Mayfield Park and Preserve is one of those (out of 206) parks I’ve meaning to explore. I’ve been to events at Mayfield Cottage, but not explored the surrounding preserve. Mayfield is one of the eastern and central preserves are managed by Rene Barrera in the Parks department, a one-man army (if there ever was a one-man army) and a host of volunteers. One of our Friends of Red Bud Isle leaders, Nadene Morning, was telling me of her volunteering out there of late (and the need for footbridge replacements) so I slipped out of the office early on Friday to to check it out.
Mayfield is a wonderful little place, just off West 35th Street and across from a city water treatment plant, it has the cottage, the ponds and gardens (maintained by Friend s of the Parks) and a preserve thick with native trees and lots of non-native ligustrum. Sigh. Another area to work on. Still I was impressed with the sign about natives and invasives at the trail head (see the picture) as well as the beautiful nature of the trails (most in very good shape) and the bridge wash outs looked challenging as well (other picture shows my view from the high side of the trail – its a good 20 feet down.)
I enjoyed my short tour of the trails (I hiked all of the trails in about an hour) and left knowing a little more about another oasis of park land in the heart of Austin