Next up on my Austin trails, is the Turkey Creek Trail at the Emma Long Metropolitan Park. This is considered by locals to be mostly a dog park, as was evident by the large amount of dogs present while hiking and also by the fact that I was the only one there without a dog. Regardless, this was a nice hike and unlike the Barton Creek Trail, this creek had some water in it!
From the parking lot you cross a forested hill and then end up where the creek goes under City Park Rd. The creek was pretty dry down at that point, so the footpath stones were a bit unnecessary. The Trail winds a bit away from the creek for a bit and then you get to the main part of the trail, which is right next to Turkey Creek. It's a pretty shallow waterway, but there were stepping stones at every part the trail crossed the creek (which happened a few times).
1/4th the way into the hike you reach a part where you backtrack a bit to the right and start hiking up the hill to the top. Whereas the first part of the hike was pretty flat, this is a bit of a climb. Once I got to the top of the hill, I managed to get a bit lost. Not lost per say, as I have a pretty good sense of direction, but I had no idea where the hell I was in relation to the map. There were a ton of crisscrossing pathways, none of which seemed to make any sense and all worn about evenly. I managed to make my way to the back of the valley, then around and down to the other side of the trail heading down. This back part was much dryer, with many empty creek beds to walk on. Eventually the trail wound back to the wetter part.
There's not much else to say about the trail. Like I mentioned before, even though this is considered to be a dog trail by most, it's still nice and mostly easy going, especially if you go the opposite way I did (make a left at the fork and climb the long the long gradual way, and leave the more strenuous climb on the right for your descent. Even in the drought there was a good chunk of the creek which was wet, and I can only imagine how much nicer it would be when it rains.
Bonus point: while leaving the park, I found a random payphone in the middle of a small field between the roads. Weird!
Here's an Imgur album with these photos and more:
When you're on top of the hill at the back of the loop there are a couple places that branch off from this trail. There are *miles* of other trails up there. Check it out!
ReplyDeleteIf I had more time that day I would have definitely ventured out into those trail spurs. Next time I'm in town I'll check it out!
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