In the past few years, my uncle has rediscovered his love of hiking and has pretty thoroughly explored the trails around Austin. Sharing some of his favorite hikes with us was one of the things he was most excited for during our visit, and my mom and I were looking forward to getting out into Texas Hill Country and seeing what it was all about.
We had two days of hiking scheduled, and neither were looking stellar, weather-wise. We didn’t actually get rained on, but the first day was cloudy and the second began with lots of low-hanging clouds. On the plus side, it wasn’t quite as hot – something I was grateful for given the overall lack of shade on most of these trails.
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Inks Lake State Park
For our first day of hiking, we headed northwest from Austin to Inks Lake State Park. This state park encompasses the eastern shore of Inks Lake, which is actually a reservoir created by damming the Colorado River – though this is not the same Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon. There are 9 miles (14.5 km) of trails in the park, and we managed to hike a little more than half of them.
We began on the northern side of the park on the Devil’s Waterhole Nature Trail. This short path brought us down to the water’s edge. From here, we caught the Valley Spring Creek Trail for a short distance, which ascended to a high point at the northern edge of the lake. We then dropped down on a connector trail across the creek to the Devil’s Backbone Nature Trail. From here, we ascended to a second high point with nice views of this northern arm of the lake and the pink granite surrounding it.
The latter two of these trails extend beyond what we walked, but we elected to turn around here and retrace our steps back to the car. In total, we hiked about 1.3 miles (2.1 km) with just over 100 feet (30 m) of elevation gain.
Almost everywhere we went on this trip was just overflowing with wildflowers, and Inks Lake was no exception. And little did we know, the best was yet to come!
Back at the car, we made our way to the southern portion of the park for our second hike. This time, we would be covering quite a lot more distance on a loop hike connecting the Lake, Woodland, and Pecan Flats Trails.
As the name suggests, the Lake Trail runs along the lakeshore for a bit before beginning to climb.
Before long, we found ourselves on a rocky hillside staring at a large group of turkey vultures. They seemed to be divided into two groups; we assume it was some sort of mating ritual, and presumably the groups were males and females. They weren’t doing anything fancy, but it was still neat to encounter. We gave them a wide berth and didn’t stay too long, though.
The Lake Trail crosses the road and dead-ends at the Woodland Trail, a 2.2 mile (3.5 km) loop that we followed counterclockwise through the shrubs, cactus, and wildflowers. The trail was alternately dirt and slickrock, sometimes ascending the rocky outcrops and sometimes curving around them.
At some point – and I can’t recall if we were still on the Woodland Trail or if it was the Pecan Flats Trail – we encountered a collection of paintbrush. A couple minutes later, the trail came upon a meadow of bluebonnets. Then another. And then another. It was stunning!
Thanks to the endless wildflowers, this trail was undoubtedly my favorite of the entire trip.
The Important Stuff:
- Getting there: Inks Lake is located northwest of Austin, off State Highway 29 near the town of Burnet.
- Fees and passes: entry costs $7/person for adults unless you have a Texas state parks pass. Additional fees apply for camping and reservations may be necessary. You can find more park information here.
- Hiking: view the trail map here.
Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge
On day two, we headed northwest from Austin once more, though not quite as far this time, to Balcones Canyonlands. Being a wildlife refuge, Balcones is much less developed, though there is a visitor center and quite a few trails. We began at Warbler Vista Trailhead, where we hiked a loop combining the Quarry Canyon, Ridgeline, Cactus Rocks, and Vista Knoll Trails into a 4.5 mile (7.2 km) loop with nearly 600 feet (185 m) of elevation gain. Low-hanging clouds obscured the views for the first half of the hike, but as they slowly lifted we were finally able to see a little more.
One of the things preserved within Balcones Canyonlands is a forest of Ashe junipers, which are key to the survival of the golden-cheeked warbler. As it ages, the bark of these trees peels off in very thin strips, which the warblers use to build their nests. Without this bark, nests cannot be built and the species cannot reproduce, thus protecting these older trees is critical. We didn’t see any warblers that I know of (though I’m far from a bird identification expert) but we sure did see many Ashe junipers.
Our second stop was at the Doeskin Ranch Trailhead. Here, five sequential loop trails meander through various ecosystems, including some that climb up the step-like layers – or balconies – from which Balcones Canyonlands gets its name. We combined the Rimrock, Shin Oak, and Indiangrass Trails into a slightly more than 3 mile (4.8 km) loop with about 500 feet (150 m) of elevation gain. The clouds had lifted and it was a hot, sunny hike.
The Important Stuff:
- Getting there: there are multiple entrances to Balcones Canyonlands, all off Highway 1431 between Lago Vista and Marble Falls.
- Fees and passes: none.
- Hiking: here is a hiking map and brochure for all sections of Balcones.
Overall, we really enjoyed our introduction to the Texas Hill Country. It wasn’t at all what I expected. To be fair, I’m not really sure what I expected. But it wasn’t this. It certainly didn’t include so many wildflowers.
I know there’s so much more to see in the area and these two days just barely scratched the surface. Hopefully we will return one day for some more exploration. But for now, it was time to wave the trails goodbye and head back to the city.
Up next: LBJ National Historical Park and Presidential Library
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