Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, Austin TX

A great nature preserve in the west Austin with limestone hills, creek, waterfall, and great native plants and trails.

Compared to the past, it has become too brushy and not enough grassland - but still great.

St. Edwards University now owns the preserve.

Be aware- Saw a entrance sign saying weekends now need reservations as of July 31st.

Very nice quiet park with stone covered trails. Short trails can be combined to do a 2 mile or so loop. See photo. Mostly shaded. Nice overlook views with benches. Trails are easy to see and signs. Lots of stepping up and down rock steps.

I've only gone on evenings on weekdays and no crowds at all.

Plenty of parking. One toilet in parking lot, had no water.

Be aware it's easy to miss entrance road. You only see sign when you start to enter

We walked the longest loop and it took about an hour. A couple of steep inclines got our heart rate up. Nice and shaded:)

Me and my roommate went and we really enjoyed the trail. They are short, but due the the terrain it equated to good quality exercise. We plan to return soon.

Super super friendly staff and a basically empty, pleasant trail (granted it was 102 degrees in the middle of the day on Saturday). You need to reserve in advance but I was able to do it online in the car right before going in. There’s a very small waterfall/creek that’s too shallow for swimming, and it’s a short, easy hike down to get there. In total there are like maybe 3 miles of trails.

Great place to hike. Lots to learn for the kids about nature. Hike trail was mostly shaded and was a great way to teach someone to read a map! The scenery was amazing!

They are pretty unclear about entrance policies and are inconsistent. The time slot on the website makes it look like you can enter until 10: 30 but in small print at the end it apparently says you can only enter until 9: 30. We’ve arrived at 10 before but today we’re told we couldn’t enter. It feels a little like we were taken advantage of.

Great hike, well laid out with several great views. Trail signs are mostly good. Don't miss the falls. The trail is very up and down, I'd rate it moderate, but not for folks who don't like steps. Be sure to bring a trail map as you'll want to traverse all the paths.

Great place to hike. Lots of elevation changes. Trails are pretty shaded. Would like to go back to see the waterfall when there's more water running. You can't get in the water but good views. Good views towards downtown.

We were looking for a place to go on a walk/hike before heading to the airport and this is where we chose.

What a nice Preserve. The trails are well maintained and marked. We did a loop that included going to the waterfall (we only had an hour). There were a couple creek crossing that could be problematic for some and the trail was steep (as warned by signage) in one part.

I wish we had more time to walk on all the trails, maybe next time.

Monday thru Friday there is no cost to enter. The security guard, Elvis, was friendly and informative. Unless I missed more parking, there isnt a whole lot but there are constructing a bathroom and maybe spaces were being taken up by that.

Easy hiking. The area is pretty small so you could cover all the trails in just a few hours. Some decent views along the way.

Beautiful trails. Well marked. You aren't allowed in any of the water for preservation reasons but the terrain is varied and have some very easy and some quite steep rock descents.

We had a wonderful experience. For a couple of hours we were no longer in Austin. You had a sense for what Austin was like 200 years ago.

Now the nature here is beautiful, but the best part of the experience came from the security guard that was working when I pulled in. I had never been here so I asked him to run through the preserve for me, he launched into an incredible overview of what they had to offer full of character and charm! It was honestly an incredible sales pitch and if he were trying to sell me a membership to hike there, I probably would have bought. That level of helpfulness and friendliness from security staff is so rare and it made the experience great!

The hike itself offers about as much variation as the Austin area nature has to offer. There's good elevation change, some nice rivers, and an advertised waterfall that is small but cute.

We were only able to stop by very briefly, but the security staff there were wonderful. One of them came out to greet us and he was wonderfully friendly. When he learned this was our first visit he brought out some instructional materials and briefly and helpfully ran through the attractions of the place, its policies, and how most of the guests used it.

I was very impressed and I hope many others have the chance to visit this place and engage with the wonderful staff there.

It's a lovely park and one of my favorites. I wouldn't recommend paying the entrance fee on the weekends though. I had trouble with their website and booked for a later time than I showed up and was turned away at the gate. The employees were not able to change my reservation or refund me. Im extremely disappointed and regret ever donating to this park or picking up trash. There's many other parks to go to in the area that are free.

Note that the facilities are closed but the trails are open.

Inexpensive to get in, $14 for a family of 3, with fairly short trails. Recommended if you want to test out the kiddos in a fairly easy hike of 2 miles that offers some incline and decent sun coverage. We spent about 1 1/2 hours there.