A Hot Hike in Zilker

For some reason or another I thought we had a cool front come in. I guess I was being mislead by the comfy temps we have been having in the mornings and evenings. After all it is September..should there not be some sort of break in the heat by now??? As Toby pointed out, the cool front came in and left as quickly as it came.

Either way, my impatience and determination to get out and get a little exercise and enjoy some of the beautiful scenic hikes around here cost me an almost heat stroke today. The temps topped out at 105. In temps like that a hike is more exhausting than anything.

My chosen hiking trail was in the Zilker Nature Preserve outside the Austin Nature and Science Center. Summer never bores of the Science Center and I never bore of a good hike. Toby just goes along for the ride no matter what we do.

Summer and I hiked this trail last year by ourselves when Toby worked downtown. This would be the first time Toby would hike this particular trail with us.

I made sure that we conducted our hike before we stopped into the Science Center. I knew if we went there first we would never make it to the trails.

On the way through the bird sanctuary to the trail head Summer and I just had to stop and watch the turtles. The keeper had just set out their food tray so we got to see the
turtles eating their lunch. It was very amusing to watch them fight and push each other out of the way to get to the food. I never knew box turtles had such interesting personalities.

I really like this particular hike because of the lookout. Once you climb the many steps up the hill to the top you are rewarded with a view of downtown Austin. I really wish there was a way for me to capture depth with my camera. You can't really tell the steepness of the hill up to the top so use your imagination.




Here are a couple of shots of downtown I took. I was so excited about getting pics of downtown but none of them turned out as well as what I wanted. I guess I didn't have my camera set right.....




Even though it was hot as hell, we were all enjoying being outdoors. There is just something that is so alluring about being in the midst of nature in the middle of a city. I call it the best of both worlds...the city in the country. If I ever decide to relocate again, this aspect of Austin will have to be on my list of requirements in my next destination.

Sadly, because of the extreme drought all the creeks have become bone dry. I see evidence of a once flowing creek on all of our hikes. Here we are at an area that was once a flowing creek. I can see it in my minds eye and look forward to the day when it is transformed to it's natural state.




Finally, some much anticipated water back at the Nature Center...




Here are just a couple of miscellaneous photos I took. The first one is downtown Austin from the other side of Zilker Park where Austin City Limits is held, the Kite Festival, Zilker Trail of Lights, and many others I don't know about yet.



I just added this pic because I thought it was a good representation of Austin in artistic form. It was on the side of the Food Mart on Riverside Drive.