Lola Reviews: Walnut Creek

I don't live in the best part of Austin.  You might call it trashy, or ghetto, or unsafe.  I call it cheap.

But I recently discovered one very nice thing about my neighborhood.  I live all of 2.5 miles from Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park.  The park is massive, a mile long and almost as wide.  There are a myriad of trails throughout, as well as a playground, a swimming pool, and a bunch of sports fields.  I see lots of mountain-bikers there, so it must be big enough for them to get a good work-out.  And best of all, almost all of it is an off-leash area.  

This is the off-leash sign the parks in Austin use.  It makes me smile because it's so clearly a little black scotty dog, with little round feet.  Note the poo-bags beneath.  Apparently they're "degradable."  Not biodegradable, just degradable.  

Walnut Creek always looks a little strange to me -- like it belongs in the Piney Woods section of East Texas, rather than in Austin -- because it's full of trees that have needles and berries like this:

And bark like this:

No, I don't know what kind of trees they are.  Fir trees?  This blog is about Lola and not trees and I'm not about to go research it for you.

Lola and I do a circuit that takes about half an hour, starting out on the Pool Lot Trail, and then heading back on the Service Road Trail.  Creative, aren't they, these park maintenance folk?  Actually, I take that back -- I'm not going to make fun because a lot of the work is done by volunteers, and I for one greatly appreciate it.  Last year, the volunteers installed a lot of signs so you can see what trail you're on.    Unfortunately, aside from the trail name, the signs are distressingly cryptic. 

Why don't we learn useful things in school, like Morse Code, or International Park Signage?

Today was the third time I let Lola off-leash, and the second time off-leash at Walnut Creek.  She's really very good.  She never ever charges ahead of me.  In fact, the biggest problem is getting her to keep up.  "C'mon!" is our command for when I want her to catch up with me.  This is Lola ignoring me in favor of an apparently fascinating bit of vegetation.

Here is Lola obeying me and catching up.

Here is Lola trotting along beside me.

Walnut Creek really is astonishingly beautiful.  At one point on the trail, you're at the edge of an outcropping overlooking the creek itself.  When we went two days ago, after a great deal of heavy rain, the creek was rushing along lustily.  Today it had calmed down, and the water was just placidly meandering on.  (Here, Lola got distressingly close to the edge of the ledge, and I told her to get back quite sharply.  Not very useful, since "Get Back" isn't a command we've been working on.  It would have made a good picture, but I was distressed at the time.)

Shortly after that spot, the trail leads you down to the creek itself.  Here is the view looking up the creek, with Lola exploring little water puddles and looking rather dopey.

And this is the view looking down the creek.  When we were there two days ago, the water was all the way up to that rocky lip at the left.  It was really cool.

Lola splashed around in the puddles for some time, which was awesome.  It was especially awesome because they all have algae in them, so they're all really slippery, and she kept falling over.  

Here is Lola having a drink.  Ick.

Here is Lola poddling around, being all cute.  Her tongue is so pink!

Here is Lola cooling off.  Or possibly she just fell.  Hard to tell. 

Also, we found a dead lizard.  Actually, I found it.  Lola was so oblivious that she stepped on it.  And ants were eating it.  It was really cool.

Lola is tired at the end of the walk.

And finally, may I present, The Best Picture of the Day.