Starting Saturday, Austinites will have a new way to traverse downtown and it couldn’t be better.
The Confluence is a half-mile trail along Waller Creek that runs from Fourth Street to the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail on Lady Bird Lake. A total of 1,600 trees, including a couple hundred bald cypresses, and 200,000 native plants were planted on the new trail. The project has been in the works since 2023 and cost $91.5 million, funded through city and private donations.
On a recent morning, I got to take a tour of the trail and the phrases “wow, awesome” and “it’s gorgeous” came out of my mouth more times than I care to admit. It is a marvelous addition to downtown and meets the moment Austin is currently in: continued population growth in a city trying to keep up. The Confluence keeps up.
The trail facing Lady Bird Lake. (Kelsey Bradshaw/City Cast Austin)
Whether you want to extend your walk around Lady Bird Lake by half a mile (or a whole mile if you do an out-and-back), or you need a better way to maneuver parts of downtown, the Confluence offers up a new way to experience Waller Creek.
The creek was previously the most eroded and damaged creek in downtown, said Jon Rigdon, Waterloo Greenway Conservancy’s chief planning and design officer. But with an infusion of plants, wildflowers, trees, and upcycled limestone, the creek has been transformed into a green space animals are already calling home.
Four types of herons, including snowy egrets, a beaver, a pair of red-shouldered hawks, and turtles have been spotted using the creek since its makeover.
“Nature came right back before we were done,” Rigdon said.
You’ll forget you’re in a congested part of downtown Austin when you’re on the Confluence. It’s surprisingly quiet, ripples of water whip by, and no cars are in sight. The trail is also great on the feet — parts of it are made with grippy, permeable pavement to allow water to flow through it instead of creating runoff during a rain event.
Now, this might be the best part. Temperatures are 5 to 7 degrees cooler on the Confluence due to its trees and proximity to water. While it was 81 degrees and sticky when I walked the trail, and it felt nice and breezy down there.
The view from Grandpa's Lakeview Terrace on the Confluence. (Kelsey Bradshaw/City Cast Austin)
With the Waterline building opening in August, Rigdon hopes the trail will become a destination spot that tourists and locals want to visit. The bottom floor of the Waterline will eventually have boutiques and restaurants where trail users can stop off and shop at, grab a cup of coffee, or pop in to for a meal.
It will not be surprising when the Confluence becomes an honest-to-goodness destination. The lush greenery and wildflower patches it provides are wonderful and the addition of so many trees is a significant investment in the area’s future.
When asked what he wants the public to experience with the Confluence, Rigdon said: “That there’s this beautiful space of nature that is theirs.”
