Steck Valley Greenbelt

Trail
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2point5stars (2.50)4
2point5stars (2.63)
4stars (4.38)
No
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8403 Adirondack Trail
Austin
Travis
More Info
Photos
Use insect repellent!
This is what the "trail" looked like for a while. So many chiggers... (Photo by plectrudis)
Pretty little cascade in the creek
Recent rain meant there was some water in the creeks (Photo by plectrudis)
Damage from the ice storm
Some parts of trail still showed a lot of damage - lots of dead and downed trees and branches - from the ice storm last Feb. (Photo by plectrudis)
Downed Tree over Path
In the area nearing the trailhead at the end of Steck Ave, the trail becomes hard to recognize. There are a few downed trees over the trail that you must pass over. (Photo by heatharcadia)
Large Spider
Here is the spider whose web was blocking our path. We turned around instead of destroying its web, so I am unsure how much farther the trail goes heading towards 360. (Photo by heatharcadia)
creek
one of the creeks (Photo by jimmy peace)
Log Entries
Completely alone... Except the Chiggers
By plectrudis on 6/11/2023
Rating: 2stars Difficulty: 2stars Solitude: 5stars
Distance: 1.50 Miles Duration: N/A
Pros: about 95% shaded, no one else on the trail the entire time. There were a bunch of deer running around, and (in early June) everything was very green and lush. Cons: Near the Steck/Adirondack trailhead, the inland sea oats almost completely obscured the trail. Tried to use hiking poles to keep the head off me, but hordes of chiggers found me anyway, as i discovered several hours later. Also, following the trail outbound wasn't hard, but couldn't my way back - there are lots of semi-trails wandering in various directions and then petering out. Had to take the Hyridge exit and walk the though the neighborhood, which is hilly, concretey, and very exposed at noon in June on a 93°F day. Loved the shade, but won't be rushing back.
Short hike for when you're looking for some solitude
By heatharcadia on 9/2/2019
Rating: 3stars Difficulty: 3stars Solitude: 4point5stars
Distance: 1.52 Miles Duration: 1 hour, 4 minutes
This was a short hike at an area I had never been to. We did not see anyone else while we were out, though there were several places where we could hear noise from the roads or houses surrounding the area. We began at the trailhead at the end of Hyridge Dr, hiked to the end of the trail off of Great Hills Trl, turned around, hiked a bit towards 360, turned around again when the path became narrow because a cool spider had built a large web in the trees across the trail and we did not want to disturb it, then hiked down towards Steck Ave and back up to where we started. We noticed a few smaller trails branching out from the main trail. We did not go down any of those. For the most part. the trail is well-defined. The only confusing portion we encountered was nearing Steck Ave when the trail disappears into a creekbed for awhile. There were a couple of creek crossings, but no water at this time. I'm unsure how easy it would be to navigate it when there is water in the creeks.
a greenbelt i had not conquered
By jimmy peace on 5/27/2019
Rating: 3stars Difficulty: 3point5stars Solitude: 5stars
Distance: 1.40 Miles Duration: 1 hour

very quiet and secluded

Caching and hiking
By Austin Explorer on 1/25/2015
Rating: 2stars Difficulty: 2stars Solitude: 3stars
Distance: 0.60 Mile Duration: 26 minutes

Coppertone and I found five caches along the trail here on a recent visit back to attend a friend's wedding.  We had seen this greenbelt on the maps, but had never visited before.

We parked on Adirondack Trail, at the end of Steck Avenue.  The trail starting here is a bit more informal and at times appears more than a path along the creek bed.  The trail is a bit more defined after it meets up with the trail coming in from Hyridge Drive.

Due to recent rains the creeks were flowing a bit more than normal and so we were unable to make it all the way to the trailhead on Great Hills Trail and had to turn back.  If we had been in hiking boots we would have given it a shot, but we were wearing our only pairs of non-dress shoes so retraced our steps back to Adirondack Trail.

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