Circle C and The Hielscher (Southwest Austin)
Details
This 7.5 mile walk traverses the Circle C Ranch Metropolitan Park and Hielscher Tract Greenbelt, as well as their namesake neighborhoods on the city’s far Southwest Side. The area, a 5,600-home planned development involuntarily annexed by the city in 1986, was subject of a decades-long litigation battle between developers and environmental groups concerned about protecting the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone- a key water source for Barton Springs.
After decades of litigation anchored to the city’s landmark Save Our Springs ordinance of 1992, the Southwest Travis County Water and Reclamation District and the Slaughter Creek Water Quality Protection Zone were both ruled unconstitutional, in true Texas style. I haven’t figured out for certain, but I believe the abundance of parks and greenbelts in the area may have been a sort of consolation from developers who otherwise got their way.
Our walk (official map here) begins at the middle of 5 parking lots along Donald E. Carpenter Way in the Circle C Ranch Metropolitan Park. We’ll head southwest along Hielscher Tract Greenbelt, and then loop through residential areas before picking up the Firehouse trail east of Escarpment Boulevard.
Ours is a chatty and calorie-neutral group, so some of us may seek out food at one of the restaurants by Slaughter and Escarpment, just ½ mile from the walk’s start.
TRANSIT LOGISTICS:
- 10 AM start, on our Fall/Winter schedule
- We’ll meet at the middle of 5 parking lots along Donald E. Carpenter Way in the Circle C Ranch Metropolitan Park
- Official walk map