Business Hours
ClosedMonday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
3701 Grooms St, Austin, TX 78705, USA Get directions
Tucked into the Hyde Park neighborhood, Sparky Pocket Park is a small green corner built on the site of a former electrical substation—the source of its name—where the main draw is the whimsical Grotto Wall, a curving stone structure embedded with recycled glass, ceramics, and found objects by artist Berthold Haas. It's the kind of low-key spot you'd stumble onto on a neighborhood walk rather than seek out, with a bit of shade and a few benches that reward a slow look at the wall's details.
Monday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Austin
Barton Springs Pool is a three-acre spring-fed swimming hole in Zilker Park, where water bubbles up from the Edwards Aquifer to hold a steady 68–70°F year-round, cold enough to take your breath in summer and oddly tolerable in winter. Watch for the Barton Springs salamander, an endangered species found nowhere else, which is part of why the limestone-lined pool is managed as carefully as it is.
Austin
Zilker Metropolitan Park sprawls across more than 300 acres along the Colorado River just southwest of downtown Austin, and it's the gateway to Barton Springs Pool, a spring-fed swimming hole that hovers around 68 degrees year-round. You'll find people picnicking on the Great Lawn, paddling Lady Bird Lake, and walking the trails here, and it's also home to the Zilker Botanical Garden and the annual Austin City Limits festival.
Austin
McKinney Falls sits where Onion Creek spills over wide limestone ledges on the southeast edge of Austin, forming the upper and lower falls that give the park its name and its swimming holes. Beyond the water, you'll find hike-and-bike trails through Hill Country woods, the ruins of an early stone homestead, and a bald cypress estimated to be centuries old—all within about a 15-minute drive of downtown.
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