Lake Austin and Pennybacker Bridge

I climbed up the hundred or so stone steps to the top of Mt. Bonnell and then down the rock path to snap pictures yesterday. The day was a bit hazy but you can see the very full lake and the Pennybacker Bridge which conveys Capital of Texas Highway (aka Loop 360) across the lake. Austin sits on the geological fault (not active) that defines the Texas Hill Country from the Texas Coastal Plain. Hence we have hills on the west side of town and different soil, flatter land and taller trees on the east side. A lot of people think of Texas and think of desert high plains from cowboy movies. We do have that out west (pretty far from here actually) but we have a startling amount of other geography from mountains to swamps and, of course, a long coastline in the Gulf of Mexico. I like Austin's geography, though. The hills are fine and dramatic with their scrub vegetation and the live oaks and other plants that begin right in town are fine, too. As you may remember from prior geography lessons, Lake Austin is a man made lake formed by a dam on the Colorado River (which we sometimes call the Little Colorado to distinguish it from the from the river draining the Western slopes of the Rocky Mountains). Those homes hugging the shoreline with boating access to the lake are very expensive these days.