I went to Bull Creek District Park the other day. It's a little park in Austin, one of the few (the only?) park with an off-leash dog policy. And that means there are a lot of dogs there. And I mean a LOT. The big ones make me uneasy, because I'm barely taller than some of the bigger dogs myself; but they've all been fairly gentle so far. I went there on a rainy Thursday, and found myself thoroughly enchanted by the view.Bull Creek is an environmentally protected watershed in the hills of Austin. It's about 5 minutes away from my place, and an easy drive. To get there, you have to drive down Loop 360, which, pretty though it is, is after all a major highway. Off of Loop 360, you turn off on Lakewood Drive, and then drive down to the park. It was this little drive that pleased me -- it was a narrow road, with trees crowding both sides of the road. It looked like I was driving through a random forest, not Austin. I would've looked around more except that there were some cars driving down the opposite side, and I didn't want my little Mazda to crash into them.
Once I reached the park, I was enchanted. Bull Creek ran down the edge of the park in a sort of arc. Part of the creek actually ran over Lakewood Drive, though I decided the creek must've swollen because of the rain. The creek ran over some rocks, and was very shallow until it reached a rocky ledge and formed a tiny waterfall of sorts, with the water pouring into a little rock pool. This pool was a little deeper, and a few dogs kept jumping in to play and swim. The pool reached back into dark, mysterious recesses, and water lapped gently against the edge of the bluff that the pool was against.
I walked on further. The creek deepened slightly as I walked further away from the rock pool, until it came to some sort of trail (which I later read on Google was part of the Bull Creek trail). Here, under the overhang of some trees, I found a ledge-like rock, just begging me to sit on it. I curled up on the rock, and read the manga I'd been gifted earlier that day, and then drew the creek in front of me. It was beautiful there. The forest stretched behind me and to my left. On my right, a couple of dogs played fetch with their owners in the water. In front of me, on the other side of the creek, the hills rose sharply, and all I could see of the million-dollar mansions on top of the hills were their rounded rooftops. Against the red of the rooftops, the clouds glowed with a grey light. It was just beautiful.I hung out there for a little while, but had to return when it started raining. But I'll be back for sure!
