Our Colorado River Walkers club is featuring our Lady Bird Lake (LBL) walk this coming Saturday, July 20th. This is one of our Year Round Event (YRE) walks, but we’ve changed up the route a bit for this walk.
We start under the Mopac Bridge on the north side of LBL, at the large parking lot next to the Austin High tennis courts. The address is 2105 Veterans Dr., Austin, TX 78701. Club members will be there from 7:00 to 10:00 am to register walkers.
We’ll have two routes, a 5k and a 10k, which start out together, crossing LBL on the Mopac pedestrian bridge. Walkers follow the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail and head into Zilker Park, going along Barton Creek. We go past the canoe rentals, playscape, and the Zilker Miniature Train. A picture of the canoe rentals taken last year from the opposite side of Barton Creek is shown below.
Walkers continue on to Barton Springs swimming pool, where the Philosopher’s Rock sculpture is located. It depicts historian Walter Prescott Webb, naturalist Roy Bedichek, and writer J. Frank Dobie in conversation. A picture of the sculpture is shown at the very top of this post.
The 5k route goes into Zilker Park to view the Moonlight Tower, which is used for the Zilker Park Christmas Tree, and then heads back to the start point, with a stop at Veteran’s Park.
Below are views of the Zilker Moonlight Tower as it normally looks, and how it looks as the famous Zilker Christmas Tree.
After viewing the Philosopher’s Rock, the 10k walkers go back on the hike and bike trail and stop at Butler Park to see the ponds, playscape, labyrinth, and Doug Sahm Hill. This is a beautiful park in downtown Austin. Below are a few pictures of the park.
First is a view of Doug Sahm Hill taken from across the ponds.
Next is downtown Austin as seen from one of the docks along the ponds.
We love the giant red ants in the children’s playscape area.
Another view of the ants taken from the labyrinth. You can see the edge of the labyrinth in the lower right corner.
Then the 10k route heads to the Stevie Ray Vaughan Statue at Auditorium Shores. Below is a view of the shaded walkway that leads from Riverside Drive to the statue.
Lastly, the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue.
The 10k route then crosses LBL on the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge and follows the hike and bike trail back to the start point and Veteran’s Park.
For all the details, please see our walk brochure below, and we hope you can join us!
