After my hike here just last week (see: 108 Boozer and Big Music), I found a map online showing this Natural Heritage site boundaries, and
sure enough most of my route down into Boozer Hollow wasn’t even in the
park. So today I’ll
be staying smack dab in the middle of the natural area and shouldn’t even get
close to any private lands.
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moss covered rocks in a small drainage
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From the parking lot I
head southeast parallel to Highway 14 and go downhill
into the first hollow I come to. This little hollow is pretty ‘trashed out’ here close to the highway, it also has a
lot of undergrowth making for some slow going.
Then it starts raining, just a sprinkle I keep going, it should let up
soon. It isn’t steep, as I progress down into the hollow the brush thins out as does the trash making for fairly easy hiking. |
low bluffline
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Along both sides of the creek,
are low
broken bluffs covered in moss, then another
little drainage down from the right.
Past the convergence it gets steeper
and soon flowing water in the stream, thankfully the drizzle seems to have
stopped. I try hiking up higher
on the hillside but end up back down next to the
creek which swings around to the east. I arrive at the same little 8-foot
Mossy Falls that I found five days ago the difference is now
I’m looking at it from the other side of the creek. |
little tumbling waterfall
|
From Mossy Falls I head
south while also staying at my current elevation, it will be all uphill from
here. I’m now on the main creek, what
I’m calling 'Slippery Hollow' and almost immediately come to a nice little
tumbling waterfall or steep cascade which is only about 6 feet tall but has
good flow. Not far upstream from the
fall I cross over to the south side of the stream which flows out of the west. |
holy rock
|
Somewhere along here I find a game trail which seems to stay up above the creek 50 feet or less,
it’s better than nothing,
this entire hike being a ‘bushwhack’ really isn’t bad, but definitely not
easy. Above the ‘trail’ I notice
a rock set in the hillside with interesting holes in the face, I hike up to get a closer look. This little piece of a bluff has a bunch of holes
in a small
area, the largest is maybe 24 inches in diameter. I can’t see all
the way to the back, ‘no thanks’ I’m not sticking my hand in there. |
small cave at spring
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I keep going upstream
about another third of a mile staying mostly on the game trail. This area has
a lot of loose small rock covered in dead leaves, along with a lot of
old downed trees. Just past a small side
drainage off to my left where the terrain briefly levels out a little,
I come to
a high ragged bluff. All the water flowing down the creek comes from this bluff up and
around to the south. |
Marble Falls Spring
|
Here is Marble Falls Spring, the spring emerges from the broken bluff then falls off a little ledge around 7 feet before tumbling down the
steep hillside and even disappearing underground for a short way
. Marble Falls Spring is beautiful,
and someone
has even built a little rock bench in front of the falls for a short break. Next to Marble Falls Spring is
a little shallow cave and high above at the north end of the bluff a rock
overhang, the whole scene is fantastic for sure the highlight of the
hike. |
bluff near the spring
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I make my way out of the box canyon containing Marble Falls Spring back to the main
Slippery Hollow creek.
The creek now
completely dry climbs through a tight canyon with rock formations and
low bluffs, I stay right in the creek walking on and climbing over dry rock and
lots of moss. As the creek turns more south there's
a low interesting
undercut bluff
on the right bank. When the bluff ends and the creek is
heading almost due south,
I begin angling my way up the
hill to the west. |
low undercut along dry creek
|
After 100 yards a small ‘draw’ climbs up northwest to the
highway. At the top the
rain starts again, I stay in the woods parallel to the highway until reaching a
steep gully that forces me over to the highway where I cross the gully
on top a concrete culvert going under the road. On
the mowed shoulder of the road, I make better time and soon arrive back at
the parking lot. Although I’m soaked, it was once again a great hike in Slippery
Hollow, with a total of 2.7 miles and an elevation gain of 476 feet.
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ANHC signage near highway
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Marble Falls Spring: Statistics Chart 109 Slippery Hollow is really easy to get to, just about 1.4 miles north of
Welcome Ridge Road in Lakeway, or 0.7 miles south of the Hwy. 14/125
intersection (Peel turnoff) is the small parking lot next to the big sign east off Highway 14. * The yellow track below represents today's hike, while the purple track is: 108 Boozer and Big Music.
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| base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS Topo--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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