Dog walks on the Barton Creek Greenbelt trail

We got back to Austin late last night after flying back from all the wedding events in Utah. So it was nice to walk out the stiffness of the airplane rides with a walk into Austin's Barton Creek greenbelt, just across the street from our house. We live on a plateau above the creek, so you walk about a quarter of mile to the edge of the arroyo, or small canyon, that leads down to the creek. You can see a bit of the last slope down to the creek in the first photo.

Then there is a long trail along the creek. We are near the middle of the trail, so you could walk several miles upstream or downstream. If you walk about three miles downstream you hit Barton Springs swimming pool, which fills from the creek and from natural springs around it.

The second photo shows how green the area along the creek tends to be, all year, even when the grass up on the plateau by us has dried up.

One of my favorite sights along the creek is a tree which was toppled sideways by flooding, which happens several times a year along the creek (no threat to us since we live several hundred feet higher up on the plateau). Flood waters deposited a prickly pear cactus, which decided to take root and grow, onto the tree.

I usually let the dogs off the lease to run around, at least those that are healthy and well behaved. At present, one has to stay on the leash or further strain her ACL ligament by running and the youngest one is too impulsive to trust off the lease -- he might not come back.

In the next photo one of the other two dogs, Ally, looks back to make sure we are still coming.

We usually walk about half a mile upstream to where a much smaller arroyo, that is dry except for rainy days, runs down the hill into the main creek. There is a nice steep trail along it that makes for a vigorous climb back up to the top.

The last photo shows another of the dogs, Ti, who has pleaded her way temporarily off the leash, hopefully not long enough to push the ACL ligament too hard.

It certainly is nice to have a bit of wilderness this close to hand.