Hiking in Austin can go from an easy stroll around the level shores of Lady Bird Lake on a wide gravel path to the steep, rocky Hill of Life entrance to the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Austin has a wide variety of trail systems within the city limits - Lady Bird Lake (formerly Town Lake) connects the Barton Creek Greenbelt, the Shoal Creek Greenbelt, the Johnson Creek Greenbelt, and the Waller Creek Greenbelt (not recommended for hiking at all).
North of the city, the Walnut Creek Metro Park has a great trail system for hiking, trail running and mountain biking with 12 miles of mostly singletrack. In the southwest, the new Slaughter Creek Trail is an excellent place to do a 5 mile loop hike, or you could try Circle C Metro Park for an easier hike in the same area.
Closer in, the Barton Creek Greenbelt is the main hiking trail for the city, with an out-and-back of 14 miles, crossing Barton Creek several times.
In the southeast, you have McKinney Falls State Park, Southeast Travis County Metro Park. Going a little further out, McKinney Roughs and Bastrop State Park both have great hiking. McKinney Roughs gets very muddy when there's been rain. Bastrop is sandy and drains better than any other hiking trail in the Austin area.
The northwest has Bull Creek, Forest Ridge, and St. Edwards Park (all of which can be connected when Forest Ridge isn't closed). Out towards Lake Austin, the River Place Nature Trails and the Turkey Creek Trail in Emma Long Metropolitan Park are great places to go hiking near clear, spring-fed creeks.
Within an hour of the city, good suggestions for hikes include the 25 miles of hiking trails at Pedernales Falls State Park, the 12 miles of pineywoods hiking trails at Bastrop State Park, and the 25-mile long Goodwater Trail at Lake Georgetown.
Trails:
8 miles of single track wind through the lush Barton Creek canyon from Zilker Park to the Hill of Life. Lots of stream crossings if the water is up.
The River Place Nature Trail is one of the newest, most scenic, and best maintained trails in Austin. The trail follows Panther Hollow Creek in a small canyon beneath the River Place development. In a 6 mile round trip, the trail gains (and loses) about 500 feet in elevation. All that elevation is gained or lost on natural surface stairways built into the hills. All along the trail, you'll get quiet glimpses of typical Balcones Canyonland vistas, although you'll always see some kind of building or structure.
Walnut Creek Metro Park has about 11 miles of singletrack trails that are mostly shaded, pretty smooth, and make for a great mountain bike ride for beginner to intermediate mountain bikers. Follow the blue blazes on the sign posts for an 11 mile loop that takes you through almost all of the park.
Find a trail map at http://www.austinridgeriders.com/documents/Walnut%20Creek%20Metro%20Park_Kiosk.pdf from the Austin Ridge Riders.
The Lady Bird Lake Trail (formerly the Town Lake Trail) is a 10.3 mile crushed-granite and concrete trail that circles Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin. The trail loop goes from Mopac (Loop 1) to Pleasant Valley Drive east of I-35. There are bridges at Mopac, Lamar, South First Street, Congress Avenue, I-35, and Pleasant Valley, letting you choose the length of your loop. There are markers every quarter of a mile along the trail. East of I-35, the trail can be difficult to follow on the north shore of the lake near the Holly Power Plant.
A shorter version of the Barton Creek Greenbelt, with 2.5 miles of hiking or mountain biking. Lots of creek crossings make this a great trail for warmer weather. The trail can be difficult to follow, as the signs get washed out by the creek frequently. Generally speaking, it runs along the creek, but crosses the creek several times. It also runs along both sides of the creek in some places, making it difficult to follow.
Slaughter Creek Trail in Southwest Austin is a new trail for mountain bikers, hikers, runners, and horses. The trail is a five-mile loop that you follow one way for horses and hikers, with the other way for mountain bikers, so user conflict is minimized. There are no extreme vertical changes - it is a very runnable, very bikeable trail.
The 600-acre Mueller development on Austin's east side used to be a close-but-crowded airport, serving the whole Austin area. Plans were made to build another airport in Manor and decommission the Mueller airport, but the Air Force shut down Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin's south east corner and made it available to the city to serve as the new international airport.
The Homestead Trail in McKinney Falls State Park is the best trail in the park for hiking and mountain biking - at three miles long, it is not too long, but it is a lot of fun.
Description:
Circle C Metropolitan Park on Slaughter Creek is a City of Austin park along Mopac (Loop 1) by Slaughter and La Crosse in far southwest Austin. The main section of the park is along Slaughter Lane west of Escarpment, although the park continues east of Escarpment, across Mopac, all the way to Bowie high school.
The main features of the park at Slaughter and Escarpment are a huge soccer complex, a disc golf course, 4 or 5 miles of trails, and a playground.
The trails in this park are great for jogging or walking your dog, but don't really work for mountain biking. They only get interesting where they criss-cross the disc golf course - it's easy to get lost here, becuase the singletrack is basically the eroded paths of the disc golfers. There are a few nice stretches of single track on the west side of the park, but it never really flows together.
The park also includes the Veloway, although the Veloway isn't connected to anything else in the park, by design.
The Onion Creek Hike and Bike Trail is in McKinney Falls State Park in Southeast Austin. A paved 3-mile loop, this trail has seen better days. From the description, you might think it was a good east-side alternative to the Veloway in Southwest Austin, but the Onion Creek Trail needs a fresh coat of asphalt and is not restricted to inline skating or biking. Definitely do not bring a nice road bike here, as there are lots of cracks in the paving. Inline skaters will find this to be a tough go as well.
The Rock Shelter Trail in McKinney Falls State Park is a nice short trail that leads along the top of the banks of Onion Creek to a rock overhang that Native Americans used for shelter. It's open for hiking only, but you can use it to connect the Homestead Trail with the Onion Creek Hike and Bike Trail. If you're on a bike, use the road instead, it parallels this trail.
There are also a few bouldering spots along this trail, so look down from the trail to the creek - you may see some rock climbers,
The Wolf Mountain Trail is a nice 7.5 mile lollipop loop in Pedernales Falls State Park. This is one of the easiest longer hikes in the Austin area, and is very suitable for beginning hikers or mountain bikers. Intermediate and advanced mountain bikers won't be challenged by the jeep roads on the trail.