Resources from AO Members
Our members keep Greater Austin’s outdoor spaces in tip top shape. These special places wouldn’t be the same without their partnership! Here are some of our members and the resources they provide so you can get outside:
Austin Parks Database
Curious about what parks exist in the Austin area? This parks database allows you to search the city of Austin by park, hiking trail, fitness, dog friendliness, and region!
Austin Parks Foundation (APF) partners with our community to enhance people’s lives by making our public parks, trails and green spaces better through volunteerism, innovative programming, advocacy and financial support.
Explorer’s guide to the Hill Country
Save Barton Creek Association has created the Explorer’s Guide to the Hill Country to help you explore this beautiful Oasis of land and water! Ten million years ago the weight of heavy sediment deposited on Texas’s coastal plains caused the earth’s crust to rupture beneath it, creating an entire honeycombed world beneath our feet. The Edwards Aquifer spans 4,350 square miles of the Texas Hill Country.
Save Barton Creek Association is a nonprofit citizen group working to protect and conserve the six watersheds of the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer (Barton, Bear, Little Bear, Onion, Slaughter and Williamson).
Children in Nature Collaborative of Austin
Find nature near you for you and the children in your life. Nature Rocks Austin will direct you to all the nature-based activities plus the zoos, parks, nature centers and green spaces in the Greater Austin area.
The mission of the Children in Nature Collaborative of Austin (CiNCA) is to ignite and fan the flames of the regional movement to reconnect kids to the wonder and joy of the natural world and to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards. Westcave serves as the backbone organization, enabling an exponential reach of community resources to build capacity and develop tomorrow’s leaders, problem solvers, and environmental stewards.
AO Member’s Spaces & Places
Our non-profit members help bridge the gap between what the city provides and what citizen’s desire for our beloved outdoors and green spaces of Greater Austin. Here are some of organizations and their spaces that they advocate and support:
Barton Springs Conservancy
Barton Springs is a natural treasure that is the heart and soul of Austin. The four underground springs supply cool, refreshing waters providing the community a beautiful space for year-round swimming. The three-acre pool offers locals and visitors a unique experience where they can be deeply immersed in nature and human community.
Barton Springs Conservancy honors, preserves, and enhances the experience of Barton Springs through education and facility improvements.
Check website for hours of operation.
The Blunn Creek Partnership
Take a hike along Blunn Creek to open the door of your imagination to a prehistoric Austin when active volcanoes dotted the landscape and gigantic sea creatures inhabited a shallow ocean environment.
The Blunn Creek Partnership is an informal group of friends and neighbors who care about Austin’s Blunn Creek watershed, stretching from the stream’s outfall in Lady Bird Lake southward to its headwaters near Ben White Boulevard, and including Blunn Creek Preserve, Stacy Park, as well as the Travis Heights and Sherwood Oaks neighborhoods, and the St. Edward’s University campus.
Great Springs Project
The Great Springs Project envisions a national park-scale corridor of protected lands between the densely urban areas of Austin and San Antonio over the Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zones. This green corridor will be connected by a network of trails, linking four of Texas’ Great Springs.
Visit the springs:
Hill Country Conservancy
The Violet Crown Trail begins at Barton Springs Pool in Zilker Park and, once complete, the 30-mile trail will provide a unique recreational experience as it passes through the urban wildlands of the Barton Creek Wilderness Park, the City of Sunset Valley, and eventually into Hays County.. This trail connects neighborhoods with parks, libraries, shopping centers, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and more!
Hill Country Conservancy preserves vital natural resources through conservation, community collaboration and engagement to sustain our region now and forever. The Violet Crown Trail’s purpose is to create the first regional trail system in Central Texas.
Pease Park Conservancy
Pease Park offers miles of trails for walking, cycling and dog-walking. The park also has a playscape, a splashpad, two basketball courts, three volleyball courts and many picnic tables. There is an off-leash area along the trail to the west of Shoal Creek between 24th and 29th Streets.
Pease Park Conservancy celebrates the diverse ecology and history that make Austin’s first public park valuable and unique. The Conservancy works to restore, enhance and maintain this 84-acre public green space for the sustainable use and enjoyment of all.
Red Line Parkway Initiative
The Red Line Parkway is a proposed linear park and public space along the planned Red Line Trail, extending 32 miles from Downtown Austin to Leander.
The Red Line Parkway Initiative’s vision is a thriving, inclusive, multi-functional parkway that provides convenient, enjoyable, car-free access to transit, parks, public art, and other urban, suburban, and rural destinations. The following are an important part of the Red Line Parkway and its connectors:
Shield Ranch
Shield Ranch is a historic family ranch just outside Austin working to protect the natural wonders of the Texas Hill Country. They are not a public park; however, groups do regularly visit the Ranch by prior arrangement for hikes, birding, and nature education. Visitors include youth groups, school field trips, scouts, master naturalists and others.
Shoal Creek Conservancy
Flowing through the heart of Austin, from Braker Lane down to Cesar Chavez St, Shoal Creek encompasses the beauty and stresses of an urban creek. Shoal Creek is in the heart of Austin, Texas. In 1839, it was the city’s original western boundary but today it is an artery into its urban core. First developed in the 1960s, the existing Shoal Creek Trail follows Shoal Creek for four miles, from Lady Bird Lake to 38th Street.
Shoal Creek Conservancy is a proud steward of the 13-square-mile Shoal Creek watershed and the creek and trail running through it. They engage in public and private partnerships, lead educational programming, and spearhead improvements that make Shoal Creek and the Shoal Creek Trail safer, accessible, and more inspiring places to be.
Insider tip: You can find fossils along shoal creek just south of 34th on the east side!
The Trail Foundation
The Butler Trail is the 10-mile lush, urban path in the heart of Austin that gets more than 2.6 million visits every year. Over 200 acres of associated green space and several of the most recognizable Austin parks, like Zilker Park, Barton Springs Pool, Auditoriums Shores, Festival Beach, Fiesta Gardens and Roy G Guerrero Park are all connected by this trail.
The Trail Foundation is the non-profit dedicated to protecting, enhancing and connecting the Butler Trail at Lady Bird Lake for the benefit of all.
Insider tip: the Butler Trail east of IH-35 is a 4-mile path much less traveled, with beautiful scenery and free parking!
Umlauf Sculpture Garden
Nearly hidden in the middle of a busy and growing city, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum is founded around the work of American sculptor Charles Umlauf. A peaceful oasis of Art Framed by Nature.
The UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum exhibits the work of Charles Umlauf, his influences, and other contemporary sculptors in a natural setting, and provides educational experiences that encourage the understanding and appreciation of sculpture.
Check website for hours of operation.
Waterloo Greenway
Waterloo Greenway Conservancy creates and maintains an extraordinary urban park system and a restored Waller Creek, in partnership with the City of Austin, for the benefit of all. The Conservancy renews the natural environment, promotes play, health and wellness, economic vitality and mobility, and engages the community through outreach, education, cultural events, and the arts.
Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center
Westcave Preserve is a 30-acre beautiful natural habitat that includes a lush canyon, a gorgeous grotto, and a cozy cave as well as uplands preserve and a learning center. It is a natural wonder and surely a Hill Country treasure.
Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center’s mission is to inspire people to develop a lifelong practice of enjoying and protecting nature.
Check website for hours of operation.