Lake Georgetown – Goodwater Trail, Cedar Breaks TH 5/14/16

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Hike: Lake Georgetown – Goodwater Trail, Cedar Breaks TH

Weather: HUMID, mid 80s, overcast

Hikers: Ian

Length: 7.19 miles

I went out to Lake Georgetown with the intention of hiking a section of the Goodwater Loop that I hadn’t done before, but for the life of me couldn’t find where the trail heads east from the trail head, only west to the section I did last January.  But that section was very beautiful, so a repeat was in the cards.  Started just about 9am.

The trail starts out pretty rocky and then climbs up to border the lake for a while.  The water is about 30 feet below and there are some pretty good views of the lake, especially with it being completely full.  I saw several hikers and a couple of backpackers.  There were a lot of boats out on the lake today too.

The bluebonnets are long gone, but the fire wheels, prickly pear cactus flowers, and tons of other wildflowers are going strong.

I got down to Crockett Garden Falls and it was a completely different experience from last time where we could actually walk under the falls.  Now they were about 20 feet out into the water and only about 4 feet high.  Still very beautiful though.

I went a little further past the falls to the 3 mile marker and stopped to eat a quick early lunch and check on the weather.  Storms were forecast to hit the area in a couple of hours, so I decided to turn around and head back a little earlier than planned.  I took a quick side trail near the trail head out and back and then got back to the car just as the rain drops started to fall.  Great hike near Austin that I highly recommend.