a common problem i am seeing these days sadly is what dog owners do

Gorgeous scenery but hard to find the actual trail - not sure where to cross to the other side.

Very busy on this nice winter day.  We hiked up one side and then down the other, but also ventured into the Preserve (halfway up on the west side you'll see the sign and it comes out by the parking lot by the low water crossing near 360, only accessible 8/1-2/28 each year).  Nice waterfall too!

I love Bull Creek even though it looks truly awful.  I would love to be part of a group to clean this park up.  My wife brought a bag and we picked up a huge bag of trash.    We hiked from the south (Lakewood/360 lot) on the west side and did the loop slightly up Jester and back down.

Hiked in creek from south end up about 3 miles, and back down.

Hiked the length of the public areas and back with Madden Maniac and found a few caches along the way as well.  Other than a few pools of stagnant water along the way, there was no water in the creek at all.  It was quite sad to see, even if it did open up an alternate "trail" for one to follow at times.

Though the day was obviously very hot we got an early enough start that things were not too unpleasant, particularly in the shade.  The sunny areas were a different story though.

The trail terminus at the southern end of the trail has been greatly modified and the landscaping there is very nice.  My wife is still a bit miffed that in the process they demolished the old dam and swimming hole here that she remembers from the past.

We only had an hour before sunset, but we were able to make it from the farest south parking lot past the "Middle Falls" to the next water crossing after 360.

When the trail is on the west side of 360, be careful to be on the east side of the river. The west side (which we roughed it up) is not the easiest path, but mostly attainable.

After finishing at the Matthew and Hazeltine Smith Trail, we hiked over to the northern part of the Bull Creek trail. We took off from the trailhead closest to the underpass where Old Spicewood goes under 360. It was a nice quiet and peaceful hike (despite some road noise) until we got down to the swimming area by the first underpass that the river/trail makes under 360.

On our way down, we got to see a heron fishing for dinner, plenty of birds and just one other person - a woman and her dog on the other side of the trail. The solitude was so surreal that we wondered a couple of times whether we were actually on the right trail!

There were no water crossings on the western part of the loop until the trail is about to go under the 360 bridge. It looks like you can continue along a trail without crossing the river, but we followed the trail signs to cross the river. It was not much of a problem for us to cross over the creek on the rocks, thanks to our hiking poles. Without the poles, it would have been tough to stay dry.

The swimming area was full of people having a great time... and thus, plenty of trash. We saw a couple of "illegal" rope swings and plenty of beer cans. But, it was fun to watch the kids enjoy themselves for a while before we headed back up.

After re-crossing the river, we took the eastern part of the loop trail - which adds two more river crossings. The most bizarre part of our whole hike was at one of these water crossings. There is literally a fire hydrant in the middle of the creek! Very strange...

We will definitely be going back to complete the entire trail sometime soon!

Nice mix of creek & trees.  Even taking both sides of the creek on a round trip, you will have to cross the creek a few times and probably get wet.  One of my favorite hikes in Austin.  Very isolated, even though you are never more than half a mile from 360.