Sculpture Falls Hike and Swim

 

Hike and swim.    Feel free to bring dogs and if you bring beverages please make sure they are in plastic bottles or cans, not glass.

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 back up it. 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.