Barrow Nature Preserve

I gave it a 4-star for it's beauty and ruggedness. This is NOT a hiking preserve. It is densely forested, rugged, steep, terrain, with lots of tree fall and overgrowth. That being said, if you are looking for an area to explore that gets little foot traffic, and you're willing to trailblaze, hit this place up. I'd recommend coming in off the Long Point Dr. entrance and head down the hillside. It's going to be tough sledding but there's a cliff face you can follow above the creek. As another review noted, be wary of coyotes. The morning I went there was a fresh kill, from the size of the remaining carcass, guessing a deer. Which I saw 5-6 who had no fear of me. It's a wild preserve, don't go solo, honestly, it's just too rugged and chances of injury are good. That being said, it's really pretty and have lots of birds. Only saw a little green snake, but the amount of leaf litter, I'd keep an eye out for copperheads.

One thing you'll notice about Austin is that people live to be outside and there is plenty of places to walk and hike. This is a small nature preserve that is more for the locals than a place to go. The one caution is that the area is known to have coyotes, so if your are walking your dog or cat (I've see it) note that you should pay extra attention, specifically around sundown. Because there are always people around I've noticed that the coyotes are not as afraid of humans as they should be. If you are looking for a place to hike try one of the many other nature preserves that have longer trails like the Violet crown trail, or the green belt.

Nice small paved walk through the preserve. The wooden observation deck at the end burned a few years ago and was not replaced.