Greenway Primitive Trails at Bee Cave

Trail
3.60 Miles
206 Feet
N/A
3stars (3.00)2
2stars (2.00)
1point5stars (1.50)
No
Yes
Yes
No
Austin
Travis

This new set of trails opened on June 8, 2013. The trails were originally planned and laid out by the developers of the nearby Falconhead West subdivision. When presented to the city of Bee Cave in 2010 the city declined! Eventually the Bee Cave Economic Development Board accepted the property, though the nearby HOA provides support for its upkeep.

The trails are divided into four color coded segments, ranging in length from 0.5 to 1.5 miles. Totaling up the segments comes to 3.6 miles, though we'd seen references to a full 5 miles in articles about the trails. This may be taking into account doubling back on some segments.

As the trail name specifies, the trails are primitive. Other than a short segment near the trailhead with some mulch the trail surface consists of packed dirt and rock. Several segments have a multitude of loose rocks in the path making hiking boots nice to have, but not absolutely necessary.

The trails are mostly well marked, but there are junctions of trails along the way that are not marked adequately and caused us to turn around and double back to what was the actual trail.

The trails here are not a place to come for great solitude. Though we only ran into about 3 others couples or individuals on the trail there was incessant traffic noise from Highway 71 to remind you how close in to development you were. Of course one can often see houses off in the distance as well.

The trail is peppered with small "emergency locator" markers on most routes situated perhaps a tenth of a mile from each other. Given the confusion about some trail junctions it seems odd to have expended that much effort for locator markers.

Be prepares to cross water after a good rain, and we're not just talking about creek crossings either. There are a few spots on the trail where the water runoff was not just parallel to the trail, it was IN the trail. At one creek crossing the trail on the other bank looked like a tributary of the stream instead a path. Luckily the trail dries out relatively quickly in each case. This erosion tendency might cause problems for the trail's longevity, at least in those areas.

The right fork of the first real split of the Blue Route is marked as mountain bike only. I can't begin to think why this is, but I thought I'd pass it along.

As we wrapped up our morning the parking area was full with a couple of overflow cars finding non-standard, though responsible parking spots in the lot. There's space for about 10 cars.

Photos
Trail View
A view along the trail. There are a number of spots along the trail that offer vista views like this. In most cases there are houses present, or going up, in the distance. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
It's a sign
Trail map and rules at the trailhead. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
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