The Hike: The start of the hike, marked "Trailhead", is at the top of a hill over Barton Creek. The first quarter mile is a steep drop of about 250 feet to the creek bed. This section of the hike will make your legs burn when you have to walk up it after 6+ miles of hiking. Right before you get down to creek level there is a restroom located near the waypoint marked, "Fork". Here you''ll also see a fork in the trail with some options to go further upstream, which we''ll explore later.

Scottish Trail Falls

The first thing you''ll encounter when getting to Barton Creek is a nice water fall with a picnic table perched on a large boulder, very close to the flowing water. This spot is marked with the waypoint "Falls". You''ll see several falls along the trail, but this one is one of the nicer falls until you get to Sculpture Falls later on the trip.

The trail near the waypoint marked "Rock Falls" passes near a large rock face to the left of the trail. This rock is relatively weak and prone to breakup. Don''t worry, rock slides are not going to happen. But what has happened is that a large number of boulders have broken off of the rock face and come to rest at the trail level. Some of the boulders are huge. Some other areas are made up of large quantities of smaller rocks piled up along the slope. None of these rock falls obscures the path of the trail.

"Slanted Falls" is a small waterfall that is angled about 45 degrees off of the flow of Barton Creek. Several other falls dot the area, too many to bother marking on the map.

Sculpture Falls

The highlight of the trip is Sculpture Falls, marked by a waypoint of the same name. This is probably the loudest water fall on the Barton Creek Greenbelt. The water has carved very interesting patterns in the rock as you may be able to see in the photo. Better yet, see for yourself. A deeper spot on the downstream side of the falls makes for a good swimming spot.

There are no springs readily apparent on this side of the creek, though when you get to the waypoint marked "Springs" you should be able to see the twin springs flowing from the rock on opposite bank.

Glade

One of the more pleasant sections of all of Barton Creek can be found around the waypoint marked "Glade". At this point a rocky streambed crosses the trail, but on either side of the creek the terrain is relatively flat and completely covered in trees. The trees make the area a little cooler and also help to filter out noise, adding to the tranquil setting.

The waypoint marked "Twin Falls" is the location in which the established trail crosses Barton Creek and continues on the other shore. Twin Falls is a very popular resting place and can get crowded, particularly when the weather is good. If you prefer more solitude we recommend Sculpture Falls or Scottish Trail falls further upstream.

The waypoint marked "Trail Access" is the official end of the supported trail. At this point the official trail heads up hill to the Cairnes access point. However, a well defined, but noticably smaller and less used trail continues downstream. Of course, we elected to take that route.

Greenery abounds

The trail here is more challenging than the supported trail. At one point, a rock fall completely covered the trail and partially obscured the trail continuation on the other side. Be careful crossing at the point marked "Rock Fall". Many of the rocks are loose.

You won''t run into many people along this portion of the trail. Mostly you may see and hear hikers and bikers on the other side of Barton Creek as they travel along the South Upper Barton Creek trail. We turned around at the waypoint marked "Turn Around", though the trail continued onward and probably rejoins the established trail when it crosses Barton Creek at Gus Fruh Park.