The End of Summer in Austin

One of my favorite things about Austin is the Greenbelt, a huge swath of wild land (809 acres) that snakes through the middle of the city, surrounding a seasonal creek. For much of the year the creek is dry, not a drop of water there. It's still a great escape to wilderness when it's dry, but when there is water in the creek, especially in the hot summer months, it makes an amazing secret oasis.

This September has been very mild, days often in the low nineties, some have even been in the 80's and we've had rain, which means, you guessed it, water in the creek. I went for a walk there the other day with my sister. We were wondering if we would see water as we started out on our hike. A few minutes later, through the trees, a stranger (who we never even saw), says "Water at sculpture falls, about a 20 minute walk up the trail." Ok, that was our goal. A few minutes later we were on the path that is next to the creek bed, but no water there. After at least a half an hour (the 20 minute report was very optimistic), we finally came out of the trees at sculpture falls. And there was our oasis. A small gathering of various types of people had found the place and were making the best of a Tuesday afternoon, so we joined in.

See more photos at http://www.smcintyre.com/