Lady Bird Lake Trail is a 4.4 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Austin, Texas that features a lake and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
dogs on leash
kid friendly
birding
canoeing
hiking
mountain biking
road biking
sea kayaking
trail running
walking
whitewater kayaking
lake
river
views
wild flowers
wildlife
In the heart of Austin, TX.
Great trail if you are in Austin with little time.
I have loved this trail for walking and biking for decades. The full loop actually runs from Deep Eddy Pool east to Pleasant Valley Road and back around the other side of Lady Bird Lake. The total is over 11 miles. This app says it's only 4.4 miles but that ignores the beautiful and far less crowded part of the trail that is east of Interstate 35.
Same review as the "Towne Lake Austin Trail",.
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Parking is most abundant at Zilker Park. Elsewhere, you could be driving the streets of that part of downtown Austin for hours and never find a single good spot. This trail has plenty of restrooms, water, exercise equipment, water craft, etc. along the way. Trail is very wide in most places, and very VERY wide in some places. Very well marked, and well maintained. But if you're looking for a wilderness experience, go elsewhere. The scenery is nice, nice trees and flowers, a nice lake, cool looking urban buildings and sculptures and other stuff. But it's in the middle of an urban area, right next to busy roads most of the time. You will never not here cars and construction and such. But hey, sometimes you don't need a backwoods, rough hike- just a nice stroll which this is. And almost all of it is shaded.
As for trail running, well, it's not really for trail running. I've run here a few times, and mostly it's good for those long continuous runs (versus running slower due to high stepping over roots and rocks, twisting and turning of the trail, ups and downs, etc) It's still a good place to run, if...
If you don't mind what seems to be hundreds of people. People with strollers, people with dogs, people running, walking, biking fast and slow. Half the people don't move out of the way, some of them can be in groups of two or three and somehow take up the entire 10 foot spread of the trail- but that's less about the trail and more about people just don't care.
I give it a three- I would give it a two for trail running, but the amenities, and the general "serenity" it somehow has, even despite all the people and cars and such, I guess it's worth an extra star.
Easy hike,pretty views.