Our mark is a golden-cheeked warbler — the songbird that kept these canyons wild.
The golden-cheeked warbler is the only bird that nests exclusively in Texas — every one begins life in a Hill Country nest woven from Ashe juniper bark. Each March they return to these slopes, including the canyons of the Barton Creek greenbelt just beyond our homes.
The Barton Creek Greenbelt today. Guest tip: take the Hill of Life trail off Camp Craft Road — ten minutes from both homes — and it's about a mile down to Sculpture Falls, the greenbelt's best swimming hole. Go spring through early summer, and bring water shoes.
After Barton Creek Square mall rose on the bluff in 1981, far bigger developments were queued behind it. Then in May 1990 the warbler won emergency endangered-species protection, and that June, Austinites packed City Hall until dawn to turn back a massive Barton Creek project. The little bird changed what West Austin would become.
Those years produced the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan, which has protected more than 33,000 acres of Hill Country since 1996 — including the 227-acre Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve just down the road from our Wild Basin Ledge home, where warblers still nest minutes from your bedroom window.
The waterfall at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, 805 N. Capital of Texas Hwy — five minutes from our Wild Basin Ledge home. Free entry, quiet trails, and the waterfall loop takes about an hour. Listen for the warbler in spring. Photo: Nv8200pa, CC BY 4.0
A bird found nowhere else, for two homes that could exist nowhere else.
Our warbler perches on Toro Canyon's cantilever — architecture and wilderness holding each other up.
The greenbelt survived because people cared for it closely. We host the same way.
Greenbelt trails and Wild Basin's waterfall are minutes from your door. We'll point you to our favorite paths.
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