The Spicewood Valley Trail was constructed in 2005 by the United States Youth Conservation Corps. It took the corps 2 years to complete this 1.3 mile trail but because the trailhead is in the center you end up with almost a two and a half mile hike if you go both directions.
The United States Youth Conservation Corps is a US Forest Service program that employs teens 15 to 19 years of age with an interest in conservation and land management. They provide funds for projects such as building rehabilitation, trail building and maintenance, park and campground rehabilitation among many other things. Although, since 1982 they don’t fund local programs they will send teams to construct projects that cities, counties and states are willing to fund.
So this day finds me at Mountain View Park with the little augy doggy Quinn to check out this trail. On our descent down the stairs of course he goes into the edge of the woods and exits with the carcass of a dead armadillo that I have to wrestle away from him. Ah why do I bring him………… I sometimes wonder.
At the bottom of the hill we come to the creek where I find a place to wash the armadillo guts off my hands so we can get on with this hike. we start to the right. we soon get to a small dam on the creek
This is the longer part of the trail but was pretty uneventful. It was a walk through some small meadows ending at this…………..
There was also an ATT&T telephone shed. So we turned around back past the dam and started up the hill where there was a nice little cascade.
The trail levelled out along the canyon cliffs and it was a really nice area.
not much farther and I began to hear water. Loud Water! And surprise a waterfall. This one had a total drop of around fifty feet!
Unfortunately this is another one of the areas intermittent falls. I was just lucky to be there during a time that it was flowing.
Besides the cool waterfall what I liked about this trail was the solitude. Although starting from a city neighborhood I didn’t see another person until I got to the falls, and that was only one man with a stroller.
Old Man Wandering 