After hiking the Upper Section of the Barton Creek Greenbelt, my friend and I decided to hike the lower section the following day.  We started our hike near the Zilker Botanical Gardens, hiked past Barton Springs, and up Barton Creek, turning around near Hwy 360 and Hwy 1 (MoPac).

This section of Barton Creek did not have as many natural falls and springs as the upper section, but there were more prominent cliffs for rock climbing, such as the Seismic Wall.

It was a hot and humid day, but still an enjoyable hike.

With a sudden improvement in the rainy weather, my friend and I decided to drive out to Austin on a spur of the moment to go hiking.  I chose the upper section of Barton Creek as our challenge and we started our hike near Hwy 360 and Hwy 1 (MoPac).  Although there are distance markers posted along the trail, the overall signage is not very good since you are required to cross the creek at a couple of points and I did not see any trail signs indicating to cross.  As a result, we continued along some informal trails before they dead ended and we were required to turn back.  This happened to us on both sides of the creek, as shown in my track file.

In any case, Twin Falls and the upper falls were nice since there was a lot of water from recent rainfalls.  There were a lot of teenagers and young adults there chilling out, sunbathing, swimming, and meditating.

One trail segment I wanted to do was the "Hill Of Life" (or "Hill Of Death, depending on your perspective), but we passed by the Scottish Woods Trail because it was not marked.  I just thought it was an outlet trail (which it is), but I did not know it was the trail up the "Hill Of Life".

Overall, we had a nice hike although it was extremely humid.  The signage needs to be improved and trail maintenance was in order since the lush vegetation was overgrown and blocking the trail in some parts.

Started out at the Scottish Woods Entrance. Walked untill Mopac was in site. Some water was in the creek but limited. Saw a small snake that crossed our path. Beautiful day. Will post pictures later.

Beautiful and green, as long a hike as you want,  the spring is great to relax in, creek bottem trails lots of heavy rock, lots of bikes, no drinking water,  dog doo on the trails. I will go back to relax in the spring.

We entered at the Camp Craft Road entrance at 11:30 on a Wednesday and went down the "Hill of Life"...The trail and creek were beautiful and we saw only a few others, mostly with thier dogs, on this part of the trail.  Our idea was to try and walk all the way to the Zilker Park entrance, as we had left one car there.  Not recommended as once we got to the Gaines Creek entrance off of Mopac, the trail got hard to follow under MoPac and beyond, until we got to the 360 entrance area.  We did it but had to make our own trail in some spots and had to cross over the creek twice.  It was a nice day so we were okay with that; and we stopped to eat our lunch.  Also, we saw a sign that said "Trail Closed" but it was from the direction we had alredy come from, and no sign before that.  So, that mile and a half or so between Mopac and 360 is the most difficult. ...Remember also, that this entrance is in a neighborhood area,so there is limited parking, and you probably cannot park there on a busy weekend. 

We hiked the east greenbelt today with our dog from 360 down to Fruh Pool thinking there would be some water after the rain we had this weekend. Not a drop. It was a lovely hike though, relatively easy, although there were a ton of cyclists to watch out for.

Was a nice long and bumpy hike.  Would have been better if I knew all the no-bike trails.  But it was pretty nice.  Watch out for bikers everywhere.