Falling - Well, Almost - for Some of Austin's Best Sites

I’ve been trying to make a point to take the older boys to some of the landmarks or iconic places around Austin. I realized they have lived in Central Texas their whole lives and yet haven’t seen, done, or been to a lot of the well-known places around here.

The Congress Avenue Bridge, Zilker Park, Barton Springs, Laguna Gloria, and a dozen other places come to mind. Admittedly, some of these places have probably changed since I was a teenager 20 years ago, but I still thought some of them would be fun day trips.

We went to Mt. Bonnell, the Austin Nature Center, and the Barton Creek Greenbelt. We hiked some trails on Bull Creek and almost had the most Austin Parks and Recreation experience you can have by having our truck broken into in the trail parking lot. I say almost because when we got back to the truck after hiking, every single vehicle but ours had a smashed window. I guess my truck doesn’t exactly scream “valuables inside.”

Recently I thought it would be fun to show the older three boys the famous hilltop view of the Pennybacker Bridge on Loop 360. I probably should have started by explaining that Loop 360 is not actually a loop… And that it’s also called Capital of Texas Highway. But if I started to tell them the alternate names for each road around Austin they’d never want to go on a drive again.

Anyway, we drove to the Pennybacker Bridge and parked in front of the “No parking on ROW” parking signs that have confused many a tourist I’m sure. It didn’t take long to hike to the top of the hill but I had the boys slow down as we approached the top because I didn’t think they fully appreciated the precipitous nature of the terrain.

It’s still amazing to me that there are no signs, warnings, or guardrails marking the drop off the side of the scenic overlook. I guess it’s a throwback to old school Texas where the assumption was that this place is dangerous and we’re not going to go warning you about every little thing – like this 150 foot drop.

As I showed the boys the cliff I let them know this was why I didn’t want to bring the younger kids. They heartily agreed the 5-year-old should not be taken anywhere.

It was a bright, crisp day when we went and the view was great. The boys seemed less taken with the view and more focused on how tall the top of the Pennybacker bridge is, if anyone had ever jumped off it, and how far the roadway was from the water.

I failed to foresee these very obvious questions and did my best to answer. I didn’t know how high the top of the bridge was, said that people had jumped off the bridge but we’ll never know if they were brain damaged before or after the jump, and that the bridge was 80 feet above the water (it’s actually 100).

I was prepared to point out that the bridge is a cable support bridge that doesn’t have pylons or touch the water at any point, but some boats driving around in the water drew the boys’ attention. This wasn’t supposed to be an academic field trip about bridges anyway.

It was a fun experience and one that hasn’t changed much in the last two decades. It probably won’t change much in the future either, so I recommend checking it out whenever you have a chance. Just watch out for those precipices.