As the sun began its early descent, I embarked down the hill below the North San Gabriel Dam. This is a nice, paved trail that takes you to the base of the Dam where the rushing water outlet allows the San Gabriel River to continue on its path through Georgetown. When the days are longer, I will return to explore more of this area.
I was hanging out at Old Settlers Park with co-workers and friends this afternoon. According to their site, there is an 18-hole professionally designed disc golf course that is open for play seven days a week. These shots are taken at one of the holes as the sun was about to finish up for the day.
This hike had a lot of features. You first traced along the rim of a canyon, with fields to your right side and a sheer drop off to your left side. Then after a few butterflies and a bluejay sighting, the trail rolled off into the canyon and across a dried up stream bed. Up a hill, and then an option for a steeper hill trail, but I was running out of sunlight. Then get lost a little bit, take a wrong turn, watch the doves fly out of the grasses as I approached them, discover a groovy treehouse someone has created, turn back to the canyon trail, hope this version takes me out of the canyon and not further into it, by a dried up pond, listen to the frogs kick off their nightly songs, up a hill, and back towards the welcome sight of the power lines that lead me to my air conditioned car. All accomplished just before the sun sets on the other side of the canyon. Fun times!
I returned to Lakeway again this evening to continue exploring the parks and trails here. The Canyonlands Park is a great place for roaming around. You follow the humming power lines into the canyon area, and then you hike around and get lost. It is a nice series of trails, so don’t tell too many people about our secret. 🙂
The Hamilton Greenbelt in Lakeway is a pleasant place to hike. I went in maybe two miles, got turned around, and then followed the sun on the way back to the trailhead. I’m looking forward to exploring this area further.
There is a very short and steep hiking trail which starts off just from the parking lot of the Triumphant Love Lutheran Church on Great Hills Trail in Austin. You descend quickly into the valley between the hills, then you get a little workout as you climb back out. The sunset views from the top are nice also.
This evening it was time for a short walk across the dam in Georgetown. There were some cool clouds about.
There are many trails at the Bandelier National Monument, but the trail that most visitors are here for is the 1.2 mile loop that takes you right through the historical Pueblo sites. It is so worth the trip!
I drove out to Lago Vista in search of some good hiking trails, but my first stop at Tessera on Lake Travis didn’t provide what I was hoping for. There were some awesome views to take in, however.
Westech 360 is the office park located at the bottom of the Steck Valley Greenbelt. It has the art piece called “Angle at 19.5 degrees” along with cool opportunities for photos with reflections of clouds. 🙂
earthrobert 