In May 2020, local news sources ran a brief story about two canoeists who had drowned on the Colorado River near Del Valle close to Falwell Lane. Aware that folks canoed some tracts of the river southeast of town, it was still a surprise to learn of any mortal danger. Unfamiliar with the location of the accident, I opened up Google Maps and found Falwell Lane, a short spur of road leading towards the river near Toll Road 130. As I zoomed around on the map to get better oriented, up popped a small green spot with a label announcing the Hornsby Bend River Trail Platt Lane Trail Head. Hornsby Bend is the location of the City of Austin water retention ponds, a renowned spot for birding, but this trail head was a couple miles from that well-trafficked zone and beckoned for some exploration.
On the last weekend in May, we made our inaugural visit to Platt Lane, discreetly located a short distance north of the airport. Arriving, you turn onto well-worn asphalt with earth mounds bordering the narrow two-lane road that heads out towards the trail head. These mounds, a result of local gravel and sand mining, isolate the road, providing some cover for a few impromptu trash dumps and lending an air of mystery to the entrance. Passing a few homes near the road’s terminus you reach a small parking area bordered by an abandoned house with the Christmas lights still hanging from what would seem a more hopeful time.
The trail, managed by Austin Water’s Center for Environmental Research, initiates at a well-marked gate edged with some massive pecan trees. Within a few hundred feet, you are immersed in vegetation, with cedar elms and hackberry among the trees sharing space with palo verde, mesquite, soapberry, and many native as well as introduced grasses. The floral diversity is vast and a welcome site. Not yet at the river, the ecology is a mix of remnant and re-established Bottomland Forest and Prairie. While most of the land in this region was heavily cultivated, areas this close to the river’s flood plain were often less affected by farming activities. Based on aerial photographs from 1940 it would appear much of the trail covers uncultivated land, influenced more by the flow of the river than by the blades of a plow.
Back upstream in downtown Austin, about 10 miles away, the Colorado River flows across the limestone beds of the Edwards Plateau. In town the river is wide and straight, but as it leaves the limestone, it reaches a more porous substrate and begins to deposit the sediments it carries. The resulting alluvial soils are highly erodible and, as a consequence, the river wends in a more circuitous route towards Bastrop. One of the dramatic curves in the river is what is now known as Hornsby Bend.
Named after the original settler Rueben Hornsby, a surveyor who worked with Stephen F. Austin, the land was settled in the early 1830s. As John Wesley Wilbarger wrote in 1889,
“A more beautiful tract of land, even now, can nowhere be found than the league of land granted to Reuben Hornsby. Washed on the west by the Colorado, it stretches over a level valley about three miles wide to the east, and was, that time of which we write, covered with wild rye, and looking like one vast green wheat field.”
While Wilbarger is not referring directly to the river corridor, Hornsby Bend maintains a beauty akin to his century-old description.
Over the years, the Hornsby family lived and worked the land. By the late 1800’s much of entire region was under plow, the rich soil farmed intensely, first with cotton, then later for grazing and hay production. Back at the trail, as it gets closer to the river, you can catch glimpses of the water while out of sight there is a steady beeping of trucks working the sand and gravel mines of the area upstream known as Dog’s Head Bend. A Google Earth view hints at the extent of these mining operations and how close they are to the river corridor.
About a mile into the trail, a spur lead to the river’s edge. A small sign announces the spot as Hergotz Crossing, named after the family who lived on the hill across the river. This crossing was used as early as 1709 by Spanish explorers and later by countless traders, merchants, and families traveling to Austin. The Hergotz family is still scattered about Austin and the land across the river, known as Hergotz Hill, is a family homestead currently on the real estate market.
On this and subsequent visits, Kim and I follow the trail downstream where it veers from the river and leads to one of the Austin Water retention ponds. From the vantage point of a berm on its north side, the pond sits in stark contrast to the trail’s earlier landscape. The morning light blankets the water and surrounding foliage, producing shadows that mask the many birds that dip in and out of sight. Deer are common and they stand, stare, then move along through the underbrush. The space invites a stillness. Listening, and a careful eye, yields many wonders.
On our most recent visit, we ventured off the berm to the dried mud flats of the pond’s edge. Here we entered a weird ecological zone with unusual plants grabbing our attention. We were quickly enamored with a set of six-foot high Ricinus, or castor oil plants. Attention focused on the plant’s dramatic seed capsules, we initially missed the large dragonfly resting nearby. We explored further, catching site of many birds, then scampered up the berm to find the trail to take us back to the car, all the way knowing we’d return again soon. Some areas, like a good theater, leave you both sated and yet always wanting a little more.
If you have read this far and are interested in the environmental history of Hornsby Bend, there is no better source than Austin Water’s Center for Environmental Research’s website. Kevin Anderson, who has directed the center for many years, has produced a wealth of information on the area. His dissertation, available elsewhere on the web, is also an excellent read.
For a sound and encouraging perspective on some of the massive changes coming to the river corridor, please see Christopher Brown’s essay Cybertrucks on the Colorado.
Thanks for taking us along! Beautiful photos too!
It feels like I'm right there on the path with you and Kim when I read these -- that's how well-written they are. Pulls me right in. Thanks for the little break from work!