I actually left the safe environs of Austin to travel all the way up to Cedar Park in order to check out Brushy Creek Trail. It turned into quite an adventure on an amazing trail surrounded by some amazing parks with tons of things to do and see. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
The western terminus of the Brushy Creek Trail is located at a trailhead near Twin Lakes Family YMCA in Cedar Park. Cedar Park is a suburb about 15 miles northwest of downtown Austin. Probably the two things Cedar Park are most known for are H-E-B Center, home of the Austin Spurs and Texas Stars, and the never-ending drama surrounding their city flag.
In 2016 Cedar Park pretended to be a real city and designed a flag of their very own. After a lot of to-do and hubbub they released one that was met with annoyance and derision. So they took it down and never bothered to create a new one. Almost ten years and counting at this point.
Twin Lakes Family YMCA is a big deal destination with a million and one things to do. Especially on a hot summer’s day. This is a common trend along the Brushy Creek Trail. Almost everywhere along the trail there was always something else fun you could be doing instead. Check out all these options available at the Y.
Fishing, water slides, pools, play areas. Sky Trail. I honestly didn’t want to leave the Y to even get started with the hike. Filled with sadness, I did make my way to the mile zero marker. All along this trail there are stone markers buried in the ground at 1/4 mile intervals, beginning with the first one.
Immediately after leaving the Y, the trail meandered along following the creek. For about the first two miles there was not much but loads of trees and plants. They did have these “animal tracks” stamped into the concrete on the trail, which looked aesthetically pleasing.
One tremendous thing about this trail is how clearly and carefully it was laid out. After two miles I came across Brushy Creek Sports Park. Pretty much the entire trail from there to the eastern end ran alongside or through a park of some kind. This was the secret to why it felt like there was always something to do; there was always something to do.
Brushy Creek Sports Park was exactly what it sounded like. A park with lots of sports. Sports, sports, sports.
They had softball / baseball fields, football / soccer fields, and play areas for kids.
That final picture is obviously of a bike repair station. A great accessory since there were tons of bikers using the trail the day I was. This would be as good a time as any to talk about how well Brushy Creek Trail lets bikers and hikers co-exist. Most of the trail was paved but there were lots of unpaved paths as well. And a lot of unpaved trails running parallel to paved trails specifically for bikers to use. It really felt like the trail was not geared toward either bikers or hikers, but actually a shared experience for both. What an idea!
Just past Brushy Creek Sports park came Brushy Creek Lake Park. It sort of combined the best of both worlds. A lake on one side with fishing and kayaking and such. A park on the other side with open spaces and beach volleyball and two bocce ball courts (bring your own bocce balls).
That last picture shows a body curl and ab workout station that I assumed was part of an outdoor fitness area. I looked all over everywhere near it but could not find so much as a rusty pull-up bar nearby. It’s too bad because the only thing that could have made this better was some freestanding exercise equipment.
As a reader of this blog, you have surely picked up on the fact that I am not particularly enamored with modern art. Most of it seems like easily disregarded trash created by people with too much free time and disposable income. However, sometimes a piece will cause a small stir in the part of my brain that yearns to appreciate beauty. I saw one of those pieces on the shore of Brushy Creek Lake. Here is “Freshwater Cowgirl” sculpted by Anthony St. James.
I’m not sure what it is exactly that I enjoy about this piece. Maybe the way she seems to rise from the earth like Minerva from Jupiter’s skull. Or the fact that she seems to be offering you something you strongly desire with her free hand. It has been said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and certainly talking about art falls into that same category. I really liked it, is all I’m trying to say.
Moving on from the lake I got to cross over the dam that explained it.
By this point, I was just over halfway to the other end.
Next up was Champion Park. This park was named after Jack Champion, who owned 200 acres of land along Brushy Creek in the nineteenth century. He was buried in a small cemetery adjacent to the trail and park. The thing I’ll remember most from this park is the unfathomable water pressure behind the bottle filler on the water fountain. It literally knocked the bottle out of my hand when I first held it underneath the damn thing.
I know I’ve already heaped so much praise on this trail, but I need to continue to do so. More kudos because it really felt as though this trail was designed by and for people with two things as high priorities: staying hydrated and staying in the shade. There were loads of water fountains all over. Not all of them worked, but even still it was never more than a mile and a half or so between working ones. Same with the toilets. There were also multiple locations totally covered in shade, even in midday.
My next noteworthy experience was catching some shots of a giant bird perched ominously along the treetops.
I believe this to be a red-tailed hawk based on my extensive knowledge of the local fauna. If it had made a noise I would be certain. Red-tailed hawks make the noise you imagine birds of prey make. If you’ve ever heard a bird of prey in a movie or on TV, you probably heard a red-tailed hawk. Check this video about the difference in sound between a red-tailed hawk and a bald eagle. One sounds like it wants to go to war, the other sounds like it wants to go to Starbucks.
At one of the creek crossings, I almost got a picture of a great blue heron. It darted across from one set of trees into another before I could get my camera ready. It never poked back out again even though I waited for about ten minutes. I’m still fighting with myself and my equipment to become the nature photographer I know I can be. In the meantime, these back-lit faraway shots are all I have.
The next few parks the trail touched were Olsen Meadows Park, Creekside Park, and Shirley McDonald Park. Creekside was the largest of those parks and included tennis courts, play areas, and a pool.
Past Shirley McDonald Park one leaves the city of Cedar Park and enters the city of Round Rock. Round Rock is another suburb of Austin most known for being the home of Michael “Dude, You’re Getting A” Dell and his company Dell Technologies. It is also the home of the Round Rock Express. The Express are a minor league baseball team that oscillates affiliations between the Astros and the Rangers every few years. They have been the Rangers’ AAA team since 2021 so they are probably due to go back to the Astros soon enough.
The coolest thing about moving into Round Rock is that Brushy Creek Road becomes Hairy Man Road. This gives me the perfect excuse to discuss The Hairy Man.
The Hairy Man was a small boy in the 1800s who got separated from his parents and was raised by the fauna of Brushy Creek. As he grew he had no clothes to wear. Fortunately, his hirsuteness covered his modesty. The Hairy Man vowed to protect the denizens of Brushy Creek by scaring away other people. One day he got trampled by some horses, but the caretaking cryptid is said to still haunt the area until this day.
The Hairy Man is a pretty big deal in Round Rock. So much so that there is a whole day and festival devoted to him. The day includes a 5k race and a hairiest man contest. The festival is on October 17th this year, which means you still have time to stop shaving your back and enter yourself in the competition.
There wasn’t really much left to do to wrap up this trail after that. You may notice the very first picture here mentions Fern Bluff. In case you are wondering what a “fern bluff” is, I’ve got you.
The bluffs are an outcrop of rock that provides the perfect amount of shade to allow the ferns to bloom underneath their purview.
Soon after that I hit the mile 6.50 marker.
And finally, the end of the trail. I knew this because there was a helpful sign.
Normally, I’d wrap everything up here. But in this case I actually had to walk all the way back to the Twin Lakes YMCA to complete a slightly greater than 13 mile loop. For some other stupid reason I decided to do a whole host of errands after I finished up. This resulted in me walking over 60000 steps on the day. I had never even done 50000 up to this point so, needless to say, I was plumb wore out.
Having read this far I doubt I need to explicitly mention in my conclusion, but I loved loved loved this trail. I loved the way they integrated both bikers and hikers. I loved the way the trail touched so many parks with so many things to do in them. I loved the facilities. I loved learning about The Hairy Man. Easily the best trail I’ve hiked so far.
