The best hikes in Austin.
Barton Creek Greenbelt for distance, McKinney Falls for waterfalls, Turkey Creek at Emma Long for off-leash dogs, and Wild Basin for canyon trails in Westlake.
The best hikes in Austin start with the Barton Creek Greenbelt, McKinney Falls, Turkey Creek at Emma Long, and Wild Basin, and the thing that decides the day here is rarely the mileage. It is whether the gate wants a reservation, what it costs, whether the dog can come, and whether there is water in the creek that week. Seven of the fifteen below are free to walk into and two more are free on weekdays, so access sorts them more than price does. The eleven inside the city come first, then four day trips, each labeled with its fee and its booking rule.
- Zilker to Westlake · Free, $7 weekend parking at Zilker · 12.68 miles, seven trailheads01
Barton Creek Greenbelt
The city’s big one. Austin Water’s trail data measures 12.68 miles of it, and the parks department lists seven trailheads between Zilker and Camp Craft Road, and only two of them charge. The Zilker trailhead at 2212 William Barton Drive charges a $7 flat fee on weekends and holidays from March through September, and Trail’s End on Camp Craft is paid from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Treat the swimming holes as seasonal, not a feature: the parks department does not monitor water levels and points people to the USGS gauge at Loop 360, station 08155300, which read zero cubic feet per second on the morning of September 14, 2026. It also anchors the free side of an Austin weekend, which is where to look when the creek is down.
- Southeast Austin · $6 per adult · Nearly 9 miles, passes sell out on weekends02
McKinney Falls State Park
A state park inside the city, 13 miles from the Capitol by the park’s own reckoning, with nearly nine miles of trail and a waterfall. The 2.8-mile Onion Creek Hike and Bike Trail is the spine, with Rock Shelter, Homestead, Flint Rock, and the Williamson Creek Overlook branching off it. Entry is $6 for anyone 13 and older and free below that. The thing to plan around is the gate: day passes sell out every weekend and holiday, so book ahead or go midweek. At the falls the rules are strict, with no coolers, no glass, no speakers, and no pets in the water. Onion Creek can flood after rain. It is also the gentlest introduction to a Texas state park on this page, which puts it on the list of things to do with kids.
- Emma Long, northwest Austin · $5 to $10 per vehicle · 1.92 miles, off leash03
Turkey Creek Trail, Emma Long Metropolitan Park
The off-leash answer, and the one entry where the sources disagree. Turkey Creek is a 1.92-mile foot-traffic-only trail, and Austin Water’s trail data lists it as off leash, as does the city’s off-leash area map, which counts all 193 acres of Emma Long. The park page still says pets stay leashed. The reading that fits both is that the designation belongs to this trail corridor, not the whole park. Entry is $5 a vehicle Monday to Thursday, $10 Friday to Sunday and holidays, $1 to walk or bike in, with weekend passes pre-purchased from March through September. Park water is off for maintenance in October 2026, so carry your own.
- Westlake · Free weekdays, $5 weekends · Almost 3 miles, register for weekends04
Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve
Almost three miles of canyon trail on Loop 360, run by St. Edward’s University rather than by the city. Arroyo Vista is 0.6 miles, the Creek Loop 1.5, the Ledge Trail 0.8, and the Yaupon Loop close to two. Weekdays are free and need nothing at all. Weekends and federal holidays cost $5 for adults and $3 for ages 6 to 17, and require online registration in advance, which is the part that ruins a Saturday. Parking is limited and the entrance gate closes whenever the lot fills, so arriving early is worth more here than anywhere else on this list. No dogs.
- Northwest Austin · Free midweek, $10 weekends · 6 miles out and back, 2,763 steps05
River Place Nature Trail
The hardest hike inside the city, and the one people underestimate. The district that runs it counts 2,763 steps one way across the Panther Hollow, Little Fern, and Canyon trails, roughly three miles point to point and about six there and back. It is not a loop, which is the detail that catches people out at the far end. On Saturdays, Sundays, and until 4 p.m. on holidays it costs $10 a hiker, free the rest of the week, with children 12 and under free alongside an adult. Attendants take credit cards at the trailheads and no cash at all. The trailhead with parking is off Big View Drive.
- Spicewood Springs, northwest Austin · Free · 3.59 miles, dogs on leash06
St. Edwards Park
The quiet alternative to the Bull Creek crowds, with 3.59 miles of public trail along the creek. It is free, and dogs are welcome on leash in the park portion only: the leash rule stops at the boundary, because the adjoining Balcones Canyonlands Preserve uplands are not open to them. The city publishes no park page and no street address we can stand behind, so look it up by name on a map before you set out rather than trusting a street number from a list. What it offers that the preserve next door does not is a creek you can walk with a dog.
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- Off Loop 360, northwest Austin · Free · 6 miles, no dogs, dawn to dusk07
Forest Ridge Trail at Bull Creek Preserve
Six miles of preserve trail off Loop 360, open dawn to dusk, free. The rules are the story, and they are stricter than a city park’s: foot traffic only, groups of ten or fewer, no bikes, no horses, and no dogs at all. That last one is a preserve rule rather than a leash rule, and it is the most useful thing to know about hiking northwest Austin with a dog. The city’s current trail data lists it open with no permit required, and this is endangered golden-cheeked warbler habitat, which is where the group limit and the dog ban come from. Austin Water’s Wildland Conservation Division answers on 512-972-1660 if you want the trail’s status before you drive out.
- Zilker south to Circle C · Free · About 13 miles, 13 access points08
Violet Crown Trail
About 13 continuous miles from Zilker down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the opening stretch of a planned 30-mile trail, and almost nobody realizes how far it now runs. Thirteen mapped access points, one of them still only a plan, make it the easiest pick here to do in pieces. The surface changes at Highway 290: north of it the trail is uneven and rocky through the greenbelt, south of it crushed granite and concrete. Dogs are allowed on leash between the Mile Zero trailhead at 2212 William Barton Drive and the La Crosse trailhead, and not beyond it. No gate, no fee, no booking.
- Downtown, around Lady Bird Lake · Free · 10 miles, detours in place09
Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail
Ten miles around Lady Bird Lake, free, flat, and the one that works regardless of what the creeks are doing. Three detours are live and they change how you plan a loop. The pedestrian bridge on the east side of I-35 closed in February 2026 for about a year, so you cannot cross between the north and south shores there. The Waller Beach section is rerouted until March 2027, and the Riverside Drive pedestrian ramp is closed until 2029. The boardwalk runs from 5 a.m. to midnight. Swimming is not an option here: it is illegal to swim, bathe, or wade in Lady Bird Lake.
- Above Lake Austin · Free · Stone stairs, open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.10
Mount Bonnell (Covert Park)
This is a view rather than a hike, and it is worth doing on those terms. The city calls it a 784-foot promontory above Lake Austin, and the walk up is a flight of stone stairs to the summit. It is free, open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and dogs are welcome on leash. A few minutes of stairs buys the best overlook in the city, which is why it pairs well with a longer trail nearby rather than standing as the whole outing. Sunset is the obvious time and everybody else has worked that out too. The view takes in the west-side neighborhoods and the river between them.
- Tarrytown · Free · 23 acres, no dogs11
Mayfield Park and Preserve
Twenty-three acres in Tarrytown, of which just under two are the walled cottage gardens and the rest is preserve. It is free, it is small, and it is the one place here where bringing a dog wastes the trip: pets are not allowed in the park or the preserve at all. The peafowl are the reason most people come, and the park has had them for 70 years, so never approach, touch, or feed them. Best treated as a half-hour stop on a west-side afternoon rather than a destination hike, and it is the gentlest walking on this page.
- Day trip, Johnson City · $6 per adult · 6-mile Wolf Mountain Trail12
Pedernales Falls State Park
Thirty miles west of Austin by the park’s own measure, and home to the longest single trails on this page. Wolf Mountain is a six-mile trail the park calls challenging, wrapping around Tobacco and Wolf mountains, Juniper Ridge is the 10-mile technical single track the park points cyclists at, and the Twin Falls Nature Trail is a half mile. Entry is $6 for 13 and older. Swimming is at a river area reached by a strenuous quarter-mile hike, never in the falls themselves. The river can go from placid to a torrent in minutes. It closes to general visitors for permitted hunts from November 21 to 24, December 13 to 17, and January 18 to 22.
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- Day trip, Dripping Springs · $12 per vehicle plus $8 per person · Reservation required13
Hamilton Pool Preserve
It makes the list with two caveats that decide whether the drive is worth it. The walk to the pool is a quarter of a mile, so this is a destination rather than a hike. And Travis County has water access closed on high bacteria counts, with the earliest resumption listed as September 19, 2026, and the trail under the overhanging cliff closed for falling rock. Reservations are required every day of the week in one of two windows, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at $12 per vehicle booked online on top of $8 a person paid on arrival in cash, because the county takes no cards at the preserve. Pets are prohibited with no exceptions, including in the car.
- Day trip, Dripping Springs · $5 per person · Over 18 miles, first come first served14
Reimers Ranch Park
The answer for anyone who just found out Hamilton Pool is booked, and it is on the same road. Travis County publishes more than 18 miles of trail here plus climbing it calls world class, and it takes no reservations at all: $5 a person, $3 for seniors 62 and over, free for children 12 and under, first come first served. Bring cash, because Travis County takes no cards at its entrance booths. River access is a quarter of a mile from the parking lot down a steep grade. Dogs are welcome but never off leash. On busy swimming weekends and holidays the county closes the road down to the beach to vehicles, which adds that walk back in.
- Day trip, Round Mountain · $20 adults, $5 uplands · Guided tours by reservation15
Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center
A nonprofit preserve on the same road as Hamilton Pool, and the only pick here where a guide comes with the trail. The grotto is a one-mile hike the center rates moderate to difficult, down a long uneven staircase over rock, roots, and changing elevation, and it can be walked only on a guided canyon tour at $20 for adults and $10 for children 4 to 15. Tours are by reservation only. The uplands loop is separate, about a mile, self-guided at $5, and has an accessible section, which makes it the better call with limited mobility or a short visit in mind. No pets and no drones.
What we considered and didn’t include
The things we passed on are part of the value. Documented for editorial discipline.
- Enchanted Rock State Natural AreaThe hike everyone names, and it is in Fredericksburg. Two things make it wrong for an Austin page rather than merely far. Advance day-pass reservations are required on weekends, school breaks, and holidays, and the park says it usually reaches capacity every day, so it is a trip you book rather than a Saturday you decide on. And dogs are allowed in the day-use picnic areas, the campgrounds, and on the Loop Trail only, which puts the summit, the thing people drive out for, off limits to them. It also shuts to the public for permitted hunts across five windows between October and January.
- Colorado Bend State ParkGorman Falls is a genuinely great three-mile round trip over rough ground to a 70-foot spring-fed waterfall. The park’s own description puts it two hours northwest of Austin, which is past any reasonable reading of near, and it is the one park here with trails actually shut: Gorman Springs Trail and part of Old Gorman Road Trail closed on September 3, 2026 for tree maintenance.
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower CenterIt belongs on this page in exactly one role, as the southern end of the Violet Crown Trail, and not as a hike. Admission runs $15 on weekdays and $18 Friday through Sunday, the gardens close at 5 p.m. from September and at 3 p.m. through the summer, and only service dogs are allowed. Those are the terms of a botanical garden, and pricing a garden against a free greenbelt helps nobody.
- Barton Springs PoolA three-acre spring-fed pool is not a hike, and listing it is how a guide ends up sending someone for a swim when they asked for a trail. It earns a mention as the finish line to a greenbelt walk and as the reliable water when the creek is dry, with the two facts that trip people up: it closes for cleaning every Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and it opens at 5 a.m. with no lifeguard on duty until 8 a.m., or 9 a.m. on Thursdays. It holds 68 to 70 degrees year round.
- Pace Bend ParkIt turns up on hiking lists because it is beautiful and it is on Lake Travis. Travis County publishes more than nine miles of shoreline and no trail mileage at all, which is a fair summary of what it is: a swimming, camping, and climbing park where the walking is incidental. Mudd Cove, Kate’s Cove, and Gracy Cove are the designated swimming coves, with no lifeguard on duty, and that is the visit people are really driving to Spicewood for.
Common questions
- Do you need a reservation to hike in Austin?
- Most Austin trails need nothing at all. The Barton Creek Greenbelt, the Butler Trail, the Violet Crown Trail, Mount Bonnell, Mayfield Park, St. Edwards Park, and Forest Ridge are all walk-up. Four need planning: Hamilton Pool requires a reservation every day of the week, Wild Basin requires online registration for weekends and federal holidays, Westcave runs guided tours by reservation only, and Emma Long makes you pre-purchase Friday to Sunday and holiday passes from March through September. McKinney Falls does not require one, but it often reaches capacity and tells visitors to reserve a day pass online to guarantee entry, because those passes sell out every weekend and holiday.
- Are the Barton Creek Greenbelt swimming holes full right now?
- Only after rain. The greenbelt creek depends on recent rainfall rather than a spring, and the USGS gauge at Loop 360, station 08155300, read zero cubic feet per second on the morning of September 14, 2026, which is a dry limestone bed at Twin Falls and Sculpture Falls. The parks department does not monitor levels itself and points people to that gauge, so check it before you drive out for a swim. Barton Springs Pool is spring-fed and holds 68 to 70 degrees year round, which makes it the dependable substitute.
- Where can dogs hike off leash in Austin?
- Turkey Creek Trail at Emma Long Metropolitan Park is the off-leash hiking trail, per Austin Water’s own trail data and the city’s off-leash area map. Everywhere else in public a dog is on a leash of six feet or less, the city’s designated off-leash areas are the only public places in Austin where a dog may legally be unrestrained, and a citation runs up to $500. Several good trails ban dogs outright: Forest Ridge at Bull Creek Preserve, Mayfield Park and Preserve, Wild Basin, Hamilton Pool, and Westcave.
- What does it cost to hike in Austin?
- Almost nothing inside the city. The Barton Creek Greenbelt, the Butler Trail, the Violet Crown Trail, Mount Bonnell, Mayfield Park, St. Edwards Park, and Forest Ridge are free, and Wild Basin and River Place are free on weekdays. The gates that charge: McKinney Falls $6 a head, Emma Long $5 to $10 a vehicle, Wild Basin $5 on weekends, River Place $10 on weekends, Pedernales Falls $6, Reimers Ranch $5, Hamilton Pool $12 a vehicle plus $8 a person, and Westcave $20 for the guided grotto tour. One trap worth knowing: the Travis County $80 annual permit is valid for Travis County residents only, and it does not cover Hamilton Pool.
- What is the hardest hike in Austin?
- River Place Nature Trail, for the stairs. The district that runs it counts 2,763 steps one way on a roughly three-mile point-to-point that is not a loop, so an out-and-back is about six miles with those stairs in both directions. Forest Ridge at Bull Creek Preserve matches it for distance at six miles and has none of the stairs, and the rocky Hill of Life climb at the Camp Craft Road end of the greenbelt is the other name people give. No elevation-gain figure is published for River Place, so the step count is the honest measure.
- Can you swim on any Austin hikes?
- Not in Lady Bird Lake: it is illegal to swim, bathe, or wade in it, which surprises people every summer. Where you can get in, conditions allowing: McKinney Falls, the Pedernales river swimming area reached by a strenuous quarter-mile hike and never the falls themselves, Reimers Ranch a quarter of a mile down a steep grade to the river, and the Barton Creek greenbelt holes when the creek has water in them. Hamilton Pool has water access closed on bacteria counts, with September 19, 2026 the earliest resumption listed.
- How far is Hamilton Pool from Austin, and is it worth it?
- Travis County gives the preserve a Dripping Springs address, 24300 Hamilton Pool Road, out in the Hill Country west of the city. Whether it is worth the drive turns on the water rather than the mileage. The county closes the pool to swimmers on high bacteria counts and lists September 19, 2026 as the earliest resumption, which can leave the visit as a quarter-mile walk to a grotto nobody is allowed to swim in. Reimers Ranch is on the same road at 23610 Hamilton Pool Road, takes no reservation, and costs $5.
- Is Enchanted Rock a day trip from Austin?
- Yes, and it is one you book. Texas Parks and Wildlife requires an advance day-pass reservation on weekends, school breaks, and holidays, and says the park usually reaches capacity every day, so turning up on a Saturday without one does not work. The rule that surprises people most is about dogs: they are allowed in the day-use picnic areas, the campgrounds, and on the Loop Trail only, which means not on the summit. It also closes to the general public for permitted hunts across five windows between October and January.
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